NAA’s Diversity Chief Takes Buyout Offer
Toni F. Laws, senior vice president for diversity at the Newspaper Association of America, the organization of newspaper publishers, is taking a buyout offer and retiring in February, the organization announced.
Laws came to NAA as vice president for the newly created diversity department in 1992. She was charged then with implementing the industry action plan to increase minority representation throughout the newspaper industry. John Sturm, president and CEO of NAA, told Journal-isms on Oct. 25 that regardless of whether Laws accepted the buyout offer, “our diversity programs will continue and we will make the appropriate personnel” changes.
Today, he added that the board of directors, along with Laws, would meet and review the diversity programs before Laws departs and would make an announcement on how they would be staffed.
“We’re all watching,” said Astrid Garcia, president of the National Association of Minority Media Executives. “We worked closely with Toni. She’s on our board. It will be hard to replace Toni. She created a lot of synergy between a lot of people in the industry that resulted in better diversity programs,” Garcia, who is vice president for human resources, labor and production at the San Jose Mercury News, told Journal-isms.
NAA said that Laws created several industry initiatives: the James K. Batten Leadership Development program, the Train the Trainer program, the New Media Fellowship, and a number of student and minority recruitment efforts. She is also the founder and publisher of People & Product, a quarterly devoted to diversity in the newspaper industry.
Laws also laid the foundation for an effort to establish a business case for diversity and challenged the newspaper industry to reach each demographic group and “draw them in as consumers, participants and employees.” In 1995, she assumed management responsibilities for the NAA Foundation, where she oversees the Newspaper In Education program, as well as youth readership, content and student newspaper initiatives.
NAA promotes diversity in both the editorial and business sides of newspapers. It is coping with “significant revenue decreases” prompted by an advertising slump after 9/11.
Recriminations at Nigerian Paper After Deadly Fights
Recriminations have begun at a Nigerian newspaper that ran a commentary blamed for sparking fighting that the Nigerian Red Cross reports has killed more than 200 people, left some 1,215 injured and driven 11,500 from their homes.
A commentary Wednesday in a national daily newspaper, Thisday, suggested that the Prophet Mohammed would have approved of the Miss World pageant to be held in the capital but moved to London after the violence. Islamic clerics in the country’s mainly Muslim north have opposed it as “a parade of nudity.”
In its latest apology, newspaper chairman Nduka Obaigbena said the author of the commentary had been fired and that an investigation is under way to determine whether the editor should be, too.
“The Thisday management has set up a team to thoroughly investigate this monumental lapse; if the editor is found to have been negligent he will be removed from office as a deterrent to others as we ensure due diligence in the handling of articles for publication,” the chairman wrote. Editor Simon Kolawole “was only recently made Editor to replace the former Editor who was found to be negligent, when he allowed unfounded allegations against President Olusegun Obasanjo to be published. Beyond that we have begun an internal review of our editing processes with a view to ensuring that we put more checks in the editing process, without relying too much on network technology and editorial software.
“As for the writer of the offensive article, she is pleading forgiveness. She has also offered her resignation for inadvertently causing so much pain to the nation and the newspaper. She says she had only recently returned to the country and did not fully understand the complexity and sensitivity of the Nigerian society. We find her action inexcusable and therefore have accepted her resignation.”
Meanwhile, Agence France-Presse reported that owners of a Nigerian independent weekly accused a state government of sponsoring last week’s bomb attack on its office that left six people seriously injured. The National Pilot’s publisher Bukola Saraki told reporters that the Nov. 15 attack on the newspaper in Ilorin, capital of Kwara state, was “state terrorism against the press.” Saraki, the son of prominent opposition politician Olusola Saraki, said the weekly was bombed to stop the publication of an article critical of the government.
Audio interview with Nduka Obaigbena.
McGowan Bites Hand of National Press Club
The latest twist in the discussion over William McGowan’s book “Coloring the News: How Crusading for Diversity Has Corrupted American Journalism” is a war of words between McGowan and John Aubuchon, president of the National Press Club, reports Editor & Publisher.
Two days after last Monday’s debate between McGowan and Juan Gonzalez, president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, McGowan told E&P that Aubuchon “hung me out to dry” in first giving him an award and then acknowledging doubts about it. Aubuchon responded by calling McGowan’s attack on the club “insulting and absurd.”
TV News Directors Bemoan Skills of Broadcast J-Grads
Despite years of conversation and compromise with educators, TV news directors say graduates of broadcast journalism programs still lack many of the basic skills they need to succeed, reports Electronic Media.
Educators counter that broadcasters are sometimes unrealistic in their expectations.
A survey of news directors in small- and medium-size markets—those most likely to fill entry-level positions—stressed the importance of writing and critical thinking skills.
Hispanic TV Market Has Yet to Meet Demand
Hispanic television is poised to explode onto the U.S. marketplace, observers say, fueled by the rapid growth of a Spanish-speaking and bilingual population, reports Electronic Media in a special section.
The Census Bureau projects that by 2050, there will be more than 106 million Hispanics in the United States, a full one-quarter of the population. The buying power of Hispanic households will approach $600 billion this year.
