Deadline for NAHJ Contest Submissions

Leadership, Emerging Journalist, Student Journalist, Print, Broadcast and Photojournalist of the Year... these are just some of the categories for the National Association of Hispanic Journalists' DC Noche de Triunfos awards. The award program will be held Sept. 17 in Washington, DC. If you are a Hispanic journalist or want to encourage a friend to enter, the deadline for submissions has been extended to June 1.

Click here for more information and guidelines: http://www.nahj.org/awards/2009/2009awards.shtml

To see the list of winners from last year, click here: http://www.nahj.org/sponsorship/specialevents/2008/noche/08awardwinners.shtml

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DC Press Corps: MSM Down, Niche Media Up

A three-month study on the scale, scope and nature of the Washington press corps, conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism and journalist Tyler Marshall, is now out and the picture is a fascinating one. The story is more about a dramatic transformation than simply a shrinking act. Take note:

* ClimateWire, an on-line newsletter launched less than a year ago, deploys more than twice the reporting power around Capitol Hill than the Hearst News Service

* The DC bureau of Mother Jones, a San Francisco-based nonprofit magazine, has seven reporters, about the same size as the now-reduced Time magazine bureau

* CQ, a news operation that produces an array of on-line and print publications, now has the largest number of journalists accredited to cover Congress

In addition to the decline in the reporting power of mainstream media and the growth among more narrowly focused special interest or niche media, there has been a marked jump in foreign media now represented in Washington. In 1968, there were about 160 foreign correspondents reporting from Washington. In October 2008, there were nearly 10 times as many.

For more on this study, click here: http://www.journalism.org/analysis_report/new_washington_press_corps

To see an MF-funded study on the diversity of Washington news bureaus, carried out by UNITY and the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University and released in July, 2008, click here: http://cronkite.asu.edu/news/diversity-072408.php

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LSU Releases Diversity That Works for J-Schools

Ever wish there was a simple-to-use resource for Journalism Schools to help improve their diversity efforts – from hiring to research to student body to curriculum? Well, it’s actually out – and it’s free.

The Manship School of Mass Communication at Louisiana State University has just published, with Knight Foundation support, a free publication that highlights examples of successful diversity programs in universities around the country. Edited by Ralph Izard, "Diversity That Works" contains personal reports from journalism/mass communications programs about successful efforts and the ideas and activities that made them work.

To download the book, visit: http://www.masscommunicating.lsu.edu/diversitythatworks.html

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DC Reductions

The NY Times has picked up on a trend many are seeing in the media industry: The shuttering of news bureaus and cutbacks in Washington-based correspondents. Richard Perez-Pena describes the trend in a piece this week, noting that the cuts (both in DC and at home organizations) come at a time of increased change and need for scrutiny in Washington: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/18/business/media/18bureaus.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink.

The troublesome trend comes on the heels of a McCormick-funded study, conducted by Arizona State University's Cronkite School and UNITY, that noted only about 13 percent of the Washington daily newspaper press corps are journalists of color. Though this was slightly higher than a study in 2004, it was conducted in early 2008 so the diversity may have decreased since then. For more on the study, http://cronkite.asu.edu/news/diversity-072408.php.

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AAJA Announces New Executive Director

Former newspaper and television industry professional Ellen Endo has been appointed the new executive director of the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA), replacing Rene Astudillo, who has led AAJA since 1999.

In her 24 years in TV industry leadership positions, Endo has served as an executive at Republic Pictures Productions, MGM/UA Television, Embassy Communications and ABC. She has also served as managing editor of The Rafu Shimpo, Los Angeles Japanese Daily News and chief operating officer of the nonprofit Go For Broke National Education Center.

Founded in 1981, the San Francisco-based AAJA is a nonprofit professional and educational organization with approximately 2,000 members and 20 chapters in major cities across the U.S. and in Asia.

To see more on Endo’s background and her video introduction as AAJA e.d., click here

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It's Arrived!

Four years and thousands of planning hours later, the mother of all journalistic conferences, UNITY, kicks off this week in Chicago.

