NABJ Records $641,500 Deficit

Falloff of Money from “Struggling” Media Cited

The National Association of Black Journalists recorded a $641,500 deficit for 2006, three times as large as that of the previous year and apparently the first time the organization has had to dip into its reserves two years in a row.

“What caused the deficit? Very simply, not enough funds were raised — through the convention and other means — to cover normal operating expenses,” John Yearwood, world editor at the Miami Herald and treasurer of the organization, told the board of directors in January, according to minutes of the meeting.

News of the deficit is mostly unknown to members. The minutes are in a members-only section of the NABJ’s Web site; the organization’s glossy publication, the NABJ Journal, is now edited by a board member and no longer assigns members to cover board meetings, and the subject has not been raised on the NABJ members’ e-mail list.

President Bryan Monroe’s column posted Feb. 28, headlined, “Moving and shaking, NABJ starts ’07 right,” mentioned the deficit in its 28th paragraph:

“We are still awaiting a complete picture from our 2006 audit, but, as we mentioned earlier, early projections show that we saw a deficit of several hundred thousand dollars for the 2006 fiscal year,” Monroe wrote. “This is primarily due to a dramatic falloff in contributions and corporate sponsorships, particularly from struggling media companies, and the fallout from the difficult management changes at the national office in 2006. We’ve already cut spending dramatically — trimming or avoiding more than $800,000 in expenses — and instituted our own round of staff cuts last fall.

“While we were able to draw from our reserves to cover the operating shortfall — tapping that ‘rainy day’ fund — we still have more than $200,000 in reserves and our separate scholarship fund is nearly at $1 million, a historic high. . . . “

Yearwood, in his message to the board, said, “the annual convention, hobbled by an industry slowdown and a second-tier city location,” Indianapolis, “was not the income juggernaut that it needs to be for NABJ to have a successful year. The convention made $202,350. It’s a respectable amount of money, but not near where it should be if NABJ is to depend almost solely on the convention for sustenance. In order to see an operating bottom line in the black, the convention surplus needs to be around $400,000.

“But even more significant than the convention return was the lack of a major fundraising campaign in 2006 . . . Also, NABJ must diversify its income stream.”

NABJ, the nation’s largest organization of journalists of color, with more than 3,000 members, had a $200,000 deficit for 2005. At the Indianapolis convention, Yearwood declared that “the hemorrhaging has stopped” and the organization should end the year in the black.

But then Monroe said in October that NABJ had a deficit of $120,233, and “we’ll probably still have a deficit” when 2006 ended.

According to the minutes of the January meeting, “The Secretary stated that the convention city location should not be blamed for the reduced convention revenue because NABJ has had successful conventions in other second-tier markets such as Milwaukee and Nashville. The President agreed citing Phoenix as an example. The Vice President-Broadcast stated Board members should not be shocked of the deficit because there was warning of it last year. The Secretary stated the amount of the deficit was alarming.”

Greg Johnson, chief financial officer of the Fort Wayne Newspapers in Indiana and a member of the finance committee created to assist the board in financial management, told Journal-isms that part of the problem was the structure of the organization. Expenses are incurred based on anticipated revenues. “Unless you require people to pay up front, you’re always going to have the problem” of falling short when revenue does not pan out, he said. Some solutions include developing diverse revenue sources, spending more conservatively and being realistic about revenue expectations, he said.

Monroe, editorial director of Ebony and Jet magazines, told NABJ members in his message, “at the recommendation of the Finance Committee, we brought key functions such as finance and accounting in house, saving tens of thousands of dollars and increasing control and oversight. We are also working with independent fundraisers to help us tap new opportunities with foundations, new companies and grants. We are working to increase revenue from a variety of sources, including partnering more with non-media companies who share our same values and concerns about diversity, journalism and the First Amendment. But, more importantly we continue to expand our non-convention revenue opportunities — from growing membership to creating a more focused development strategy and promoting the successful NABJ Freedom Fund.”

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Diversity Reported at a High on Evening News

“Racial and gender diversity among reporters on the broadcast network evening newscasts matched its highest level since 1990, according to a new study by the Center for Media and Public Affairs,” the center reported on Monday. “The study found that the representation of both minority and female reporters has more than doubled since 1990, when CMPA began studying the demographics of network news reporters.”

However, only one journalist who fit both criteria — “minority” and female — made the list of the 50 most visible network correspondents of 2006: Joie Chen of CBS News.

