$15 Million from Gift to Help “Broaden and Diversify”
National Public Radio has announced “a major expansion of its news operation, investing $15 million over the next three years to add reporters, editors, producers and managers, and to open new domestic and international bureaus. The expansion plan, which covers 2004 through 2007, will be funded in part by interest from approximately $225 million in bequests NPR received from the late philanthropist Joan B. Kroc. (Mrs. Kroc designated more than $190 million of these bequests for a restricted, permanent endowment),” a news release says.
“NPR News has begun implementing a three-year expansion plan with these primary goals:
- “Staff. NPR News will hire 45 additional reporters, editors and producers over the next three years, a 15 percent increase in overall NPR News staff. Research, travel and similar additional resources will be brought to existing news beats to improve coverage of breaking news and develop deeper investigative reporting.
- “Newsmagazines. NPR will expand staff for its leading newsmagazines Morning Edition and All Things Considered, currently the second and third most listened-to programs in U.S. radio, and its new midday news program Day to Day. These new positions will enhance Morning Edition’s ability to broadcast from both coasts and permit hosts the opportunity to do more reporting and in-depth work.
- “News Management. NPR will add management and editorial structure to oversee long-term coverage. In May, NPR added a second managing editor to its staff, hiring Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bill Marimow, former editor of The Baltimore Sun, to oversee national and investigative news.
- “International Coverage. NPR currently operates 14 foreign bureaus with an additional three international roving correspondents. New bureaus will be added in the next two years, with priority to expand coverage of such under-reported places as Asia, Latin America and Africa.
- “Local News. NPR will partner with its member stations on initiatives to enhance and expand in-depth local news, a critically important need for millions of Americans that is increasingly ignored by many other broadcasters.
- “Kroc Fellowships. NPR will establish a radio and internet news training program that will enable young people to train and work at both NPR and local public radio stations for up to a year. The fellowships will broaden and diversify staff and develop future staff and talent for public radio.”
Sportswriters Pay Tribute to Ralph Wiley
“The Angry Black Sportswriter had mellowed a bit with the seasons, but he still embodied the moniker he earned long ago. Ralph Wiley possessed a unique elixir of passion, reason, wry wit and black consciousness, and he shared it with a voice that stirred you, moved you, and, at times, even angered those touched by his words,” writes Roy S. Johnson, assistant managing editor of Sports Illustrated.
It was one of several tributes to Ralph Wiley, the author and sports columnist who died Sunday night in Orlando, Fla., at age 52.
“Wiley embarrassed a member of the Ku Klux Klan with his quick wit and dismissive attitude. I became an instant fan and began to follow his work in magazines and on television,” wrote Jason Whitlock of the Kansas City Star, in a piece filed from Frankfurt, Germany, that compared Wiley with Mike Royko, the late longtime Chicago columnist.
“The words I found myself noticing, savoring and clinging to on Monday were those of ESPN.com’s Ralph Wiley,” wrote J.A. Adande in the Los Angeles Times. “Wiley was a mentor for me and many others who followed the path he’d helped clear for African American sportswriters. He died of a heart attack Sunday night while watching Game 4.
“I’ll miss his insight, his humor and, most of all, his advice.”
ESPN.com, for whom Wiley wrote a Page 2 column, has compiled a number of tributes on its Web site.
Funeral services are scheduled for Saturday at the National Presbyterian Church, 4101 Nebraska Ave. NW, in Washington, with a wake at 10 a.m. and services at 10:45 a.m.
Wiley’s son, Colen Wiley, told Journal-isms that he had invited filmmaker Spike Lee and Washington Post sports columnist Michael Wilbon to speak, as well as other family members and friends. With Lee, Wiley wrote “By Any Means Necessary: The Trials and Tribulations of the Making of Malcolm X”.
Sportswriter Ralph Wiley Dies; Essays Probed Black Life (Matt Schudel, Washington Post obituary)
Social critic, former Tribune writer Wiley dies (Dave Newhouse, Alameda Times-Star)
Unity Extends Deadline; 5,261 Registered So Far
Unity: Journalists of Color has extended its pre-registration deadline, originally June 15, until July 1 for the Aug. 4-8 convention in Washington.
