Newspapers Can Be More Interesting

The annual convention of the American Newspaper Publishers Assn. held in Vancouver, Canada, recently was apparently a grim affair, “Publishers Told Ad Trouble May Be Here to Stay” (May 8). Readership, especially among the young and minorities is down. So are advertising dollars from such traditionally major accounts as department stores.

What to do? Newspaper owners listened to the experts.

Compete with television. Avoid being dull. Give quick answers. Don’t write too long. And for God’s sake, make sure there are lots of pictures. “Run, Spot, run!”

I hope that the newspaper owners in attendance left shaking their heads. I hope they secretly met and signed pacts in hot blood refusing never to surrender to the enemy. I hope they pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor. They did that, didn’t they? God help us all if they didn’t.

MARK S. HANEY, Malibu