'Good news' is slighted, Reagan tells publishers

President Reagan took his ''good news'' crusade to the nation's newspaper publishers. In a speech to the American Newspaper Publishers Association here, he said the news media have been slow to report such heartening developments as an improved economy, drop in crime, and surge in volunteerism. The President said that the media judged an incident newsworthy if it was unusual, bad, or bizarre. ''But I think there's another kind of news as well - the kind that lifts our spirits by providing insights into the kind of people we are and the kind of society we live in,'' he said.