Registration after July 1 will be $700. The pre-registration fee is $325 for members of the National Association of Black Journalists, National Association of Hispanic Journalists, Asian American Journalists Association and Native American Journalists Association, the Unity partners.
Unity Executive Director Anna Lopez told Journal-isms today that 924 had registered from AAJA; 2,033 from NABJ; 989 from NAHJ and 163 from NAJA. Another 376 were members of none of the associations and 776 are recruiters and sponsors. Some 7,000 are expected, she said.
The 5,261 registered so far meets expectations, Lopez said. “We thought we’d have about 5,000.” The deadline is being extended, she said, because “we wanted to give more people a chance to register at the pre-registration rate.”
State Dept. Asks for Help on Modern-Day Slavery
When the powers-that-be at the State Department last month briefed a delegation from the National Conference of Editorial Writers, there were only two topics that Secretary Colin L. Powell and his aides all but pleaded for the journalists to write about. One was the magnitude of the AIDS crisis in all its dimensions; the other was present-day slavery.
“We’re talking about women and girls, as young as six years old, trafficked into commercial sexual exploitation; men trafficked into forced labor; children trafficked as child soldiers. The victims are not few, and the vast majority are women and children. We estimate between 600- and 800,000 cases each year of people illegally transported across international frontiers,” Powell said Monday in unveiling the “2004 Trafficking in Persons Annual Report.”
“Numbers so large can be numbing. They can freeze our imaginations. So consider just one documented example from many, many thousands of cases. Traffickers in southeast Asia took Khan, an 11-year-old girl living in the hills of Laos, to an embroidery factory in a large city. She and dozens of other children were made to work 14 hours a day for food and clothing, but for no wages. That’s called slavery.
“When Khan protested this, she was beaten. When she protested again, she was stuffed into a closet where the factory owner’s son poured industrial chemicals over her and disfigured her.”
“To the extent that you write about it, you will be helping to free the victims,” Ambassador John Miller, director of the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, told the editorial writers last month.
Jazz Journalists Group Seeking More of Color
Some 400 to 500 people gathered Tuesday night at B.B. King’s Blues Club and Grill in New York as the Jazz Journalists Association honored musicians and jazz journalists in its eighth annual awards ceremony. Dick Gregory, comedian and activist, was guest host.
No African Americans were among the journalist winners — part of a larger problem, Howard Mandel, president and co-founder of the 18-year-old group, told Journal-isms. Mandel said the group has been trying to interest magazines such as Jazz Times and Downbeat in taking on interns of color, but without success. The magazines don’t pay interns, and so the Jazz Journalists Association is trying to develop such funding, he said.
“We’re more understood by the journalism-education world than the journalism world. The role of the arts journalist is just beginning to get attention. We are having a hard time standing up for jazz journalism as being a niche in the journalism world,” said Mandel. “We continue to explore ways to apply for and program mentorships and apprenticeships for minority candidates.”
The Jazz Journalism Lifetime Achievement Award went to author Gene Lees, whose book, “Cats of All Colors,” discusses jazz’s interracial dimensions; Steve Schwartz, music director of WGBH-FM in Boston, won for excellence in jazz broadcasting; Lee Tanner won for excellence in photography; Bill Milkowski, who writes for Jazz Times and other publications, for excellence in newspaper, magazine or online feature or review writing. Jazz Times was the best periodical covering jazz; AllAboutJazz.com, best Web site concentrating on jazz; and “Myself Among Others,” by George Wein with Nate Chinen (Da Capo Press), which discusses Wein’s own interracial marriage, was declared best book about jazz.
Let’s See Who Covers Ray Charles Funeral
“Recording stars Stevie Wonder, Willie Nelson and B.B. King will play musical tributes at the funeral of legend Ray Charles Friday as the world bids farewell to the ‘genius of soul,’ Agence France-Presse reports.
“Charles’s publicist said Monday that the trio would perform at the funeral that will also be attended by singer Glen Campbell, veteran actress Cicely Tyson and political activist the Reverend Jesse Jackson.
