When readers phone or write a newspaper about coverage that involves government records, it's often because they're angry. The reader views the press as arrogant. The journalist tries to explain on deadline why the paper does things this way or that. The conversation satisfies neither reader nor journalist.

Frequently the public is unsympathetic or hostile to attempts by the news media to assure transparency in government. Public opinion polls show that newspapers often are distrusted. Too often, journalists are seen as biased and more interested in sensationalism than in the concerns of ordinary citizens.

Freedom of Information Roundtables offer newsrooms a productive way to address these issues with readers and with others in the community. Newspapers invite readers into their living room to listen to what readers think about the way newspapers obtain and use government records, and to answer readers' questions about why and how this information gets into the paper.

This book walks you through an exciting, new APME project that helps you learn what matters most to your readers about your FOI reporting. You will also find a how-to guide if you would like to host your own FOI Roundtable. Costs for these conversations with readers are paid by the FOI Roundtable project.

The FOI Roundtables were created in 2005 to honor Lou Boccardi, former president and CEO of The Associated Press. When he retired, APME created a fund in his honor. The FOI Roundtable project is the first program to receive money from the Boccardi fund.

Five newspapers kicked off the FOI Roundtable project: Times Union of Albany, The Arizona Republic, The Arizona Daily Star, Dayton Daily News and The News Journal of Delaware.

In Dayton, managing editor Steve Sidlo, First Amendment Committee chair, chose to discuss with readers an Ohio law that permits journalists — but not the public — access to the identities of people licensed to carry a concealed weapon. Through the Roundtable conversation, the Dayton Daily News won the trust of a segment of the community who had previously viewed it as biased. The paper established new sources and contacts, and also set up a workshop with Dayton police teaching the newsroom how to accurately recognize and identify weapons in the news. On page 5 of this book, Steve Sidlo tells you why Roundtables matter.

At The News Journal in Delaware, executive editor David Ledford, Journalism Today chair, invited readers and government officials to examine ways to work together to make information available to citizens in a state where meetings of the General Assembly are closed and police logs are secret. "There's a time to talk and a time to fight," Ledford says.

In Albany, the Times Union shared the benefit of the FOI Roundtable experience with television viewers as well as newspaper readers. The local NBC affiliate, WNYT, broadcast the Roundtable in a time slot that generally has 150,000 viewers. After the Roundtable, the executive director of New York State's Committee on Open Government held a Q & A with readers and discussed how to get answers to FOI requests when state agencies stall.

The Arizona Republic and The Arizona Daily Star held a joint FOI Roundtable in Phoenix, following up on an earlier audit that found government agencies violating the state's FOI laws by refusing to release records. The Republic is acting on a reader's suggestion that the newspaper print names and phone numbers of public information officers so readers know whom to contact when they seek government records.

Read on. This book will tell you what participating papers learned, what readers care about, what lasting effects FOI Roundtables can have, as well as how to hold your own FOI Roundtable.

David Ledford, Journalism Today Chair
Carol Nunnelley, APME Projects Director
Deanna Sands, APME President
Steve Sidlo, First Amendment Committee Chair
Rosalie Stemer, FOI Roundtable Project Manager