3 Blacks at Top in Akron

Changes Affect Ohio, St. Paul, USA Today

Mizell Stewart III, who lost his job as editor of the Tallahassee Democrat when Knight Ridder sold the paper to Gannett last year, today was named managing editor of Knight Ridder’s Akron Beacon Journal, giving the Ohio paper black journalists as editor, managing editor and publisher.

The vacancy was created by the appointment of Beacon Journal Managing Editor Mike Burbach as editorial page editor of Knight Ridder’s St. Paul Pioneer Press, replacing Art Coulson, who left Friday, attributing his departure to “stylistic” differences with Par Ridder, the Minnesota paper’s publisher. Ridder is the son of P. Anthony Ridder, chairman and chief executive of Knight Ridder. Coulson was believed to be one of only three Native American editorial page editors at a mainstream paper.

In another change in St. Paul, Cathy Straight, a black journalist who is one of two managing editors at the Pioneer Press, is joining USA Today as a national editor. She told Journal-isms she starts Feb. 27. At USA Today, she will be Nation desk editor, a senior assignment editor with four assignment editors reporting to her. She replaces Jeff Stinson, who is going to London for the paper, said Carol Stevens, managing editor for news.

Straight became interim editorial page editor in St. Paul when Coulson left Friday. With her departure, Par Ridder will have placed new people in the editor, editorial page editor and both managing editor jobs since he arrived as Pioneer Press publisher at age 35 in April 2004. On Friday, the Pioneer Press announced that Chris Worthington was leaving as managing editor for news and business and “had not determined his next career move.”

Stewart, 40, who was in Akron today, said he was glad to be back at “a newspaper that I called home.” He started at the Beacon Journal in 1994 as assistant city editor, became public affairs editor supervising government and politics, then became metro editor and assistant managing editor for local news before leaving in 2000 to become managing editor of the Tallahassee Democrat, where he became editor and vice president in May 2003.

After the Florida paper was sold last year, Stewart remained with Knight Ridder, helping the Biloxi Sun-Herald in Mississippi publish after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. He also trained newsroom managers for the company and was journalist-in-residence for a week at Ohio University.

“I was not happy about leaving Tallahassee,” he told Journal-isms today. “I got the news the day I returned from my mother’s funeral. The loss of the newspaper was much worse for me personally.” His mother had been ill and he had been prepared for her passing, but losing the editorship “forced me to confront the possibility of leaving newspapers entirely.” After reflection, Stewart, who said he had been writing newspaper-like stories in elementary school, said he vowed that when he retired, it would be as a newspaperman.

The Beacon Journal, where Jim Crutchfield is publisher and Debra Adams Simmons, a graduate of the Maynard Institute’s management program, is editor, has always been viewed as an overachiever, Stewart said. “People were ready to count us out,” he said. Today, “they’re ready to count newspapers out, and I’m determined not to let that happen on my watch.”

Stewart, who starts in February, said Adams Simmons asked him whether he was interested in the job once it was certain that Burbach was leaving.

Adams Simmons took hope from the fact that she was able to fill the job, given the uncertainty about Knight Ridder’s future.

“This enables us to provide continuity of leadership,” she told Journal-isms.

[Added Jan. 19: There are actually four top African Americans, reporter Paula Schleis tells Journal-isms. “Last week, the newsroom’s union members elected Andale Gross as the Akron Unit chair of Local 1 of The Newspaper Guild. We believe he’s the first African-American to hold the top newsroom union spot here,” she said.

[The Beacon Journal situation is reminiscent of 1997 in Wilmington, Del. Journal-isms, then in the NABJ Journal, reported then: “The Gannett Co.’s News Journal in Wilmington, Del., has created an unheard-of oasis of black leadership. Curtis Riddle is president and publisher; Bennie Ivory is executive editor, Norman Lockman is associate editor/editorial page, Sam Martin is advertising director, and Everett J. Mitchell is the new managing editor. ‘I’ve been in situations like this before,’ Lockman said. ‘You know it won’t last, but it’s a precious feeling.'”]