“It will be a very moving goodbye,” a spokesman for publicists Solters and Digney told the news service.
“The funeral will be held Los Angeles’ leading African American gospel church a day after Charles’ coffin is placed on display at the Los Angeles Convention Center for thousands of fans to pay their personal respects.
“The casket of the famed blind musician will be displayed for eight hours Thursday, before being taken to the First African Methodist Episcopal Church for his star-studded funeral.
“Producer Quincy Jones, Charles’s longtime friend and collaborator, former US president Bill Clinton and comedian Bill Cosby will also deliver recorded tributes at the funeral ceremony,” the story continued.
Musicians on Ray Charles (africana.com)
A Pillar of Soul: Ray Charles (Mark Anthony Neal, africana.com)
Brother Ray and Ray-Gun (Herb Boyd, The Black World Today)
Hispanic Publishers Honor Maximo, Fernandez
Norma Maximo, publisher of El Aguila del Hudson Valley in New York and Valeria Fernandez, reporter of La Voz in Phoenix, have been honored by the National Association of Hispanic Publishers.
They were publisher and journalist of the year, respectively.
?I?ll take this award in the name of all Latina journalists who make a difference in the community and open paths to Hispanics,? said Fernandez, 26, a native of Uruguay who published her first book when she was only 17 years old. She also reported as a stringer for La Opinion in the trial of Phoenix Bishop Thomas O?Brien,” a news release reported.
“Norma Maximo was recognized for her remarkable work strengthening the image of the Hispanic people in the Hudson Valley. Her newspaper today is used in English as a Second Language, Spanish and Latin American Studies classrooms,” the release said.
“At the Luncheon, Robert Bard, Publisher of LatinaStyle magazine in Washington D.C. announced that the magazine will sponsor next year?s Latina Awards.
“The sponsorship will provide the Publisher of the Year with $5,000 to be spent on a journalism internship for her publication. The Latina Journalist of the Year will receive $2,000 to be used ‘as she pleases,’ he said.”
Chicago’s Feder Decries Loss of 2 Radio Execs
“Not long ago, the two most prominent and influential African-American broadcast executives in Chicago were Marv Dyson and Zemira Jones,” writes Robert Feder in the Chicago Sun-Times.
“National trade publications routinely named them among the best in the business. As recently as last November, Dyson and Jones were the only Chicagoans on Radio Ink magazine’s list of the best major-market managers in the country — at No. 6 and No. 8, respectively.
“Today, they’re both out of radio.
“Dyson and Jones were more than conscientious managers of some of Chicago’s most popular radio stations. They also served as mentors and role models to countless young minority broadcasters who looked to them for guidance and inspiration. That may well have been their most meaningful and enduring contributions to the market.
“There’s no reason to believe that race played any role in the decision of either man to step down. At the same time, there’s no denying that their sensitivity to minorities and their status within the African-American community were greatly undervalued assets.
“There’s something wrong with the radio business in Chicago when men like Marv Dyson and Zemira Jones no longer have a place at the top,” Feder concludes.
Air America Adds 3 Stations in Hawaii
“Visionary Related Entertainment radio stations began broadcasting talk radio content from the ‘Air America’ network this week. Liberal talk radio host Al Franken made his island debut yesterday afternoon on radio stations KUMU AM 1500 in Honolulu, KAOI AM 1110 on Maui and KQNG AM 570 on Kauai. Franken’s “O Franken Factor” will air twice daily on KUMU AM, 6 – 9 am and repeated from 5 to 8 pm,” reports the Hawaii Radio & Television Guide.
“The talk radio format on KUMU AM essentially ends the ‘adult standards’ music format that was previously broadcast there. KUMU AM will be airing similar programs to those already heard at KAOI and KQNG, though not all of Air America’s programming will immediately be heard due to contractual obligations with other syndicators.
“The fledgling Air America Network has yet to establish a beachhead in a couple of major markets and has been struggling financially since its launch earlier this year. The talk network was established as a counterpoint to the dominant conservative talk content carried over many other radio stations.”
