Washington, D.C. -- The National Association of Hispanic Journalists called on the news industry this week to increase dramatically the employment of Latino journalists during the next five years. NAHJ unveiled plans to create several new programs to spur that increase.
NAHJ will seek to work with the news industry to double the percentage of Latinos employed by daily newspapers from the current 3.8 percent to 7.8 percent and to boost the percentage of Latinos working for local English-language television stations from the current 6.1 percent to 9.0 percent by 2008.
The programs are part of a five-year strategic plan for NAHJ that was adopted during a board meeting Oct. 18-19 in Washington, D.C.
The plan is NAHJ’s first comprehensive strategy that marshals its resources to address the momentous changes in the U.S. media since the group’s founding in 1984.
"NAHJ is sending a clear signal to the industry that we will no longer sit patiently while media companies increase the hiring of Latinos at a snail’s pace," said NAHJ President Juan González. "Rather, we will press the industry to speed up employment and promotion opportunities for Latino journalists and improve news coverage of the Latino community. We will also work to elevate the study and practice of journalism in general and intervene in key issues affecting the news and information needs of Latinos and every U.S. resident."
The centerpiece of the plan is the Parity Project. The NAHJ will identify cities with significant Latino populations where Latinos are underrepresented in the newsrooms of local media outlets. In those cities, NAHJ will offer to work jointly with existing print and broadcast outlets, area journalism schools, foundations and Latino community leaders to develop comprehensive model programs that will increase Latino newsroom presence and influence.
The Parity Project will focus mainly on medium-sized cities. Recent studies by the Brookings Institution and the Pew Hispanic Center found that during the 1990s Latinos migrated to the suburbs and medium-sized cities faster than any other ethnic or racial group in the nation’s history. Media outlets in those cities have historically been the "weak link" in minority newsroom employment.
The five-year plan calls for:
- Raising the bar for diversity: NAHJ calls on the media industry to increase dramatically Latino newsroom employment. The NAHJ board concluded that unless the percentage of Latino journalists working in the newsrooms of the nation’s daily newspapers doubles in five years, the American Society of Newspaper Editors’ goal of reaching newsroom parity by 2025 will not be achieved.
- Parity Project: NAHJ will work to increase Latino newsroom representation in specific cities where the Latino population increased substantially in the 1990s. NAHJ will engage media executives, journalism schools and community leaders in those cities to join the association in creating task forces to achieve this reform.
- Leadership and professional development: NAHJ will create a leadership institute for Latino journalists and will publish a Spanish-language style book in 2003. In 2004, the organization plans to launch a professional development program for Spanish-language media.
- Coverage of Latinos: NAHJ will work to create a system to monitor how media companies are covering Latinos and how changes in media ownership and government policies affect the quality of journalism coverage. Also, NAHJ will supplement the association’s "Network Brownout Report" with other studies that monitor industry changes and the media’s coverage of the Latino community.
- Expand resources and diversify funding: NAHJ will diversify and increase its funding from philanthropic foundations, its own members and the Latino community in order to gain greater independence of action and financial stability. At the same time, it will strengthen its long-standing relationships with media and non-media companies. As part of that strategy, NAHJ has hired the Washington, D.C.-based Metropolitan Group to assist in its major fundraising expansion efforts.
For those interested in more details about the plan, a copy of the executive summary will be posted next week on the NAHJ Web site at www.nahj.org.
With 1,700 members, NAHJ is dedicated to the recognition and professional advancement of Hispanics in the news industry.