“These are the results of CMPA’s seventeenth annual report on ‘Gender and Minority Representation in Network News,’ the group said. “This report examined over 11,000 news stories broadcast on the ABC, CBS and NBC evening news programs during 2006.

“Minority story assignments remained steady at a record high (since 1990) of 15 percent in 2006, after jumping from 10 to 15 percent in 2004. CBS correspondent Byron Pitts was the most prominent minority, ranking 20th of all reporters with 76 stories reported. ABC’s Pierre Thomas, NBC’s Jim Maceda and CBS’ Joie Chen and Randall Pinkston were the other minorities to crack 2006’s list of ‘The 50 Most Visible Network Correspondents.'”

While Pitts may be the journalist of color with the most face time, he has not been silent about the need for greater diversity. “The new definition of diversity is blond or brunette,” Pitts said last year in the documentary “Color Bars: Rants, Race and Ratings.” “The world is getting browner and management is getting whiter.”

Unlike newspapers and local television stations, the networks do not disclose the racial makeup of their staffs.

The study also said, “At CBS, 15 percent of all stories were covered by minority reporters, while women reported 34 percent. NBC also assigned 15 percent of its stories to minorities but only 25 percent to women. The least diversity was at ABC, where minority correspondents covered 10 percent of all stories and women correspondents 23 percent.”

By race or ethnicity, whites were 85 percent in 2005 and 2006; blacks were 9 percent in 2005 and 2006; Hispanics were 4 percent in 2005 and 3 percent in 2006; Asians were 2 percent in both years; and 1 percent was “other” in 2006.

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Nagin Tries to Clarify Remarks Made to Black Press

New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin was busy Monday trying to clarify remarks he made in Washington before the trade organization of black newspaper publishers. He had “suggested that the slow recovery and rebuilding of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina which has prevented many black former residents from returning is part of a plan to change the racial makeup and political leadership of his and other cities,” according to an exclusive Washington Post story Saturday by Hamil R. Harris.

“Ladies and gentlemen, what happened in New Orleans could happen anywhere,” Nagin was quoted as saying. “They are studying this model of natural disasters, dispersing the community and changing the electoral process in that community.”

The New Orleans Times-Picayune headlined its story Monday, “Nagin calls diaspora racial plot. City’s makeup altered intentionally, he says.”

Nagin was quickly criticized for playing the so-called “race card.” The mayor replied on Monday, “I did not say anything racial. I think it’s intentional against the city of New Orleans, which includes everybody in our city. Everybody is being hurt by this problem.”

And in fact, the Harris story never quoted Nagin using the word “black.” But, Harris told Journal-isms, “it was clear to everybody in the room what he was talking about.” Harris, 46, is usually assigned to suburban Prince George’s County, Md., but often shows up at black-oriented events not on his beat. “I always take my tape recorder and my camera everywhere I go,” Harris said.

Most famously, Harris broke the story in 2004 about Bill Cosby’s comments on “the lower economic people” in the black community not parenting properly — in the Post’s “Reliable Source” gossip column. Harris attended a commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Brown vs. Board of Education school desegregation decision and remained to see Cosby accept an award after many other reporters had left.

“Every year I go to Black Press Week” sponsored by the National Newspaper Publishers Association, said Harris, who worked at the Washington Afro-American before joining the Post in 1992. “It reminds me of where I came from.”

• Nagin’s comments stir storm: Nagin sees conspiracy, readers see red (New Orleans Times-Picayune)
• Paul Murphy, WGNO-TV, New Orleans: Nagin: “Comments Not About Race”; Mayor Says Washington Post Got It Wrong (video)

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Readers Liked Tyler Perry, Adamari Lopez, Love

As reported on Friday, covers featuring Sen. Barack Obama were best-sellers for Time and Newsweek in 2006, according to the Media Industry Newsletter, which listed the best- and worst-selling covers for weekly magazines in its March 12 issue.

On Monday, the newsletter listed some of the best- and worst-selling monthlies and bi-monthlies.

“Tyler Perry’s homeless-to-riches story made him an Essence best,” it said, with the March issue, featuring the author and filmmaker, its best-seller for the year. The worst-seller, according to an Essence spokeswoman, was its June issue featuring actress Kimberly Elise.