• McClatchy meets with Knight Ridder about possible sale (Pete Carey, San Jose Mercury News)

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Amy Tan Joins L.A. Times for Its 3 Million Readers

Amy Tan, perhaps the most successful Asian American novelist, said today she was joining the Los Angeles Times new Sunday magazine because, among other reasons, the paper will be “a major venue for me” and because her editor “promised me it would be fun.”

She also told Journal-isms she was pleased to be publishing for “a readership of 3 million” and would work with guest editors. The Sunday paper boasts a circulation of 1,253,849, and a “readership” of 3.38 million.

The newspaper announced last week it would launch West, which would replace the weekly Los Angeles Times Magazine, on Feb. 5, and that Tan, author of “The Joy Luck Club” and other work, would be its literary editor.

“She will be responsible for helping to solicit and select pieces for ‘California Story,’ an original work of short fiction set in the Golden State,” a news release said.

Rick Wartzman, who had been business editor at the paper and has piloted the revamped magazine, told Journal-isms he thought of Tan for the job and “blindly sent her an e-mail, and it worked out great. I think Amy was excited both about the ability to reach out to established writers and . . . the discovery of finding new writers.”

As background, the news release said, “Tan, a native Californian, is the author of the best-selling ‘Saving Fish from Drowning’ and ‘The Joy Luck Club.’ She also is the author of ‘The Hundred Secret Senses,’ ‘The Kitchen God’s Wife,’ ‘The Bonesetter’s Daughter,’ ‘The Opposite of Fate’ and two children’s books, one of which, ‘Sagwa, The Chinese Siamese Cat,’ was developed into a popular PBS children’s television series.”

Wartzman said the standard compensation for fiction pieces would be $500, but that there would not necessarily be new fiction every week. “We want to keep the quality high,” he said. “We’re hoping to build to one a week.”

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Singer Angela Bofill Suffers Stroke, Lacks Insurance

Less than three months after she entertained 291 attendees at the Oct. 15 awards gala of the National Association of Black Journalists in Washington, singer Angela Bofill suffered a stroke and is paralyzed on her left side, her manager, Earline Franklin, told Journal-isms today.

Franklin confirmed most of a story by EUR.com that quoted Bofill’s former manager, Rich Engel, who said the R&B and jazz diva, who is 51, lacked health insurance.

Engel said in that story that he was preparing a March 11 benefit concert at the Bergen Performing Arts Center in Englewood, N.J., to pay Bofill’s hospital bills. Similar events are being planned for Detroit and Los Angeles, Engel said.

Franklin, who is president and CEO of Entertainments Finest and Associates in Detroit, said Bofill lives in San Francisco and on Jan. 10 was moving to New York. “As she was outside to move her things to storage, she had a massive stroke. She needs extensive speech and mobility therapy,” Franklin said.

Bofill, trained as a classical singer, rose to R&B popularity in the 1970s, and was reported only last year to be Denzel Washington’s favorite singer. “If I did not acquire the technique I learned as a classical singer, I would have been gone as a singer years ago,” she has been quoted as saying.

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Despite Exiles, NAHJ Invites Cuban Leader

“The National Association of Hispanic Journalists has invited Ricardo Alarcón, president of Cuba’s national assembly, to participate in a question-and-answer session with reporters during this summer’s convention in Fort Lauderdale,” Oscar Corral reported today in the Miami Herald.

“NAHJ Executive Director Ivan Román told The Miami Herald on Tuesday night that the invitation to Alarcón went out in the last few days after a planning committee selected several high-profile Hispanic leaders to invite.

“‘There will be people who will be upset about this in Miami, and we know that, but we are journalists availing ourselves of an opportunity to interview people in power and who are newsmakers, that is what we do,’ Román said. ‘Nothing has been confirmed. We don’t know if it’s even going to happen.’

“The invitation to Alarcón is sure to anger some members of Miami’s anti-Castro Cuban exile community. Román said the convention’s main sponsors so far are the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, which has a Havana bureau, and its parent company, The Tribune Co.”

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L.A. Daily News Joins NAHJ Parity Project

The Daily News of Los Angeles is the latest news organization to join the National Association of Hispanic Journalists’ Parity Project, NAHJ announced today.

“The Los Angeles Daily News is the first newspaper from the Los Angeles Newspaper Group (LANG) to join the Parity Project. LANG is made up of eight daily newspapers serving several areas of Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties,” the association said in a release.

