|
NAHJ Launches Parity Project at Three West Texas Newspapers
Washington, D.C. -- The National Association
of Hispanic Journalists successfully launched the Parity Project
at three Scripps newspapers in West Texas Dec. 15-17. The NAHJ
has so far launched the parity project at a total of six Scripps
newspapers this year.
NAHJ unveiled the project with the San Angelo Standard Times on
Dec. 15, the Abilene Reporter-News Dec. 16 and the Wichita Falls
Times Record News Dec. 17.
In all three cities, NAHJ conducted diversity training sessions
with the staff members of each newspaper.
|
NAHJ’s Michael Zamba leads diversity training session with newspaper staff of the Abilene Reporter-News. |
|
NAHJ also held a town hall meeting in San Angelo and Wichita Falls
with members of the Hispanic community to discuss the paper's
coverage of issues affecting the city's Latino community. More
than 50 community representatives attended each meeting. NAHJ
will return to Abilene in January to co-host a town all meeting.
NAHJ announced the creation of the Parity Project in October of
2002. The goal of the project is to increase dramatically the
employment of Latino journalists during the next five years. NAHJ
will work with the news industry, through the Parity Project,
to double the percentage of Latino journalists working in our
nation's newsrooms.
The Parity Project will identify cities where Latinos are underrepresented
in the newsrooms but make up a significant portion of the population.
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 Scripps newspaper chain is NAHJ's first Parity Project partner.
Last April, NAHJ launched the project at Scripps' flagship paper,
the Rocky Mountain News, in Denver. NAHJ also kicked off the project
with the Ventura County Star in June and the Naples Daily News
in September.
NAHJ's Parity Project has received initial financial support from
both the McCormick Tribune Foundation and the John S. Knight Foundation.
The NAHJ board has set a goal of raising $3.6 million over the
next five years to expand rapidly the Parity Project to dozens
of target cities.
###
|
