July 19, 2005
Dozens Turn Out For Follow-Up Parity Project Town Hall With North County Times in California
by Rosa María Santana, Associate Parity Project Director
More in-depth reporting of the Latino community is what many of the more than 50 people said they wanted in their local newspaper during a July 12, 2005 Parity Project Town Hall meeting with the North County Times in Escondido, Calif.
Many also called for a columnist who could write about north San Diego County’s growing Latino population.
"We need to be heard," said John Herrera, who attended the July 12 Town Hall meeting at the Escondido Public Library. Herrera is a co-founder of Encuentros, a non-profit group that encourages young Latinos to go to college.
Latino educators, students, merchants and community organizers were among those meeting with the editors of the North County Times during the Town Hall to offer their thoughts on ways in which the paper could improve its coverage of Latinos and better connect with its Hispanic readers. The National Association of Hispanic Journalists and the North County Times co-organized the event.
North County Times Editor Kent Davy listened as the crowd both praised and criticized the roughly 90,000-daily circulation newspaper. Davy told the crowd his door is always open to them because he wants to hear more from Latinos on a regular basis. He encouraged the group to attend one of the two Latino Roundtable meetings, in which he and Dick High, the paper’s publisher, met with Latinos to talk about issues of the day. The Latino Roundtable meets at the newspaper every last Tuesday and Wednesday of the month.
Some of the people attending the Town Hall said they wanted the paper to publish a Spanish-language supplement, but Davy said the North County Times has no immediate plans for a Spanish-language publication.
However, Davy added that he is aggressively recruiting more bilingual Latinos to work at the Times.
Many challenged Davy to follow through on the community’s suggestions.
"I’ve been to several of these meetings and I was wondering what you do with these ideas and feedback. Do you make strategic priorities?" asked Gerardo Gonzalez of the National Latino Research Center at California State University, San Marcos.
Davy responded he doesn’t have strategic plans for his newsroom, but he said he considers public feedback.
The North County Times, owned by Lee Enterprises news media chain, is one of 19 newsrooms nationally that have joined the Parity Project, an initiative created two years ago by the NAHJ to increase the number of Latinos in selected English-language newsrooms.
As part of the Parity Project, NAHJ works with high schools and colleges in areas served by companies involved in the program to identify promising young Latino writers who could pursue careers in journalism. The association also meets with the newsroom’s staff to talk about demographic and cultural trends in the Latino community.
The July Town Hall meeting was the second community forum organized by the NAHJ and the North County Times. The Parity Project was first launched at the North County Times in January 2004. More than 80 people attended a Town Hall that was held during the launch of the Parity Project at that newspaper.
2003 NAHJ Student Campus participant Martha Sarabia contributed to this story.
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