“Through the Parity Project, NAHJ identifies cities where Latinos are underrepresented in area newsrooms, but comprise a significant portion of the population. In these cities, NAHJ works with local print and broadcast newsrooms, area journalism schools, foundations and Latinos to increase the newsroom presence and influence of Hispanics.”

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“Today” Committed to “Improvements” on Diversity

NBC-TV’s “Today” show has a “commitment to making improvements” in diversity, a spokeswoman for the show told Journal-isms after a televised look “behind the scenes” Tuesday showed hardly any people of color.

A reader wrote Journal-isms: “I watched the Today show this morning as they went behind the scenes to talk about how the show is put together.

Host Matt Lauer “was in the control in a sea of white faces. The budget meeting – men and lots of women – all white. I saw one brown face in the control room and I think I saw one brown-faced producer.

“I must say I was shocked – no Asians, nobody who looked Latino, virtually no black folks.”

NBC spokeswoman Lauren Kapp, asked how diverse the show’s staff is, replied: “”While this morning’s ‘behind-the-scenes’ segment on ‘Today’ did not fairly represent the diversity on staff at the program, the commitment to making improvements in this area – both at ‘Today’ and throughout NBC News – remains a top priority.”

Host Bryant Gumbel was for many years the show’s public face; on-air talents Al Roker and Ann Curry are part of the current on-air ensemble.

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L.A. Times Series Hits United Farm Workers Union

Thirty-five years after farm worker leader Cesar Chavez “riveted the nation, the strikes and fasts are just history, the organizers who packed jails and prayed over produce in supermarket aisles are gone, their righteous pleas reduced to plaintive laments,” concluded a four-part series by Miriam Pawel in the Los Angeles Times last week on the United Farm Workers union.

“What remains is the name, the eagle and the trademark chant of ‘S se puede’ (‘Yes, it can be done’) – a slogan that rings hollow as UFW leaders make excuses for their failure to organize California farmworkers.

“Today, a Times investigation has found, Chavez’s heirs run a web of tax-exempt organizations that exploit his legacy and invoke the harsh lives of farmworkers to raise millions of dollars in public and private money.

“The money does little to improve the lives of California farmworkers, who still struggle with the most basic health and housing needs and try to get by on seasonal, minimum-wage jobs.

“Most of the funds go to burnish the Chavez image and expand the family business, a multimillion-dollar enterprise with an annual payroll of $12 million that includes a dozen Chavez relatives.”

• UFW saw Times series coming (LA Observed)
• Ruben Navarrette, San Diego Union-Tribune: An ugly evolution for the UFW

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For BET, Not “Meet the Press,” but “Meet the Faith”

Black Entertainment Television, which drew criticism for gutting its news and public affairs programming, has come up with “a new course for Sunday talk shows” – instead of “Meet the Press,” it plans “Meet the Faith.”

“Meet the Faith charts a new course for Sunday talk shows showcasing what happens when religious leaders from mosques, synagogues, chapels and mega-churches gather in a non-religious forum to challenge the day’s hottest topics,” reads a news release issued last week as networks unveiled new programming. “Award-winning journalist Carlos Watson of CNN fame moderates, mediates and referees this spirited discussion of multicultural hot-button issues. Without a doubt, this blending of cultures and belief systems will both clash and concur as panelists sort out the news and headlines of the week on Sunday mornings.”

Long ago, a religious leader told Journal-isms that it would be useful if journalists reported on the religious and/or moral background of crime suspects along with other biographical information. No word on whether “Meet the Faith” will bring those kinds of observations to the table. The new programming comes under the aegis of Reginald Hudlin, new BET president of entertainment.

