NAHJ Activist to Edit Tribune Co. Latino Papers
Javier J. Aldape, publisher of Diario La Estrella, the Spanish-language offshoot of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and an activist with the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and Unity: Journalists of Color, has been named editor of the Tribune Co.’s three Spanish-language Hoy newspapers.
Aldape, 33, also receives the title of vice president/product and audience development, and will be responsible for product and audience development for Hoy nationally, as well as news and editorial direction, Digby Solomon, publisher of Hoy, announced Monday.
It’s “just a great opportunity to work with a paper that has tremendous potential, in three growing markets, and with a publisher and a company that’s committed to seeing it succeed,” Aldape told Journal-isms.
It’s “very tough to leave, but I couldn’t really say no.” He will be based in Chicago.
Hoy (“Today”), a daily started in 2003, publishes in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York and was described by the Chicago Tribune as the fastest growing Spanish-language paper in the country.
However, the New York edition of Hoy, along with Tribune-owned Newsday, was found to have inflated circulation figures, leading Tribune Co. to pay a $90 million settlement last year to advertisers who paid inflated prices for ad spots. A new management team is in place, Aldape said.
Diario La Estrella, a free paper, has a net audited Monday-Thursday circulation of 25,000, Aldape said. By contrast, the daily Hoy figures are about 50,000 in New York, where the paper costs 25 cents; free circulation of 45,000 Monday-Thursday in Chicago, and 75,000 free circulation Monday-Thursday in Los Angeles, he said. The weekend circulation figures vary sharply.
Asked about contentions that Latinos are skeptical of Anglo-owned papers, Aldape replied, “it’s about direction. Latinos are the ones making the decisions” at both Hoy and Diario La Estrella.
The Texas native has been publisher of Diario La Estrella since 1999, and he led the conversion of the publication from a semi-weekly to a daily publication in 2003. “During those years he also served on the Star-Telegram’s editorial board, and for the last two years was a vice president at the newspaper,” as the Hoy announcement said.
Aldape is treasurer of Unity: Journalists of Color and a former board member of NAHJ. His bio adds:
“Previously, he was managing editor at El Telégrafo in Guayaquil, Ecuador. He is co-publisher of a new stylebook for Spanish-language journalists working in the United States and Puerto Rico, published by the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. Aldape also spearheaded the publication in 2001 of the NAHJ handbook Latinos in the U.S.: A Resource Guide for Journalists.”
Russ Mitchell Reported on “CBS Evening News” List
With Dan Rather‘s departure as “CBS Evening News” anchor a month away, and a new format still under development, CBS announced today that veteran Bob Schieffer “will serve as the interim anchor of the CBS Evening News for a short transition period until the new format of the broadcast is launched.”
But the name of black journalist Russ Mitchell surfaced in USA Today as one of those being considered for an “ensemble cast,” if that format is chosen. A CBS spokeswoman would not comment on the story by Peter Johnson, which named Mitchell, John Roberts, Mika Brzezinski, Jim Axelrod, Lara Logan and Thalia Assuras.
“I would absolutely love to be a part of that generational shift,” Mitchell, 44, told Journal-isms today. A job like that “comes along once in a career.” But, he said, “no one has contacted me.”
In 2003, Mitchell found himself anchoring CBS coverage of the crash of the space shuttle Columbia when the disaster took place as he was co-anchoring “The Saturday Early Show.” He said then that his major influences in covering breaking news were Bryant Gumbel — and Rather.
Schieffer starts on March 10.
Columnists Debate Turns to Foxes and Henhouses
The debate over columnists accepting money from the government is turning to whether nonjournalists are poisoning the journalistic well:
- In a Columbia Journalism Review piece headlined, “It Helps to Remember that the Wolves Arrive in Sheepskins,” Brian Montopoli writes:
“Partisans, of course, want to dominate the political discourse, and part of their wide-ranging strategy is to fool the public with ostensibly independent front men and women who are financially or ideologically motivated to play along. But the problem goes far beyond [Armstrong] Williams, [Maggie] Gallagher and [Michael] McManus. Much less recognized — but more widespread — has been the infiltration of the nation’s op-ed pages by agents too clever to attract the ‘payola’ tag.” Montopoli then cites examples.
- In USA Today, columnist DeWayne Wickham wrote Tuesday that, “journalism is enriched when news organizations hire people from a wide range of educational, racial and ideological backgrounds. But when someone who assumes the role of a journalist also works to promote the interests of others outside the media, he or she blurs the line that separates journalists from carnival barkers.
“. . . The differing standards that media organizations seem to have for hiring columnists and commentators and for disciplining those who commit ethical violations are serious problems.”
- Clarifying his syndicate’s stance on ethical guidelines for columnists, reported here on Monday, John Twohey, Tribune Media Service’s vice president, editorial and operations, wrote to an editorial page editor that the guidelines weren’t aimed primarily at journalists. “It’s other columnists—most of whom have never worked in a newsroom—who seem ignorant of the ethical standards instilled in every cub reporter,” he said.
There were these other developments:
- “Some Democrats are using Bush’s pay-for-say media scandals to push for a new Fairness Doctrine for broadcasting,” according to a story by Eric Boehlert Tuesday on salon.com.
