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3 More Laid Off From Star-Telegram Newsroom


A year ago, Liz Zavala, the public safety/justice editor at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, won a last-minute reprieve from a round of layoffs when Editor Jim Witt offered her a reporting job, which she accepted. Zavala was then vice president for print of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.


But this time she was not so fortunate. “I was told last Thursday that my last day is this Friday, Aug. 13,” Zavala told Journal-isms on Monday. The Star-Telegram laid off 15 people paperwide, three in the newsroom: Andrew Marton, features reporter and photographer and videographer Kelley chin.


“Siempre adelante — always forward.There’s no other way to go,” Zavala said.


“I am actively looking – for other opportunities as a professional journalist. I am not yet ready to change careers. I’ve spoken with NAHJ and lots of colleagues that I have been lucky enough to call friends in 25 years as a working journalist. They are more than friendly connections, they are family. I remain optimistic I’ll find something doing what I love.”


Chinn took a different view. “I’m not sure exactly what I’ll do next but I do know that it won’t be in journalism. I have no regrets about being a photojournalist at the Star-Telegram for the past 16 years and I’ve enjoyed my career there, but the jobs that’s been lost are not coming back,” he said by e-mail. “So my next career will likely be in a completely different field.”


 


Uptown Magazine Boosts Circulation 85 percent


Uptown magazine, an African American-oriented lifestyle publication that is specializing in regional editions, recorded an 85.0 percent circulation increase this year in figures released Monday by the Audit Bureau of Circulations, even as U.S. consumer magazine circulation in general completed two straight years of declines.


Among publications targeting Latinos, TV y Novelas Estidos Unidos saw a 22 percent circulation gain.


Ebony, Jet and Black Enterprise magazines did not report their figures to the bureau by the deadline, the ABC said. The figures cover the first six months of the year.


Uptown’s circulation rose from 153,460 from the same period last year to 209,988 this year.


Among others, Essence showed a 2.4 percent decline, to 1,066,482; Hispanic magazine declined 0.4 percent, to 314,417; Latina rose 0.5 percent, to 509,444; Siempre Mujer grew by 1.5 percent, to 462,447; Sister 2 Sister increased circulation by 1.7 percent, to 167,829; XXL declined by 9.9 percent to 188,729, and Vanidages rose 4.1 percent, to 190,553.


Although it does not specifically target people of color, O, the Oprah Magazine, rose 0.7 percent, to 2,415,336.


Uptown Media Group announced in May that it was adding the Philadelphia and Detroit markets with its June/July issue, http://www.foliomag.com/2010/uptown-shutters-three-regional-editions-launches-two-more buttressing its national edition and regional editions in New York, Atlanta, Washington D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles and Charlotte, N.C.


“Uptown began expanding its reach after receiving a reported $6 million investment from InterMedia Partners in late 2007,” Chandra Johnson-Greene wrote for Folio magazine in May. “Revenues soared 80 percent the following year and in February 2009, Uptown went from a quarterly to a bi-monthly, increasing its rate base from 125,000 to 200,000.”


According to Uptown founder and CEO Len Burnett, formerly vice president and group publisher of Vibe magazine, “Uptown currently runs on a hybrid model in which 35 percent of its copies are sent to households with a total income of $75,000+ in smaller cities such as Charlotte and $125,000+ in larger cities such as New York, 30 percent are sold via subscriptions and 15 percent are sold on the newsstand. The rest are sent to restaurants, lounges, hotels and other venues where the targeted audience may socialize.”





Red Tape Slowed Delivery to Haitian Journalists


“When Joe Oglesby delivered a shipment of computers, cameras and video equipment to Haitian journalists two weeks ago http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/08/08/1766171/getting-through-haitian-barriers.html , he was greeted with tears and bear hugs from people who’ve had little to cheer about for many months,” Anders Gyllenhaal, executive editor of the Miami Herald, wrote Sunday.


 


” ‘It was a pretty moving moment,’ said Joe, who’s heading up an international drive to help Haiti journalists with new equipment, support and training.


“But there’s an unfortunate subplot to this story that says something about why progress comes so slowly to Haiti.


“It took more than two months of battling bureaucracy and corruption just to get the equipment into the country and in the hands of local reporters and editors trying to track the story of Haiti’s recovery. At times, it looked like this simple gesture would be blocked by obstacles the Haiti government itself put up.”


“. . . The Haiti News Project was launched right after the Jan. 12 earthquake. A group of media organizations from the United States and Latin America formed to help Haitian journalists, who like the country itself, were obliterated by the disaster. Many lost family members, homes, jobs and the equipment to do their work. More than 30 were killed.”


Meanwhile, entertainer Wyclef Jean orchestrated a media rollout in the United States http://www.cjr.org/the_kicker/will_haiti_be_at_the_mercy_of.php before he declared his candidacy for president of Haiti, Liz Cox Barrett wrote Thursday for Columbia Journalism Review. “He was planning to announce his presidential bid on ‘Larry King Live’ on CNN after flying to Haiti on Thursday to register with the elections board. But Time magazine, which had interviewed* him for its coming issue, broke the news on its Web site first, on Tuesday night.


“Reactions here to Mr. Jean‚Äôs expected candidacy ranged from ecstatic to depressed.”


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