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Further Thoughts on Martin Luther King Holiday

• Editorial, Duluth (Minn.) News-Tribune: Rather than asking “what would King do,” honor him by ending spying on Americans
• Claude Lewis, Philadelphia Inquirer: Doing more makes black more beautiful
• Douglas C. Lyons, South Florida Sun-Sentinel: Understand principles that made the man
• Joseph C. Phillips, BlackAmericaWeb.com: The King Memorial Needs Support – From Cosby, Winfrey and All of Us
• Jodi Rave, The Missoulian (Montana): Decades later, King’s speech still applies to Indian Country

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Short Takes

• Edwin Chen of the Los Angeles Times is leaving the White House beat, swapping jobs with Jim Gerstenzang, the Washington Web editor/writer, Chen enthusiastically told Journal-isms today.
• Anchor Cheryle Keck of KTRK-TV in Houston died Tuesday “in a local hospital after a brief illness,” the station reported today on its Web site. “Cheryle came to Houston after working at stations in North Carolina, Michigan, Ohio and New Orleans. In addition to anchoring, she also reported. A special on South Africa earned her the award of African American Achiever in Houston in 1999,” the notice said. The station did not have available her age, cause of death or nature of the illness, David Rodriguez said from the assignment desk tonight.
• Kenneth J. Cooper, former national editor at the Boston Globe, has been named (PDF) a spring fellow at the Institute of Politics at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.
• A year ago, it was reported that it was illegal to broadcast or sell new copies of “Eyes on the Prize,” the landmark documentary on the civil rights movement, because the clearance rights had expired. But Saturday, PBS, “The American Experience” and Blackside announced that “Eyes on the Prize will air on American Experience in fall 2006 as part of the series’ 19th season. Three, two-hour programs will be presented this fall, with an additional eight hours made available at a later date.”
• A year after his release, there have been no offers for prison journalist Wilbert Rideau to work in the field, “something Rideau said does not surprise him,” Mark Saltz wrote Sunday for the Associated Press. “I recognize that up there in prison, while I was editor, the thing I had going for me and the magazine is that we were a novelty,” Rideau said. “I was a dog playing a piano. So you guys were always interested and everybody was interested and wanted to help. I’m no longer in that situation, but I learned a lot of skills up there that are transferable.”
• CNN will make a $100,000 donation to the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Scholarship Fund endowment to support the Leroy F. Aarons Scholarship Award, NLGJA announced Jan. 12. The award is named in memory of NLGJA’s founder, who was also a founder of the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education.
• Former Rep. J.C. Watts Jr., R-Okla., “will join CNN as a regular contributor to offer analysis on politics and policy for programs throughout the network,” CNN announced today.
• Dave Mays, co-founder of The Source magazine, has dismissed the former editor-in-chief, Dasun Allah, and will now assume the head position, allhiphop.com reported Tuesday. On Friday, Houston Williams reported on the same Web site that “Joshua ‘Fahiym’ Ratcliffe has been hired as the editor-in-chief of Smooth men’s magazine after suddenly departing The Source in August of 2005.”
• Some 150 high school juniors and seniors from diverse backgrounds are to “shadow” magazine professionals at their workplaces Feb. 2. “Students will shadow professionals of every level – from CEOs, editors, and publishers to circulation directors, designers, paralegals, technology associates, production managers and ad sales representatives,” according to Shaunice Hawkins, director of diversity development of the Magazine Publishers of America.
• “Clear Channel Radio on Tuesday launched the La Preciosa Network, featuring legendary radio and television personality Victor Manuel Lujan,” L.A. Lorek reported today in the San Antonio Express-News. “Clear Channel’s new network includes more than a dozen stations in most major markets, including Dallas, Las Vegas, San Francisco and San Diego.”
• Phuong Ly of the Washington Post and Bianca Vazquez Toness, a freelance radio journalist in St. Paul, Minn., are among eight U.S. journalists awarded International Reporting Project Fellowships for the spring. The program combines eight weeks of study in Washington and five weeks of individual overseas reporting.
• Boyzell Hosey, deputy director of photography at the St. Petersburg Times, was named to the top photography job Friday, Managing Editor Stephen Buckley announced to the staff.
• A variety of journalists at ethnic media outlets are winners of the NCM Awards honoring excellence in ethnic media. They are to be presented Jan. 26 in San Jose, Calif.
• “Scripps Howard News Service announced Jan. 13 that it’s severing its business relationship with columnist Michael Fumento, who’s also a senior fellow at the conservative Hudson Institute. The move comes after inquiries from BusinessWeek Online about payments Fumento received from agribusiness giant Monsanto . . . a frequent subject of praise in Fumento’s opinion columns and a book,” Business Week reported Friday.