- “The Bush administration has provided White House media credentials to a man who has virtually no journalistic background, asks softball questions to the president and his spokesman in the midst of contentious news conferences, and routinely reprints long passages verbatim from official press releases as original news articles on his website,” Charlie Savage and Alan Wirzbicki reported in the Boston Globe.
- “Columnist McManus Says Federal Funds Didn’t Go to Him Personally,” read the headline over a story by Dave Astor in Editor & Publisher.
- “In a new study, journalism turns out to be one of the most morally developed professions in the country, ranking behind only seminarians, physicians and medical students,” USA Today reported.
New D.C. Examiner Gets Favorable Reviews
The Washington Examiner, the new free tabloid from Denver billionaire Philip Anschutz‘s Clarity Media Group, debuted Tuesday to generally favorable reviews from D.C.-area readers. Its relatively small staff includes two African American reporters and two copy editors of color, but no journalists of color are on the editorial page.
Managing Editor Nicholas Horrock did not respond to a request for information on the staffing.
The two black reporters are Rahkia Nance and Andrei Blakely. Nance, 22, said she joined the predecessor suburban Journal newspapers in the fall, her first job since graduating in May from Florida A&M University. Blakely, 33, said he had been with the Journal papers since 2001, and added that the paper was still hiring.
As Anne C. Mulkern reported today in the Denver Post, “The Examiner, which is targeting the Post’s suburban, upscale readers, emerged as a 64-page tabloid. The Washington version led with a large ‘Stop the Violence’ headline for a story about gang violence and highlighted a story on the return of major-league baseball to the nation’s capital. The Maryland edition featured a lead headline on a county’s plan to import drugs from Canada.
“About nine pages contained staff-written stories; the rest came from wire services or contributors.”
A morning paper, it goes head to head with the Washington Post. Leonard Downie Jr., Post executive editor, noted the small staff — “54 people, but the reporting staff is much smaller, with only 10 bylines appearing in all three zones of the debut paper,” Mulkern wrote.
The debut paper did carry an op-ed piece from Texas by freelance writer Marisa Trevino. “My columns are syndicated through Hispanic Link News Service. They just changed syndicate distributors (they were with Tribune Media Services) and so Scripps Howard has been distributing our columns now and doing a much better job,” Trevino told Journal-isms.
“It’s ironic that my columns are now getting greater exposure and being published across the country and my own local paper has passed on me for the last couple of times,” she said, referring to the Dallas Morning News.
Weatherman’s “Slip” Available for Listening
As his agent had predicted, fired Las Vegas weatherman Rob Blair’s on-air “slip”—in which he said “Martin Luther Coon/King”—has landed on the Internet.
The Web site www.foundrymusic.com includes a free downloadable MP3 file of the audio from the original weathercast, on a Web page that contains other off-color material.
Meanwhile, disciplinary action has been taken against others at the station who allowed the taped broadcast on the air, according to Jim Thomas, vice president for marketing and programming of the Journal Broadcast Group, station KTNV’s parent company. However, Thomas would not specify what the actions were and who was disciplined.
On his happy-talk early-morning newscast Jan. 15, Blair made a reference to “Martin Luther Coon-KING Jr. Day,” quickly correcting himself. In one of the resulting apologies, he said he was doing so because, “apparently I accidentally said Martin Luther Kong Jr.”
Blair’s agent, Sue McInerney of the Napoli Management Group, subsequently told Journal-isms she believed that Blair was speaking fast and put “King” together with “Junior” so it came out as the beginning of a composite word, “Kunior.” This listener, who heard to the audio of the broadcast, couldn’t tell whether Blair was being racist or inept. Shock jock Howard Stern played the tape on his show, and “said that it sounded more like the guy had made a mistake and was not trying to make a smart aleck racist joke,” Stern’s Web site reported.
Board members of the National Association of Black Journalists listened to a tape as well, and decided to stick with their statement of outrage.
Thomas, who is based in Milwaukee, told Journal-isms that after investigating the Las Vegas incident, he concluded that “the production protocols were not fully executed. Doing a lot of newscasts—it means we have to follow deadlines, and pushing deadlines means mistakes were made.” However, in response to a question, he said he was not contending that there was insufficient time to redo the offending tape.
Monty Webb has been hired as an interim replacement for Blair while the station seeks a permanent one, news director Craig Hume told Journal-isms.
2 at “Hot 97” Station Fired; Others Spared
“Hoping to quell the storm over its ‘Tsunami Song,’ WQHT yesterday fired morning-show producer Rick Del Gado, who created the song, and morning-team member Todd Lynn, who cracked on the air, ‘I’m gonna start shooting some Asians,'” David Hinckley reported today in the New York Daily News.
“But Hot-97 did not meet the demands of some critics and fire the rest of the Miss Jones morning show, which aired the parody for four days last month.
“Miss Jones, DJ Envy and production assistant Tasha Hightower will all be suspended for two weeks, said the station. They have been off since last Wednesday.
“Reaction from critics was swift yesterday and not all favorable.