Despite the growth in the Hispanic population and its spending, programmers and advertisers have not been quick to jump onto the bandwagon.
Other articles in the package:
Hispanic Shows Making Prime-Time Progress
‘Tucson’: The Anecdote that Became a TV Show
More Columns from the Trotter Group
The William Monroe Trotter Group held its annual retreat this month, with the African American columnists interviewing national security adviser Condoleeeza Rice and Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., among other activities. Read a transcript of the Rice interview.
Additional columns resulting from the meeting and a session the next day with Washington political figures:
Betty Baye, Louisville Courier-Journal: Republicans’ Victory Gave Them a Narrow Edge, but Not a Mandate
Wayne Dawkins, Daily Press, Hampton Roads, Va.: Wellstone Service/Rally ‘A Mistake,’ DNC Chief Says
Lewis W. Diuguid, Kansas City Star: Fear Isn’t Best Form of Defense
Tannette Johnson-Elie, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: A Lesson from Rice in Individuality
Les Payne, Newsday: How Much Does Race Matter to Rice?
David Person, Huntsville (Ala.) Times: Rice on Race: It Matters and Always Has
Gregory Stanford, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: Republicans vs. Democrats: A Study in Contrasts
http://www.calendarlive.com/printedition/calendar/suncal/cl-ca-shaw24nov24.story
Jay Harris Sees Disconnect Between Reporters, Public
Jay Harris, who resigned last year as publisher of the San Jose Mercury News, says he thinks journalists talk too much to each other, and that many stories they write and broadcast, ostensibly to enlighten the public, are also—even if only subconsciously—aimed primarily at their colleagues and their sources, rather than the reading and viewing public.
“Reporters . . . covering Iraq from the United Nations, the State Department, the Pentagon and the White House are basically covering it for the people who are already part of that debate, not for the average reader,” Harris told David Shaw in the Los Angeles Times. “They cover every nuance, every turn of the screw in the process, but there’s nothing to connect to the reader or enable him to feel a real part of a public debate.”
Harris doesn’t claim to have any answers. But he’s determined to look for them as director of the newly created Center for the Study of Journalism and Democracy at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California. At USC, he hopes to “contribute to the public dialogue by working with all parts of the university, drawing together political science and sociology and business and other disciplines” and, ultimately, by writing — magazine essays and, when he’s learned enough, a book.
“La Cucaracha” Cartoon Strip Debuts Today
“La Cucaracha,” Lalo Alcaraz’s nationally syndicated cartoon strip, debuts in nearly 40 newspapers today, including the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Detroit Free Press and Minneapolis Star Tribune. Newspaper readers will get a daily dose of trademark Alcaraz sarcasm in his politically charged strip. As Journal-isms reported on Oct. 16, Alcaraz might be the nation’s premiere Chicano editorial cartoonist, as he is sometimes billed, but he’s getting a more favorable reaction to his comic strip than to his “pro-Latino” editorial cartoons.
N.Y. Times Partnering with Historically Black Colleges
In a special newspaper-university partnership, The New York Times is working with some of the nation’s historically black colleges and universities to develop a first-ever New York Times Student Journalism Institute at Dillard University in New Orleans. The first class will enter the Institute this spring.
The highly competitive program will accept up to 30 promising undergraduate journalists from the colleges.
N.Y. Times Starting Weekly Spanish Edition in Mexico
The New York Times announced that it will launch a Spanish-language supplement of the newspaper on Nov. 23 to appear in the four Mexican daily newspapers owned by Grupo Reforma: El Norte in Monterrey, Reforma in Mexico City, Mural in Guadalajara and Palabra in Saltillo. The supplements will appear in Spanish and are intended to better serve Grupo Reforma’s newspaper audiences.
Story in Spanish Angers Richmond Readers
A Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch story on Page A1 reported that the Wachovia Corp. bank was “offering illegal Mexican immigrants a way to open accounts, establish a credit history and reduce the risk of being robbed.”
The story continued on Page A9, and on that page was an abbreviated version of the same story, but in Spanish.
Initially, some readers were upset that Wachovia would provide a service to illegal immigrants, reports Times-Dispatch ombudsman Jerry Finch. “I’m enraged,” one man said. “Our country says they’re illegal, then the bank promotes this thing [illegal entry] by making sure they can deposit their money!”
As did others, he castigated the newspaper for printing the abbreviated story in Spanish. The newspaper, he said, was setting a precedent. What next, he asked, stories in Italian or Vietnamese?
Fangs Commemorate 2nd Anniversary of “New” Examiner
The San Francisco Examiner, under the ownership of the Fang family, became 2 years old Friday.
“It’s no secret that the Fangs are the beneficiaries of a $66 million subsidy from the Hearst Corporation to operate The Examiner, paid out over three years,” the Examiner wrote. “The first installment came in August 2000. Now do the math: The final handout has already been delivered. Will The Examiner still be publishing next September when it runs out?
“On Wednesday, Examiner vice president James Fang addressed the staff in a newsroom meeting. ‘We think The Examiner is going to make it,’ he said. ‘It’s going to be tight, but we’re going to try.'”