Washington, D.C. -- The National Association of Hispanic Journalists has commissioned a two-part report on the state of the Spanish-language and Hispanic-oriented news media in the United States.

The NAHJ is calling on journalists and managers who work for Hispanic-oriented media across the country to participate in the study by responding to a brief online survey on issues such as job satisfaction, work experience, employment status, educational background, and their professional expectations in and about the Hispanic/Latino news media.

Please visit the following link to the survey for journalists: www.nahj.org/estudio/periodistas

Please visit the following link to the survey for managers: www.nahj.org/estudio/gerentes

The report will also consist of a comprehensive inventory of the Hispanic/Latino news media that also addresses the ownership, audience, functions and market characteristics of those companies.

Even though the Spanish-language and Latino-oriented media continue to grow at breakneck speed, there has been very little analysis of the actual impact of this trend on Latino journalists or on the Latino community. The NAHJ has commissioned the report because it will pinpoint major successes and problems to be addressed by the industry and the professionals who work for Spanish-language and Latino-oriented media.

NAHJ calls on our news media colleagues to take part in the online survey and for publishers to respond to the inventory assessment.

The survey of journalists and managers requires only about 20 minutes to complete. It is on a secure site to guarantee anonymity and confidentiality. No names are asked, except from respondents who volunteer to do so in order to subsequently participate in more in-depth interviews, the results of which will also be fully confidential.

The reports are being directed by Federico Subervi, currently a media consultant and scholar and formerly a professor of communication at the University of Texas at Austin, with assistance from Felix Gutiérrez, a professor of Journalism at the University of Southern California.

NAHJ will release the reports in August at the UNITY: Journalists of Color Convention in Washington D.C., August 4-8, 2004.

NAHJ asks for your assistance in helping us invite your colleagues to take part in the survey. Please forward this message to them or let us know their names and contact information such an e-mail address or phone number so that we can send them an invitation to take the survey. Your resource person at NAHJ is Michelle Vignoli; contact her at mvignoli@nahj.org or 202-662-7413.

NAHJ is the largest association for Hispanic journalists in the country with more than 2,000 members. Founded in 1984, the mission of NAHJ is to increase the number of Latino journalists working in the nation's newsrooms and to improve the media's coverage of the Latino community.