You will be hard-pressed to find a family with the ties that Laura Melton Geiger's has to the Georgia newspaper industry.

Geiger, the Georgia Press Association's new president, is following in familiar footsteps - she is the fourth member of her family elected to lead the association. "It's an absolute privilege to be in the family business and be president of GPA," Geiger said. "It's an association that I have loved all my life."

How could it be any other way? Geiger has been to 50 of the 53 conventions held in her lifetime. Her father, Quimby Melton II, was president the year she was born, 1956. Her brother, Quimby Melton III, was president in 1986 when he published the family-owned Griffin Daily News. Her husband, Walter Geiger, publisher of The Herald-Gazette of Barnesville, led GPA in 1994.

The ties to newspapers go even farther back - Geiger's grandfather purchased the Griffin newspaper in 1920. Her mother, May Wingfield Melton, was the first female editor of The Red & Black, the student-run newspaper at the University of Georgia. Her grandfather, Wightman F. Melton, taught the first journalism class in Georgia, at Emory University, and was a poet laureate of Georgia for two years.

"My whole life has revolved around newspapers. This convention is the only vacation I have ever known," Geiger said. "The friendships that I've forged with the men and women of the newspapers have been lifelong. They are the best folks on earth. Whether we're getting together to share information at a seminar or just talking over dinner, the things that I bring home each time are invaluable. You get out of it as much as you're willing to put into it."

That is perhaps Geiger's most important hope for GPA in the coming year - that its members will turn to each other for ideas, help and support. "I want us to be the avenue that all members turn to in their time of need," she said. "I want individual newspapers to be able to work together and for this bond that the association provides to be able to meet the needs of its members."

While the economy has made for difficult times for all businesses, newspapers seem to be shouldering the largest share of bad publicity about the media business. Geiger said it needs to change.

"Our newspapers will survive because we are willing to work our buns off to provide uncompromising minute-by-minute news coverage," she said. "Subscribers depend on us to bond informed citizens together.

"Don't let others throw dirt on us, and let's stop trying to bury ourselves. Our future is bright, if we work together."