Another Black Bookstore in Trouble
Journalists who become authors depend on bookstores to help get out the word, but an increasing number of black independent bookstores seem to be facing hard times. The latest is Sisterspace and Books in Washington.
“Sisterspace could be evicted from its four-story building, which was once owned by a prosperous black printer, as early as tomorrow if it does not prevail at a court hearing today, or if the D.C. Court of Appeals decides not to hear the case,” Adrienne Washington wrote Tuesday in the Washington Times, before a stay until Monday was granted.
“Sisterspace and Books is not just a bookstore. It is a Washington institution. Customers do not simply go to Sisterspace for welcome pages, giving black authors and writers a place to sell their wares. It provides literacy and reading groups for youths and adults, book clubs and health seminars. Sometimes folks just stop by to sit or chat or find out what’s going on in the neighborhood.”
Last month, Norma Adams-Wade wrote in the Dallas Morning News about that city’s Black Images Book Bazaar.
“People lost no time in rallying support after hearing that a community treasure ?- Black Images Book Bazaar -?is threatening to close because of financial woes,” she wrote.
“Patrons and authors from around the country began planning ways to keep open the doors of Texas’ oldest black-owned bookstore and one of the nation’s largest soon after learning of its plight early last month.
“Co-owners Emma Rodgers and Ashira Tosihwe have said they will close the 27-year-old independent business when the lease ends in August 2005. A tight economy and sales lost to larger competitors have taken a toll on what supporters say is ‘a bookstore that means so much to so many.'”
And last year, novelist and former Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Karen E. Quinones Miller led a campaign to try to save Basic Black Books in downtown Philadelphia.
“‘Lecia [Warner] and Basic Black Books are known nationwide for helping authors, especially African American authors,’ said Miller, whose self-published debut, ‘Satin Doll,’ was picked up by Simon & Schuster in a three-book, six-figure deal and became a national best seller,” the Associated Press wrote at the time.
Miller was unsuccessful. “There is a new book store in [its] spot at the Gallery Mall in Philly, called Horizons,” she told Journal-isms. “Unfortunately, it carries all the ‘gangsta’ title books” but nothing by Richard Wright or Alice Walker, she says.
A bright spot: Former president Bill Clinton has chosen Harlem’s two-year-old Hue-Man bookstore for his first independent bookstore appearance in support of his 957-page autobiography, “My Life,” on June 22, according to William Vaughan’s “Tasty Clips” column.
“Another author, Erika Kennedy, whose ‘Bling’ is a novel about glamorous African-Americans in the hip-hop business, had been scheduled to appear at Hue-Man that night — but she was very understanding about making way for Clinton, said Clara Villarosa, one of the four partners in the woman-owned bookstore,” Vaughan writes.
O.J.: A Media Milestone She’d Rather Mourn
If you hadn’t noticed, last Saturday was the 10th anniversary of the still-officially unsolved murders of O.J. Simpson’s former wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman.
The networks fell all over themselves to interview Simpson and otherwise commemorate the occasion.
Renee Graham, writing in the Boston Globe last week, found the attention unseemly.
“One would think the networks wouldn’t be so eager to recall the murders, since saturation coverage of the case marked the beginning of the broadcast media’s interminable slide. Whatever our reactions to the killings, or the troubling subplots of race, police culpability, and domestic violence, it was the perfect storm of celebrity and violence – our true national pastimes – that fueled countless headlines and hours of broadcast time,” she wrote.
“It was the moment when the media tossed aside news judgment and made a blatant appeal to the lowest common denominator for ratings,” Graham said.
In fact, Glenn Garvin wrote Monday in the Miami Herald:
“Ten years after the O.J. Simpson case rewrote the rules on television news, a tidal wave of celebrity court cases is sweeping through TV newscasts and threatening everything in its path — possibly even election coverage.
“With Martha Stewart’s insider-trading trial about to end in sentencing, the Scott Peterson murder trial just under way, and at least four other celebrity cases that may go to court this year, some TV journalists are shuddering at the impact the trials may have on budgets and overall news coverage.”
