Press Release

NAHJ Launches Parity Project at KCNC News 4 in Denver - First Broadcast News Partner In This Innovative Program

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The National Association of Hispanic Journalists' (NAHJ) Parity Project has made its way into broadcast news.

On Oct. 18, 2004, about 45 people attended a Town Hall that was co-sponsored by NAHJ and KCNC News 4 in Denver as part of the launch of the Parity Project at that station. KCNC is a CBS station and is owned and operated by Viacom, Inc. KCNC is also the first broadcast news partner in NAHJ's Parity Project.

Outside of KCNC-TV News 4 in Denver. KCNC is a CBS station and is owned by Viacom, Inc.

Many of those in attendance at the Town Hall offered up suggestions on how KCNC News 4 could improve its coverage of the Latino community. "We are so proud to be a part of this project," said KCNC Station Manager and Vice President of News Angie Kucharski.

She added, "During our launch, we have had the opportunity to have truly meaningful discussions with our news staff staff and with members of the community. Those discussions were an invaluable and important step in our plan to better represent the communities we serve." Latinos make up approximately 32% of Denver's population.

NAHJ will be working with KCNC to help that station to form a Parity Project Advisory Committee. This panel will be made up of Latino leaders in the Denver area, as well as KCNC employees. It will meet periodically to discuss ways of improving the station's coverage of Latinos.

In addition, NAHJ will also help KCNC to find Latino candidates for its newsroom job openings. While KCNC is the first broadcast partner in NAHJ's Parity Project, it is not the only one. NAHJ plans to launch the Parity Project at NBC affiliate WFLA-TV in Tampa, Fla. in February 2005. And plans are in the works to launch this program at National Public Radio.

The Robert R. McCormick Tribune Foundation and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation are major sponsors of NAHJ's Parity Project.

Denver-based researcher Polly Baca leads KCNC news staff on Latino cultural awareness session.

The goal of NAHJ's Parity Project is to work with English-language news organizations that serve large Latino communities, but that do not have a representative percentage of Latino journalists in their newsrooms. Through the Parity Project, NAHJ helps these organizations to hire Latino journalists and to establish stronger ties with Latino leaders in their respective areas. This includes helping news companies to work with area high school and college journalism advisers, non-profit groups, businesses and community activists.

NAHJ plans to have its next Parity Project launch at The Daily Camera, a 33,000 daily circulation newspaper in Boulder, Colo. in December of 2004.

Founded in 1984, NAHJ's mission is to increase the percentage of Latinos working in our nation's newsrooms and to improve news coverage of the Latino community. NAHJ is the nation's largest professional organization for Latino journalists with more than 2,300 members working in English and Spanish-language print, photo, broadcast and online media.