The quadrennial convening is organized by UNITY: Journalists of Color, a strategic alliance advocating news coverage about people of color and more diverse news media. More than 10,000 journalists are members, drawing from the four national organizations that comprise UNITY: Asian American Journalists Association, National Association of Black Journalists, National Association of Hispanic Journalists, and the Native American Journalists Association.

Presidential hopeful Barack Obama is slated to speak, among other dignitaries, including the President of Senegal. For the full schedule, visit: www.2008unity.org. You can catch the McCormick journalism staff at a number of McCormick-funded events and projects, including:

• The student projects ( more than 60 diverse college students are covering"the conference through print, online, broadcast and multimedia)
• A research study measuring the diversity of the Washington Press Corps (in conjunction with Arizona State University's Cronkite School of Journalism)
• A video, produced by the McCormick Fellows, documenting how newsrooms have changed since the 1968 Kerner Commission. It will be shown at Thursday morning's plenary.

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McCormick Hosts Ethnic Media Leaders

The recent “McCormick Ethnic Media Conference: Strategies for Growing the Sector” brought some 30 leaders from across the nation to Chicago to discuss strategies, obstacles, lessons learned and impact of the work they do. The conference featured a public panel Friday, June 20 on “The State of Ethnic Media: Boom or Bust?” This public discussion was moderated by Community Media Workshop’s Thom Clark and featured Sandy Close of New America Media, Cristina Azocar of the Center for Integration and Improvement of Journalism at San Francisco State University and Juana Ponce de Leon of New York Community Media Alliance. Here are video excerpts from that lively exchange:

• Thom Clark of CMW introduces the panel and discusses the results of his organization’s research into Chicago’s 200 ethnic news outlets (click here)
• Panelists discuss challenges facing ethnic media
(click here
• Juana Ponce de Leon discusses the vibrancy of the ethnic media in a city where 40% of residents are foreign-born (click here)
• Cristina Azocar discusses the research conducted by SFSU on opportunities and threats to EM nationally (click here)
• Sandy Close on the role and strengths of EM (click here)
• Sandy Close on EM and advertising potential (click here)
• Closing comments on MSM v EM v the death of journalism (click here)

A highlight of this event was a spoken word performance by Esther Ikoro and Adam Gottlieb of Young Chicago Authors (click here)

Photo above by Demetrio Maguigad of Community Media Workshop

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Walking the Walk

The McCormick Fellows aren't just paying lip service to the multimedia landscape, they're putting themselves behind the lens.

The group of nearly 90 high-powered minority media executives recently launched their first foray into online video. You can catch their responses to the question: "Where are we today when it comes to diversity in the newsroom?" at http://www.mtfellows.org/video.asp

Expect more on this topic from the group at UNITY this year, where it premiers its own documentary about the media's diversity progress since the 20th anniversary of the Kerner Commission. The commission, which released a final report in 1968, was created upon the order of President Johnson to investigate the causes of 1967 race riots. It claimed the media didn't present an accurate portrayal of the riots and conditions leading up to them.

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No Surprise Here: Fewer Daily Newspaper Journalists

In what's sure to lift everyone's spirits at the American Society of Newspaper Editors' (ASNE) annual conference, the annual newsroom census numbers show the largest decline in the number of daily newspaper journalists in nearly 30 years.

According to the newly released data, the total number of newsroom employees declined 4.4 percent (or 2,400 jobs). Minority journalists continue to see reductions amid all the frenetic cuts, losing 300 jobs in 2007, though the percentage of overall minority journalists increased incrementally from 13.43 to 13.52 percentage of all newsroom employees. This is most likely due to the overall reductions of newspaper workforces (as opposed to being the result of new hires).

Still, newsrooms have a long way to go to represent the potential U.S. readership. ASNE notes that according to the most recent census, "racial and ethnic minorities made up 34 percent of the population in 2006." That gap is likely to continue if newspapers don't diversify as the population does.

