Community Newspaper Summit, online March 8-19, features new Country Editors' Forum at 2 p.m. Central March 11

The pandemic still prevents most in-person conferences, but we've become accustomed to online meetings, and many have proven valuable and successful. Those are the prospects for Community Newspaper Summit 2021, to be held March 8-19 by the National Newspaper Association, the main trade group for rural papers.

The event is this year's version of NNA's annual meeting in and around Washington, D.C., that is held mainly to help local publishers and editors lobby their federal representatives on issues surrounding the U.S. Postal Service, freedom of information and more. NNA encourages publishers and state newspaper associations to set up online meetings with state delegations or individual senators and representatives, and says it will provide briefing materials.

The summit will inaugurate NNA's Country Editors Forum, with live interviews with newsmakers, at 2 p.m. CT March 11. The speaker will be Ben Ginsberg, who is not only the leading Republican expert on election law but has worked for several family-owned newspaper companies. He chaired the Presidential Commission on Election Administration in 2013 and "has been actively writing this year about election fraud and the many unfounded allegations about illegal voting," NNA says.

On International Women's Day, March 8, the summit will have a program, "How Women are Leading Congress."  Details on that and other sessions will be forthcoming.  "Join when you can. Leave when you must," NNA says. Members pay $50, non-members $100. Register here.