People en Espanol was not included in this week’s Media Industry Newsletter roundup, but at that monthly, the best-seller was the May issue, “El Regreso de Adamari Lopez,” in which an actress spoke openly for the first time about her battle with breast cancer, a spokeswoman told Journal-isms. The worst was dated March: “Las Divas de la Television” featured TV presenters Myrka Dellanos, Charytin, Barbara Bermudo, Lili Estefan and Maria Celeste.

At Ebony magazine, spokeswoman LaTrina Blair said the publication does not release sales information, but that traditionally, its Feburary “Black Love” issue is its best-seller.

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Paper Had Problem in Identifying Black Men

Last month — Black History Month — wasn’t a very good one for Dan McGrath, sports editor of the Chicago Tribune.

And not just McGrath. As David Mills, journalist-turned-screenwriter, wrote on his Feb. 21 blog, “It’s been a super-shitty month for Tribune sportswriter Lew Freedman.

“One week ago, I pointed out how the Trib published a long feature about ex-NBA player Kevin Gamble, but ran a file photo of Dee Brown (one of Gamble’s old Boston Celtic teammates) misidentified as Gamble.

“That story was written by Lew Freedman.

“Yesterday, the Trib published another feature story by Lew Freedman, this one about DePaul University baller Marcus Heard. The headline read: “Demons” Heard makes grade.’ It was all about how Marcus Heard is a good student and a good citizen, on top of being a good athlete. . . .

“Nice story. Very nice. Only one problem . . .

“Yes. Amazingly, the Chicago Tribune did it again, running a picture of Heard’s Blue Demon teammate Wilson Chandler misidentified as Heard.”

Freedman said he passed Mills’ observations up to his boss, McGrath, who is “probably still red-faced (literally) over a whopper of a Misidentified Black Person that occurred last summer,” Mills continued.

“In that case, McGrath himself wrote the 12-paragraph correction that appeared in the Trib. Here’s what happened:

“A former NBA player named Eddie Johnson was arrested last August in Florida, charged with sexually assaulting an 8-year-old girl. Alas, there are two former NBA players named Eddie Johnson. The other one is now a broadcaster in Phoenix. That one — the one not charged with child sexual assault — grew up in Chicago and played ball at the University of Illinois. Which gave the Tribune’s editors a reason (so they thought) to pick up the Associated Press report on Eddie Johnson’s arrest.

“The Trib didn’t run a picture (thank God), but it misidentified Eddie Johnson by inserting wrong information into the AP’s account. To wit, this headline: ‘Former NBA, Illini star accused of sexual assault.’

“The Eddie Johnson who got arrested wasn’t an Illini; he played his college ball at Auburn University.”

McGrath told Journal-isms on Friday: “Our department is taking a hard and probably overdue look at our process for identifying photos in the hope of making it more reliable and eliminating such errors in the future. The staffers responsible for the Chandler-Heard error were dealt with appropriately. Mr. Freedman and I both apologized to Mr. Heard and his family. The Dee Brown/Kevin Gamble photo was misidentified by the wire service that circulated it, but we did not catch the error in the office.

“My statement on the Eddie Johnson matter speaks for itself. As the Tribune is involved in litigation with Mr. Johnson, I have been instructed to have no further comment.”

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More Groups Weigh in on Ken Burns Film

“The American GI Forum is calling for a boycott of the Public Broadcasting Service in response to its refusal to re-edit a seven-part World War II documentary by Ken Burns that excludes contributions of as many as 500,000 Latinos in the conflict,” Andrés Caballero wrote for the Hispanic Link News Service. “The Latino veterans group passed a resolution asking supporters to withhold membership from PBS and refrain from making donations to the network.

“On March 15, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus weighed into the debate,” sending a letter to PBS president Paula Kerger urging her to withhold the airing of the film, scheduled for Sept. 23.”

Burns has said his documentary was not meant to be inclusive.

Michael Getler, ombudsman for PBS, wrote on Friday that, “what interests me most among the critical public statements, and the questions and criticisms raised by viewers in letters to me, is whether, during the six years of production, anyone did actually think about the Hispanic veterans. And if the honest answer is no, or not much, then these protests ought to remind us all, if any reminder is necessary in such a diverse and complex country as this one, that new thinking is always required. It may be that nothing would have changed, but having thought about it at least makes for fuller and more open explanation and challenge.”