ASNE, an MTF grantee, surveyed 924 daily newspapers for the study. For more on the census, visit: http://www.asne.org/index.cfm?ID=6945

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New Name for Historic J-Group

The National Association of Minority Media Executives (NAMME), the only membership organization of diverse media executives and a long-time MTF grantee, is changing its name. It will now be known as the National Association of Multicultural Media Executives (sticking with the same acronym), reports Maynard's Richard Prince in Journal-Isms (http://www.maynardije.org/columns/dickprince/080312_prince/).

The change comes after a couple months of internal dicussion. NAMME Board Chair Neil Foote told Prince that the new name "better reflects the demographic changes in the country and better positions the organization for the 21st century." They've always worked across all media, ethnicities and platforms, Foote notes.

Like most groups, NAMME has been hit hard by the cash crunch in the media industry and is looking for individual donor support to continue working on research projects around diversity issues in the media and supporting its members. To contribute to its current campaign, visit http://www.namme.org/.

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Ever Wonder How Newspapers Find 'Regular People' to Quote?

That’s just one of the questions posed to readers by the Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers – in partnership with the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) – in an appeal to spur sign-ups for a new Reader Sounding Board. The Sounding Board, a list of about 200 readers, will work to “improve their community” as well as the paper’s coverage of the community. They’ll do this by expressing their views, whether on neighborhood issues or the presidential race.

STCN joined the NAHJ’s Parity Project in December 2005. Based on the goal of increasing hires of Latino journalists and improving newspapers’ coverage of Hispanic communities, Parity provides a newsroom with training in cultural awareness. The process begins with a townhall meeting around the paper’s coverage of the Hispanic community and then helps the paper tap into a database of Latino journalists when hiring opportunities arise. This three-pronged strategy, which MTF has supported since 2003, has reaped benefits to numerous print and broadcast entities. Most notably Parity’s first partner, the Rocky Mountain News, has doubled its Latino reporters in two years. Twenty-five companies are now participating. For more information, visit NAHJ’s website at www.nahj.org.

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The 2008 McCormick Tribune Fellows

We're proud to announce that we've selected a talented new crop of McCormick Tribune Fellows for 2008. These experienced minority media executives hail from a diverse range of positions in print, broadcast and online news media. They will join a pool of more than 80 alumni at media companies across the country:

Rodney Brooks, USA Today
Sharon Wilmore, Detroit Free Press
Carole Carmichael, The Seattle Times
Terrence Williams, New York Times Co.
Johnita Due, CNN
Orlando Rosales, WTPH 14 - Azteca America
Shiree Woody, WBBH-NBC2 & WZVN-ABC7
Jayme Ribeiro Neto, WRMD Telemundo Tampa

The Fellowship is a unique executive development program that targets high-performing diverse senior managers and execs in the news media. Through training, research and convening, the program's goal is to increase the number and impact of minority media executives.

For more on the McCormick Tribune Fellowship, visit the web site at: www.MTFellows.org

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Who's Steering the Ship?

Stop the presses: Journalism and Mass Communication schools are run predominantly by older white males, at least according to a recent study released by the University of Maryland's Philip Merrill College of Journalism. This despite the fact that two-thirds of j-school student enrollees are female.

The Knight-funded survey of 165 JMC administrators found that 90 percent of respondents were white, 64 percent were male and their average age was 55 years old. The study was designed "to take a snapshot of the nation's JMC administrators and learn more about some of the key issues and pressures they face—among them the growing expectations to raise private funds, adaptation of their schools’ curricula in a digital world, and faculty hiring challenges."

For more data from the study: http://www.journalism.umd.edu/newrel/07newsrel/jmcsurvey07.html

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Cutting Back on Diversity?

UNITY's president is calling for media companies to begin collecting and releasing the racial and ethnic breakdown of employees laid off or taking buyouts in the past year's flurry of journalism job loss. According to UNITY President Karen Lincoln Michel, the group will be brainstorming in the coming weeks ways to slow the loss of talented diverse staffers in the newsroom. Personally, she's advocating for companies to collect and release the racial and ethnic breakdown numbers of departing staffers as a way to track the situation.

You can read Lincoln Michel's column here: http://www.unityjournalists.org/presidents/przmsg_070507.html

What do you think is the best way to address journalism diversity erosion in a tumultuous business time?

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