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Knight Foundation Awards NAHJ Grant and Training Scholarships

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John S. and James L. Knight Foundation logoWashington, DC – The National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) has received a $20,000 general operating grant and $7,000 in scholarships from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to provide training to NAHJ members through the Poynter Institute.

To help NAHJ weather the economic downturn, Knight Foundation has contributed $20,000 to the group’s Count Me In campaign. In addition, the foundation has provided NAHJ with $7,000 in tuition scholarships for NAHJ members to participate in online seminars and webminars at the Poynter Institute’s News University.

There will also be an additional $8,000 in scholarships — for in-person training – shared by members of NAHJ, the National Association of Black Journalists, the Asian American Journalists Association, the Online News Association, the Journalism & Women Symposium and the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, on a first-come, first-served basis.

“The Poynter Institute is at the forefront of addressing the training needs of journalists and we look forward to using these scholarships to continue to give our members the tools they need to keep their jobs, find new ones, or work on their own,” said NAHJ Executive Director Iván Román.

“We know how tough it is to get the time and money to do training in these tough budgetary times, and we’re committed to doing what we can to get journalists the training they need” said Keith Woods, Dean of Faculty at the Poynter Institute.

In order to apply for the scholarship you must be a member in good standing. To renew your membership, please visit http://www.nahj.org/2009/06/membership/.

To sign up for online seminars and webinars visit Poynter’s News University, visit http://www.newsu.org/. Once your register with NewsU, you can sign up for a scholarship to participate in any of the online seminars and webinars. If you would like to sign up for the in-person training sessions, you will need to register with NewsU as well, but those funds are shared among all six groups mentioned above and are on a first-come, first-serve basis until the funds are exhausted.

For questions about membership, please contact NAHJ Membership Coordinator, Paulo Luizaga, at pluizaga@nahj.org or 202.662.7460.

 

Founded in 1984, NAHJ’s mission is to increase the percentage of Latinos working in our nation’s newsrooms and to improve news coverage of the Latino community. NAHJ is the nation’s largest professional organization for Latino journalists with more than 1,400 members working in English and Spanish-language print, photo, broadcast and online media. NAHJ is a 501 (c)(3) tax-exempt non-profit organization. For more information, visit www.nahj.org.

 About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation advances journalism in the digital age and invests in the vitality of communities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers. Since 1950, the foundation has granted more than $400 million to advance quality journalism and freedom of expression. Knight Foundation focuses on projects that promote community engagement and lead to transformational change. For more, visit www.knightfoundation.org.

McCormick Foundation Awards $100k Grant for New Phase of NAHJ’s Parity Project

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McCormick Foundation LogoWashington, DC- The National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) has received a one-year, $100,000 grant from the McCormick Foundation for the next phase of NAHJ’s Parity Project program.

This new phase of NAHJ’s Parity Project calls for assessing how many of the nation’s Latinos use, view and participate in news media. This will be done with the help of more than 8,000 Latino community contacts that NAHJ has worked with through the Parity Project.

Through this assessment, the Parity Project will examine how Latinos in the U.S. receive their news and where information gaps might exist.

“It is imperative that Latinos be included in all news coverage as they occupy virtually every facet of American life. That is why this new phase of the Parity Project will help both Hispanic community leaders and journalists find ways to bridge news and information gaps,” said NAHJ Parity Project Director Kevin Olivas. “We thank the McCormick Foundation for their continued commitment to our mission.”

Results of this work can by used by community advocates in cities nationwide to increase their news literacy. This data can also generate more dialogue between Latino community leaders and journalists from all platforms to look for new ways to include Latinos in news coverage and cover Hispanic communities fairly and effectively.

NAHJ will also be continuing this dialogue between Latino community leaders and journalists through Parity Project-related programming at our 2010 convention in Denver.

Currently, there are 24 news organizations that are partners in NAHJ’s Parity Project. This program was conceived with the goal of improving news staff diversity as well as news coverage of, and media interaction with, Latino community leaders.

