Dear NAHJ member:

The National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) is very concerned about recent cutbacks announced at several media companies throughout the United States.

NAHJ President Verónica Villafañe recently issued a statement about these cutbacks and how they might affect newsroom diversity, especially where Latinos are concerned.

If you have been affected by these cutbacks, or you know of another Latino print, photo, broadcast or online journalist who has been affected, NAHJ wants to hear from you. Newsroom managers at English and Spanish-language newspapers, television and radio stations and networks and online news organizations contact NAHJ on an almost daily basis, looking for solid, qualified Latino journalists for their newsroom job openings.

These include companies that are partners in NAHJ’s Parity Project, which have made a commitment to hiring more Latino journalists. Current newsroom openings at these companies are posted on the NAHJ Parity Project JOBS page at: www.nahj.org/parityproject/jobs.shtml.

If you need help in finding a newsroom job, or know of another Latino journalist who does, please e-mail your resume (no longer than one page, in Word format, please) to: kolivas@nahj.org. As a member of our organization, you also have access to NAHJ’s Job Bank (in the Members Only section of our Web site) where you can look for jobs and post your resume.

Prior to this most recent round of cutbacks, Latinos were woefully underrepresented in the nation’s newsrooms. According to the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE), Latinos make up only 4.3% of the total full-time employment at daily English-language newspapers. Statistics from the Radio Television News Directors Association (RTNDA) show that Latinos account for only 8.7% of the total full-time newsroom workforce at local English-language TV stations. Yet, Latinos comprise 14% of the overall U.S. population and that number is growing dramatically.

That means your voices are needed in newsrooms now more than ever.

NAHJ remains committed to the fair representation of Latinos in the newsroom and the fair and accurate portrayal of Latinos by the media.