“‘Their statement is a joke,’ said City Councilman John Liu (D-Queens).
“‘They need to fire Miss Jones, but even more important, they need to accept corporate responsibility.'”
Garcia Named D.C. Bureau Chief of ABC Radio
Robert Garcia, a former general manager at CNN Radio and onetime chairman of the Radio-Television News Directors Association, has been named Washington bureau chief of ABC News Radio, ABC announced Tuesday.
“In his position as Bureau Chief, Garcia will be responsible for all coverage originating in the nation’s Capital, along with breaking news coverage in states surrounding DC.
“Garcia will oversee radio reporters and producers at all federal agencies, including the White House, the Capitol, and the Pentagon. In addition, Garcia will oversee the Washington Audio News Distribution service which provides audio to media and business,” the announcement said.
Garcia was RTNDA chairman in 2000 and chaired its diversity task force.
Last May, we reported that Garcia had returned to Washington from Atlanta to take the newly created position of managing director for a PR and consulting firm headed by former Clinton administration radio director Richard Strauss.
Traffic Reporter Has Minor Stroke on Air
“Secily Wilson‘s pre-dawn traffic report for WKMG-Channel 6 had just gone live Tuesday when things went wrong. ‘I couldn’t get my words out,’ she recalled. ‘My words were slurred.'” Scott Maxwell reported Sunday in Florida’s Orlando Sentinel.
“Station officials, seeing her struggle, immediately cut away.
“‘I just broke down crying,’ she said.
“What the 39-year-old learned at the hospital a few hours later was that she had suffered a minor stroke—two of them.
“Since then, the married mother of two said she has received treatment and worked with a speech pathologist, sounding perfectly natural in an interview late last week. She has also received a flood of support from station officials and friends. ‘The outpouring of prayers and love has really been felt,’ she said. ‘And I’ll be back, telling you how to move along I-4, soon.'”
Univision-Time Warner Deal Increases Outlets
“Univision and Time Warner have reached a multi-year agreement to offer all of Univision’s television networks—Univision, TeleFutura, and Galavision—to Time Warner’s 11 million cable subscribers nationwide,” John Consoli reported Monday in Mediaweek. “Up until now, Time Warner carried the Univision properties only in selected areas.
“Under the new agreement, Time Warner Cable will begin offering broadcast network TeleFutura in Corpus Christi, Harlingen and Laredo, Texas; Raleigh, N.C.; San Diego and Palm Springs, Calif.; and Philadelphia. Cable network Galavision will be rolled out in Waco, Texas; Rochester, New York; Raleigh and Greensboro, N.C.; Milwaukee; and in Northeast and Western Ohio; and in Nebraska. The Univision broadcast network will continue to be carried throughout the Time Warner Cable system.”
David Du Bois, Stepson of W.E.B., Dies at 79
David Graham Du Bois, 79, stepson of W.E.B. Du Bois and a retired visiting professor of African-American studies and journalism at the University of Massachusetts, died Jan. 28 after a brief illness, Ellen G. Lahr reported today in the Berkshire Eagle of Massachusetts.
W.E.B. Du Bois, an icon among black journalists and intellectuals, was longtime editor of the NAACP’s The Crisis magazine, a sociologist and an early NAACP leader.
David Du Bois attempted to carry on his legacy as founding president of the W.E.B. Du Bois Foundation Inc. and as a journalist and professor.
“In 1951, his mother, Shirley Graham, married black theorist and historian W.E.B. Du Bois and soon after he legally became David Graham Du Bois,
” the story continued.
Living in Cairo in the 1960s, “. . . he was news editor of the English language daily, The Egyptian Gazette, and was a radio and print journalist. He also was public relations consultant to the government of Ghana.
“In 1972, Du Bois returned to teach at the University of California at Berkeley; from 1973 to 1975, he was editor-in-chief of The Black Panther, the weekly newspaper of the Black Panther Party published in Oakland, Calif.
“. . . in 1983, he was appointed a visiting professor of African-American studies and journalism at UMass at Amherst, where he taught each spring semester until his retirement in 2001.”
[Added Feb. 7: W.E.B. Du Bois’ last surviving relative is his granddaughter, Dr. Du Bois Williams of Xavier University in New Orleans, Du Bois biographer David Levering Lewis told Journal-isms.]
USC Schedules Leroy Aarons Remembrance
The Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California has scheduled “a special gathering to celebrate the life of Leroy Aarons” for 6 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 10, in the school’s auditorium.
Aarons, a Maynard Institute founding board member, onetime editor of the Oakland Tribune and founder of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association, died Nov. 28 at age 70 after a struggle with cancer.
Aarons also “taught journalism at USC and directed the USC Annenberg School for Communication’s Sexual Orientation Issues in the News program,” as the Los Angeles Times noted. “In that capacity, he led research projects on media coverage of lesbian and gay issues. Aarons also developed a journalism course on covering diversity, and successfully led efforts to include issues of sexual orientation in standards for journalism school accreditation.”
Remembrances were held in Santa Rosa, Calif. on Dec. 4 and in New York on Jan. 22.
For more information, contact the USC Annenberg Office of Special Events at (213) 740-6408.