Founded in 1984, NAHJ’s mission is to increase the percentage of Latinos working in our nation’s newsrooms and to improve news coverage of the Latino community. NAHJ is the nation’s largest professional organization for Latino journalists with more than 1,400 members working in English and Spanish-language print, photo, broadcast and online media. NAHJ is a 501 (c)(3) tax-exempt non-profit organization. For more information, visit www.nahj.org.

About the McCormick Foundation

The McCormick Foundation is a nonprofit organization committed to strengthening our free, democratic society by investing in children, communities and country. Through its five grantmaking programs, Cantigny Park and Golf, and three world-class museums, the Foundation helps build a more active and engaged citizenry. It was established as a charitable trust in 1955, upon the death of Colonel Robert R. McCormick, the longtime editor and publisher of the Chicago Tribune. The McCormick Foundation is one of the nation’s largest charities, with $1.2 billion in assets. 

Media Contact: Kevin Olivas, (202) 662-7168

Two Foundations Help Journalists in Transition

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Ford Foundation & John S. and James L. Knight Foundation logosWashington, DC – Hundreds of journalists facing bleak employment opportunities in a sharply contracting industry received much needed multimedia training at the National Association of Hispanic Journalists’ recent convention, many of them thanks to two foundations concerned about increasing media diversity. 

The Ford Foundation and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation each awarded NAHJ $50,000 grants to pay for airfare, lodging and registration for 76 journalists to attend the 27th Annual NAHJ Convention and Media & Career Expo, June 24-27, 2009 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Those selected received intensive multimedia journalism training over four days, including the first-ever CyberLab@NAHJ – interactive sessions on blogging, podcasting, search engine optimization, Twitter, audio slideshows, streaming live video – in addition to workshops on Flash, Final Cut Pro, and much more.

The Ford Foundation awarded NAHJ the grant to further the longstanding strategy of both organizations to increase the participation of minorities who have been and continue to be underrepresented in the journalistic process, according to Calvin Sims, Program Officer for Media, Arts and Culture at the Ford Foundation. The Ford Foundation also provided an additional $50,000 grant for The Latino Reporter newspaper that is part of the NAHJ Student Projects training program.

“We are seeing such downsizing in the industry, and studies show that the downsizing is disproportionately affecting journalists of color. This grant and NAHJ’s convention focused on training journalists so they can reinvent themselves and be more marketable in a digital media landscape,” said Sims.

Sims said he was particularity impressed by the quality of training programs. “I was up early and the buses headed to the Convention Center at 8:00 a.m. were full of students clamoring with excitement about who was going to which sessions, and how they were planning to meet up at the end of the day to compare notes,” said Sims.

Jose Zamora, Journalism Associate at the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, echoed the need for these grants. “The media landscape is in flux. Journalists need to re-tool and reinvent themselves for the digital age,” said Zamora. “The grant to NAHJ gave Knight the opportunity to help Hispanic journalists maintain their competitiveness in today’s digital media market by learning the latest digital skills.”

Jacqueline Gil, an independent journalist who received grant-funded assistance, shared her experience. “I was looking for Web tools to enhance my story telling. It really did help. I have my website and I want to drive people to the site, and I am more confident that I can do that now,” said Gil.

NAHJ Executive Director Iván Román said the grants gave an opportunity to journalists who need multimedia storytelling skills to keep their jobs, get a new job, or work on their own in this new media landscape. “Journalists need tech skills and they need them now, and we were able to provide that training to hundreds of journalists all at once,” said Román. “We are proud of what we were able to accomplish with this convention, and plan to build on this for our next convention in Denver.”

Founded in 1984, NAHJ’s mission is to increase the percentage of Latinos working in our nation’s newsrooms and to improve news coverage of the Latino community. NAHJ is the nation’s largest professional organization for Latino journalists with more than 1,400 members working in English and Spanish-language print, photo, broadcast and online media. NAHJ is a 501 (c)(3) tax-exempt non-profit organization. For more information, visit www.nahj.org.

Media Contact: Iván Román, (202) 662-7178