How do you fill a room with copy editors at 8:15 in the morning?

“The enticement of free food has always worked on journalists,” joked Kenn Altine, director of editorial professional development for Hearst Newspapers. “Always has. Always will.”

About 90 people gathered Friday for the fourth annual “Breakfast of Editing Champions,” a session that explored the role of editors in a rapidly changing newspaper industry.

The goal is to “bring together the newsroom and the classroom,” said Deborah Gump, coordinator of the session and creator of EditTeach.org. “Together, they are stronger.”

The session opened with a dozen rapid-fire presentations from university professors and professional journalists. Topics included plagiarism policy, teaching tools, headline writing and managing people, and no presentation lasted longer than five minutes.

Professors shared tips on livening up traditionally dry topics.

“I look up the home addresses of students,” said Amanda Sturgill, a Baylor University professor, during her fact-checking presentation. “I will pull up images of Google Earth in class.”

“I have them list the five things they hated most about their most-hated boss,” Jim Sernoe of Midwestern State University said during his management talk.

Afterward, a panel of professional journalists discussed how newsrooms are changing to accommodate convergence.

The Los Angeles Times is “in the midst of a reorganization that will bring the Web site and the newsroom together,” said Eric Ulken, the night managing editor at latimes.com. “We’re just beginning to cross that bridge.”

Steve Petranik, The Honolulu Advertiser’s news editor, said The Advertiser’s print staff and online staff are already well integrated.

“Everyone in the newsroom is trained to think online,” Petranik said. “It’s the future.”

But panelist Adrian Uriabarri, a Dow Jones Newspaper Fund intern at The San Francisco Chronicle, cautioned the audience not to place too much importance on the Internet.

“The future of convergence might be something none of us can anticipate,” he said. “Focus on the basic skills.”

Headline writing has been dramatically affected by Internet dynamics.

“Good headlines get more hits to mediocre stories than mediocre headlines get to good stories,” Petranik said.

L.A. Times columnist Joel Stein wrote the ultimate keyword-based headline for his July 25 piece: “Secret Bible Verse Foretells Housing Crash, Spawns New Diet Craze and Scares a Porn Star Straight.” Stein’s column had little to do with his headline, but it rose to the top of latimes.com’s “Most E-mailed” category, Ulken said.

Keywords make headlines more search-engine-friendly, Ulken said. Copy editors at the Los Angeles Times now write two versions of each headline – a print version, which must fit the page design and can rely on surrounding art to augment its meaning, as well as a standalone, keyword-laden Web version.

Despite the changes, underlying principles remain constant.

Uriabarri emphasized the continuing importance of clear headlines, good ledes, and short, comprehensive nut grafs.

“You’re still trying to get the message across and the facts right,” he said. “We’re talking about this new world of journalism, but it’s the same principles.”

“Breakfast of Editing Champions” was almost canceled last year because of lack of funding. But financial help arrived from Hearst Newspapers, with encouragement from Altine.

“I love journalism,” Altine said. “People who are teaching it, people who are doing it, and people who want to do both those things better.”

Altine said the session was “a real simple way to have an impact not just on Hearst Newspapers, but on the industry.”