Washington, D.C. -- The National Association of Hispanic Journalists successfully launched the Parity Project at the North County Times in Escondido, Calif., on Jan. 28. NAHJ has so far launched the Parity Project at a total of seven newspapers across the country. The North County Times is the first Lee newspaper to partner with NAHJ on the project.

As part of the Parity Project, NAHJ conducted cultural awareness training with the staff of the North County Times. The session included presentations by the Pew Hispanic Center's Roberto Suro and Geraldo Gonzalez of the National Latino Research Center at California State University, San Marcos. Suro discussed issues affecting Latinos nationally, while Gonzalez provided the local prespective.

NAHJ convened a town hall meeting in Escondido with the paper's executives and more than 75 members of the Hispanic community. At the meeting, the Latino community expressed their views on how they feel the paper is covering issues that affect them.

The Parity Project was created by NAHJ 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.

NAHJ's Parity Project has received funding from both the McCormick Tribune Foundation and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, as well as NAHJ's Campaign for Parity donors. 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.