FLORES RECEIVES AWARD:

Don Flores, executive vice president and editor of the El Paso Times, has received the first-ever Robert G. McGruder Award for Diversity Leadership among daily newspapers with circulation of 50,000 or larger.

He was honored in a ceremony at the Associated Press Managing Editors convention in Baltimore Oct. 24.

Jim Strauss, executive editor of the Great Falls (Mont.) Tribune, won a companion award for dailies with circulation under 50,000.

The awards are given by the APME, the American Society of Newspaper Editors and The Freedom Forum.

When Flores became editor of the Times in 1993, journalists of color made up 43% of the paper's newsroom staff. They comprise 57% of its current staff of 80.

The percentage of managers of color doubled since 1993. It is now 58%.
The award is named in honor of the former executive editor of the Detroit Free Press, who died of cancer last April.

MEDIA OWNERSHIP:

Groups including the Newspaper Guild/CWA, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, The Seattle Times and the AFL-CIO, have filed a motion with the Federal Communications Commission to extend the public comment period on the review of media ownership rules from its Dec. 2 deadline.

The FCC seeks public comment on the following: local and national TV ownership, local radio ownership, radio/TV ownership, newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership and the ban on dual TV network ownership.

The FCC released 12 studies in October examining the state of ownership diversity. These will help craft new regulations.

The groups requested that the FCC release datasets that are referenced in the reports to verify the validity of the findings. They asked the FCC to push back the comment period until four months after the datasets are released.

"The question here is does the FCC Chairman Michael Powell really want a serious debate on this issue or not. If so, he will grant the additional time extension, release the additional research information, and hold field hearings," said Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy.