If your shop is anything like the San Francisco Chronicle's editorial department, election endorsement interviews have packed every workday for weeks. We're booking about two one-hour meetings most days, and next week begins the assembly-line interviews with the candidates for various judgeships. Cognizant that an increasing number of voters vote via absentee ballot, we've rushed to get as many endorsements out before the ballots are mailed to voters on or about May 10.

Because of the interest in the races for governor (where two Silicon Valley millionaires are vying for the Republican nomination) and U.S. Senate (where Republicans hope to put forth a challenger to U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer), we've recorded audio and video of those endorsement interviews. We've largely abandoned audio and video as part of our regular editorial board meetings because editing the files is very labor intensive and the listener/viewer traffic is extremely low. Yet, in the interest of transparency and reader service, we've committed to recording these sessions.

The audio is quick and easy to edit, and I can post it within minutes of the interview. The video editing, handled by our online colleagues at SFGate.com, takes much longer -- usually two days. Posting the audio first gets the interview out before voters while the interview is still live news; the following video offers depth and detail beyond the somewhat primitive audio file. We promote both online and in print.

Yet, even with the interest in these races, the viewer traffic is very, very low.

Who is using audio and/or video of their endorsement interviews and what do you do to promote them? What kind of traffic are you getting? My friends working for public radio say they too have abandoned audio posts because so few listen.

With a news industry coping with change and uncertainty, the National Conference of Editorial Writers has spent much of its time lately focused on core issues: membership, revenue and conventions. Even so, new initiatives are afoot that will bring new member benefits and attention to our organization.

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As I explained at the Salt Lake City convention and reiterated at the December board meeting, NCEW must tend to the basics if it intends to survive and flourish in this new climate. At the April board meeting, held this year in Washington, D.C., to generate attendance for our annual State Department briefing the next day, it was evident that NCEW leaders are engaged on many fronts to secure the future of our organization.

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Let�s take membership.� Our roster stands at about 340, but it won�t for long. The list� includes 80 who have not paid their 2010 dues (you know who you are). It�s not fair to paying members to carry them on the rolls much longer, so board members divvied up the list of delinquents and are calling each to remind them of their non-paid status. Soon,� those who have not renewed will be cut off the list-serv; not long after that, their membership will expire.

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Those whose dues aren�t paid won�t appear in the new NCEW directory which will come out this spring (our first in two years). They won�t see their news organization�s editorials on NCEW�s� upcoming iPhone app (more on that in a bit). And they�ll be out of the loop on an outstanding convention being planned for Dallas in September. For first-time joiners, dues are only $75 for the year; for everyone else it�s 10 percent less than last year, due to an across-the-board cut by the board,� (So renew your membership already).

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On the all-important matter of revenue, our 2010 budget got relief on the expense side after the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association, in response to my request, reduced its management services fee by 20 percent. PNA has remained a strong ally of NCEW�s throughout the industry�s turmoil, and we are grateful for their daily service and their commitment to our success.

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At the same time, NCEW must find new revenue streams and two efforts are underway. Ads on the NCEW web site, spearheaded by Dan Radmacher, are bringing in new dollars, with the first ad buys from the Scripps, Heritage and Kettering foundations. But NCEW needs a few members to serve as an ad marketing team; if you�d like to volunteer, please let me know. We will probably also seek advertising to help underwrite the new membership directory.

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A new venture with greater potential is being led by Miriam Pepper, and it could raise revenue while providing a new member benefit. It�s paid opeds posted on the NCEW web site. These pieces would be submitted to NCEW by advocacy groups, which would pay a fee to have the commentaries posted on our web site for possible free pickup and use by NCEW-member news outlets. Needed to make this a success are a few members, possibly retired, who would serve as editors of the submissions. Send me an email if you can help.

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On the convention front, plans are in different phases for the Dallas convention this September and for Indianapolis in 2011. Keven Willey�s crew, who do Pulitzer-winning work by day, are working out the details on a first-rate Dallas convention by night. Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano, energy magnate T. Boone Pickens, workshops on editorial crusades and digital innovation, and a tour of the Texas School Book Depository building are all on the program.

