Local Impact!

Is the Parity Project making a difference in helping Latino communities feel like they have a voice in their local media? The Parity Project team checked in with our partners to see how they felt this goal was being accomplished. We received a lot of feedback and many innovative approaches.

Terri Burke editor of the Abilene Reporter-News feels that the community involvement has made a big difference. “I think just having the (community advisory) committee has led to some in the Hispanic community feeling freer to contact us and give us tips. One seemingly small thing but became really huge: We feature a twice-weekly page called ‘Say Cheese,’ which is a page full of reader-submitted photographs. Early on our committee chastised us for not running photos of Hispanics. We explained that we just publish what is submitted. They apparently got the word out and now we get lots of photos from Hispanics and African Americans too.”

Shane Fitzgerald, editor of the Corpus Christi Caller-Times also feels that the community outreach has changed their paper. “Our monthly meetings with our Hispanic Advisory Committee have had the biggest impact. Clearly we have made strides in sourcing and getting a better mix of all of Corpus Christi's diversity into our paper. Ideas and discussion from the committee have led us to do a better job all year round. Our best recent example that seemed to go over well was our 10th anniversary package on civil rights leader Dr. Hector Garcia, who founded the GI Forum. Dr. Garcia made his home in Corpus Christi and is an icon in the community. Our recruiting also is much better because of the Parity Project. We have so many more hiring leads, particularly on reporters, and we're bringing in really good people, even when we lose really good people.”

These steps taken by the Tampa Tribune show how important lasting change can happen with our partners. The Tampa Tribune created a new company called Centro Grupo de Comunicacion during the summer of 2005. The company launched a website called Centrotampa.com in September 2005 and a weekly bilingual newspaper called Centro Mi Diario in October 2005. The company also supplies news briefs twice daily to several area radio stations. Janet Weaver, executive editor and Vice-President of News says, “These multimedia efforts specifically address concerns raised by our Hispanic community during a forum we held with community leaders and activists in February 2005 and during the monthly meetings we’ve held since then. We get feedback from community leaders and incorporate their ideas into our coverage online, on TV and in print.”

The Tampa Tribune and Centro Mi Diario have collaborated on more than a dozen front page and metro front stories. Some notable stories include an investigation into a company that brought immigrants brought here on work visas and then forced to live in squalor. They also wrote a revealing story about reverse 911-calls warning of danger that are only delivered in English. The Tampa Tribune also published a bilingual hurricane guide for the first time this year. Finally, the Tampa Tribune added a Latin America roundup to its Nation/World section.

In Northern California, the Napa Valley Register started Hispanos Unidos, a twice monthly, four-section Spanish-language newspaper distributed free throughout Napa Valley. Eighty percent of the copy is in Spanish, and twenty percent in English. The current distribution of the paper is 7,500 per issue.

Since the Parity Project began its association with the Naples Daily News, in southwest Florida, the paper has been able to form many valuable partnerships in the community. Phil Lewis, editor of the Naples Daily News says, “The Parity Project put us in touch with leaders of the various Hispanic communities in Southwest Florida and have helped us formulate a unique media initiative that will involve partnerships with television producers, magazine publishers, weekly newspaper producers and event marketers.” These partnerships have resulted in the November 1, 2006, birth of a Naples Daily News Hispanic Initiatives Division. South Florida journalist and marketer Albert Sabina has been hired as director and will lead this effort. Lewis adds, “It has also made us aware of how diverse our Hispanic population is in Southwest Florida. We have done dozens of stories about this diversity in the past two years.”

The Parity Project can also provide a much needed insight for media companies that have suffered from a disconnect in their communities. Dana Eagles, staff development editor of the Orlando Sentinel feels that, “The Town Hall, cultural awareness sessions and survey results have served to help define the gaps that we have to fill.”

Former editor of the Daily Camera in Boulder, Colorado Sue Deans noted, “We have increased our coverage and inclusion of Hispanics in stories, and also our interaction with the Hispanic community. Most recently our diversity beat reporter produced a package of stories on the working poor that included members of the Latino community. We have also done a series on the achievement gap in schools between Hispanic and Anglo students; and we have focused on Latino students and teachers in the public schools and at the University of Colorado. Our advisory group has been very helpful. We've also had a successful collaboration with Centaurus High School in Lafayette, which is about 40% Hispanic. This occurred through an American Society of Newspaper Editors high school newspaper grant. The high school paper has gone from a mediocre monthly paper to one that has won a number of prizes in high school journalism classes. The last issue of the paper went online and will be the prototype for a Web application that we can use at other high schools this year.”

WPTV NewsChannel 5 is the NBC affiliate in West Palm Beach, Fla. WPTV News director Peter Roghaar says, “The Parity Project has raised our awareness of the need to serve all parts of our community and reminding us that our staff needs to reflect the community we serve. We have been much more aggressive in seeking out qualified minority candidates since the launch of the Parity Project. In June, we formed a Hispanic Community Advisory Committee. From this group, we have added some great Hispanic resources to our diversity rolodex and have partnered with a few key Hispanic groups to sponsor their events.”

As well as giving a voice to the Latino community, Hispanic recruiting goals are also high on our partners’ lists. Tom Bolton the editor of the Santa Maria Times in Santa Maria, Calif. says, “I think the greatest benefit we’ve received from the Parity Project is in the area of recruiting. We’ve had a number of applicants come to us as a result of referrals or postings. Also, as the number of Latinos in our newsrooms has grown, I’m certain we are better tuned in to this important segment of our community.”

Melissa Lalum, managing editor of the Los Angeles Daily News says, “The biggest help has been in recruiting. As you can see by our hires, NAHJ was involved in recommending many of them. There is a feeling in our newsroom that we are very committed to diversity and that we are on the road to achieving this with all races. This also applies to our internship program.”

These results and more are the types of outcomes that are possible when companies open their doors to the Parity Project. We salute all our partners that are making a difference in their communities’ everyday.