Press Release

CBS 4, KCNC-TV--DENVER Becomes the First U.S. NAHJ Parity Project Broadcast Partner

Colorado's News Channel - CBS 4, KCNC-TV--Denver, a CBS owned and operated station, announced today that it is the first TV station in the United States to partner with the National Association of Hispanic Journalists' (NAHJ) Parity Project, a program to help increase diversity in television news coverage and newsrooms and to develop future minority broadcast journalists.

The NAHJ Parity Project aims to increase the number of Latinos in U.S. newsrooms and improve overall media coverage of the Latino community. Recent census figures show that 32 percent of Denver's more than 500,000 residents are Latino. According to a recently released Radio-Television News Directors Association (RTNDA) survey, the percentage of minorities working in local television and radio news last year returned to previous levels above 20 percent.

"We are excited to partner with NAHJ on this ground breaking project," Walt DeHaven, CBS 4 General Manager said. "As the first broadcast station in the country to take on this role, we hope to foster the growth of future minority journalists as well as increase diversity in the kind of news coverage you see on TV each day."

NAHJ President Juan Gonzalez hails KCNC-TV's partnership in the Parity Project. "The new RTNDA study shows that Latinos make up about 6.6% of the overall newsroom staff at local English-language TV news outlets, which is an increase from the year before. That's a positive sign. Yet census figures show that Latinos make up 13% of the overall U.S. population. KCNC-TV is taking a bold step forward by joining the Parity Project. This partnership will give NAHJ the opportunity to help KCNC develop stronger ties to Denver's Latino community and will, in the long term, help bring more Latinos into newsrooms across the country."

CBS 4 and NAHJ will co-sponsor community forums with many of Colorado's Latino social and civic leaders to learn about local issues and opportunities affecting their communities. Community representatives will also work with the CBS 4 staff to offer recommendations on what it can do to improve coverage of Latinos.

"We are very excited to be working with NAHJ on this important initiative." Angie Kucharski, CBS 4 Station Manager, Vice President-News and NAHJ member said. "The Parity Project gives us an opportunity to better connect with our minority communities by offering forums and creating a pipeline of future minority journalists."

CBS 4 also partners locally with KCEC-TV, Channel 50, which provides news to Denver's estimated 197,000 Hispanic households to share production facilities, photographers, reporters and breaking news stories. KCEC is part of the Univision Television network, which reaches an estimated 80 percent of the market, making it the largest and most-watched television network (English or Spanish-language) among Latino households in the country.

NAHJ's Parity Project is sponsored by the Robert R. McCormick Tribune Foundation and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. This is the second news operation NAHJ has partnered with in Denver, having first launched the Parity Project at the Scripps-owned Rocky Mountain News in April 2003. Since the launch of the Parity Project at the Rocky Mountain News, the percentage of Latinos on the news staff has doubled and there has been a dramatic increase in the number of other journalists of color at the paper.

Founded in 1984, NAHJ is based in Washington D.C. NAHJ is the nation's largest professional organization for Latino journalists with more than 2,000 members who work in English and Spanish-language print, photo, broadcast and online media. For more information about NAHJ, visit www.nahj.org or call (202) 662-7145.

The CBS 4 partnership with the NAHJ Parity Project is part of CBS 4 Our Community, a community relations program designed to better serve all local communities. CBS 4 Our Community visits different communities each week to hear from residents and report on issues affecting local neighborhoods.

For more information about CBS 4, call 303-861-4444 or visit www.news4colorado.com.