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Sensitive to the growing number of members who must foot their convention costs (and acknowledging that fund-raising for the Dallas event is going very well), the NCEW board approved a waiver of the $200 registration fee for members who register by Aug. 1 and purchase the full meal/activity package. So mark your calendar for Sept. 22-25 and sign up online for the convention.

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Much of the nuts-and-bolts planning for Indianapolis in 2011 under convention chair Tim Swarens is still to come, but we already know the event will offer a $129 room rate at the Omni, the lowest NCEW has seen in years. It will also open at lunch Thursday, rather than on Wednesday evening, which will shorten our members� time away and save attendees the cost of a room night. If the shortened schedule is well received, the Indy convention will become the template for the future.

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As to 2012, an exciting bid from Orlando is in the works, with accommodations being negotiated at a Rosen resort hotel and sessions being held at the University of Central Florida. Member John Bersia is assembling the proposal, which will come up for a vote at the Dallas convention.

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Finally, that NCEW app. Miriam heard of a business app development program run by students at the University of Missouri and hooked up NCEW right away. Called �America�s Opinions,� the app will be available for iPhones and iPod Touch and will automatically gather the editorials of NCEW-member news organizations. The content will be searchable by issue, region, most-recent posting and most popular.

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It will give our editorials more attention and give our news organizations� web page more hits. But you�ve got to be an NCEW member to become part of it -- and if you haven�t renewed yet for 2010, you could soon be out of luck.

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Tom Waseleski, editorial page editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, is the president of NCEW.

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While we're reveling in Pulitzer Prizes, here's a link to the work of Mark Fiore, who took the Pulitzer for Editorial Cartooning. Fiore does animated cartooning -- which where cartooning seems headed -- for SFGate.com, the online entity that hosts, among other things, the content of the San Francisco Chronicle.He submitted his own Pulitzer entry. You can visit his archive here.

You can see more of Fiore's work at his website, www.markfiore.com.

It really is all happening in Dallas! Editorial writers (and NCEW members) Tod Robberson, Colleen McCain Nelson and William McKenzie, led by Keven Ann Willey, Dallas Morning News editorial page editor (and chair of this year's NCEW convention in Dallas), and Deputy Editorial Page Editor Sharon Grigsby learned today they were recipients of journalism's most coveted honor.

Their winning entry, a multiyear editorial campaign to examine the disparities between northern Dallas and the city's southern sector, brought a bright and sustained spotlight on a complex issue. Something, Willey said, happens too rarely in daily newspaper work.

James M. Moroney III, publisher and chief executive of the News, said "We have the most activist editorial board in the United States, and I'm so proud of that."

The Dallas Morning News team will share their expertise with NCEW members at the September convention. A Thursday session is already planned on "Pulitzers: How We Did It and How You Can Do It Too."

To read the 10 editorials on Bridging Dallas' North-South Gap, click here.

To read the 2009 special section sent as supplemental material, click here.

To read the nomination letter and accompanying description of the project, click here.

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Keven Ann Willey (above), Dallas Morning News Editorial Page Editor, pops the Champagne cork to celebrate the News editorial team winning the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing. The Pulitzer board awarded the prize to editorial writers, from left, Tod Robberson, Colleen McCain Nelson and William McKenzie.

Our democracy seems to have given way to unending partisan sniping. Our elected leaders dither rather than direct, and a disillusioned electorate seeks dynamism from government but finds dysfunction instead. American democracy needs to get back on track and editorial pages have play a role in the return to responsive government. But what and how?

The Kettering Foundation, an independent research organization that studies the roles of citizens, institutions (including the press) and professions in demoracy, is offering training at the end of to 15 opinion journalists on ways to strengthen democratic life. Past NCEW Presiden David Holwerk, whose hallmark during his newspaper career was influential, clever and prize-winning editorial campaigns, will conduct the training. Includes a two-day trip to the Kettering campus in Dayto, Ohio.

Click here for information on how to apply. Deadline is May 3.

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