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Indian Columnists Side With Cherokees

Native American columnists are siding with the Cherokee Indians in their vote to revoke citizenship from descendants of former tribal slaves.

In one essay, Mike Graham, member of the Oklahoma Cherokee Nation whose advocacy group United Native America is seeking a federal national holiday for Native Americans, defended some Cherokees fighting with the South in the Civil War.

“The American civil war was not about ending slavery as we know it. President Lincoln, during the U.S. Civil War, authorized the largest mass hanging of Indian men in America’s history,” Graham wrote.

“Authorities in the northern state of Minnesota asked President Lincoln to order the immediate execution of 303 Indian men. Because Lincoln was concerned that Europeans would enter the war on the side of the South over the large number of Indians set to be hanged, the hanging list was cut down to thirty-nine northern Sioux Indian men on Dec. 16, 1862. The rest of the Sioux Indian men were force marched to area prisons and held there till they died. President Lincoln promised to kill or remove every Indian from the state and provide Minnesota with 2 million dollars in federal funds. He only owed the Sioux Nation 1.4 million for their land that the federal and Minnesota state government had taken over at gun point in a treaty made with them.”

• Mark Anthony Rolo, Salt Lake Tribune: Indians, not government, decide tribal citizenship

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Sportscaster Stan Duke Dies; Rage Ended His Career

“Stan Duke, a former Los Angeles sportscaster and one of the first blacks in local television news, whose career ended after he shot his estranged wife’s lover to death in 1971, has died. He was 70,” Dennis McLellan reported Saturday in the Los Angeles Times.

“Duke died Wednesday at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital after suffering a heart attack at his home in Santa Barbara, Ellen Duke, his second wife of 25 years, said Friday.

“Duke was a five-year veteran weekend sportscaster for KNXT-TV on Feb. 7, 1971, when he finished the late-evening newscast and went to the Wilshire district home of his estranged wife, Faye Williams Duke, a junior high school teacher and president of the Black Educators Assn.

“He later testified that he saw her and radio commentator Averill Berman in the bedroom together, left to get a rifle, and after returning fired the fatal shots through the closed door of a bedroom closet in which Berman was hiding.

“‘It took me 17 years to get where I am,’ he reportedly said, ‘and I blew it all tonight.'”

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Australian Aboriginals to Get Own TV Channel

“With the exception of the likes of Stan Grant and Ernie Dingo, Indigenous Australians in the past have been hard-pressed to find black faces on television channels,” according to Amy McQuire, writing March 8 in Australia’s National Indigenous Times.

“But that may soon come to an end with the launch of National Indigenous TV (NITV), an Indigenous-specific channel that has been in the pipeline since before 2005. . . .”

“For Indigenous Australians, and particularly our children, we simply do not see Indigenous faces on screen. And the stories we do see are framed by news values — conflict and negativity,” the new CEO of the channel, Pat Turner, said in the piece.

“Canada and New Zealand both have claimed success with their own national Indigenous channels with both of them growing in size and audience numbers,” the story continued.

“Success has also been recorded in Europe where Welsh, Irish and Basque Indigenous channels are reported as helping improve language growth and cultural understanding.”

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Short Takes

• African newspapers are condemning President Robert Mugabe and the Zimbabwe government over the beating of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, hoping this might signal the beginning of the end for the government, according to the Public Agenda in Accra, Ghana. Journalists Tsvangirai Mukwazhi and Tendai Musiyu were released after two nights in custody and severe assault at the hands of the Zimbabwean police, the Media Institute of Southern Africa reported on Friday.
• On March 9, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom signed a Board of Supervisors resolution “urging all City departments and other government entities to withdraw any money spent on advertising in AsianWeek,” in light of its publication of Kenneth Eng’s piece, “Why I Hate Blacks,” for which AsianWeek apologized, a city spokeswoman told Journal-isms. One independent entity, Bay Area Rapid Transit, on whose board AsianWeek owner James Fang sits, spent $9,883.72 in the publication from 2004 to 2006, BART spokesman Linton Johnson said. He said AsianWeek was not on BART’s agenda for its next meeting.
• George Benge, Gannett Co. news executive with responsibility for diversity efforts, is retiring from Gannett at the end of March. “I’ll be returning to live and work at my home near beautiful Asheville, NC, in the heart of the ancestral and spiritual homeland of the Cherokee people,” he told Journal-isms. “I will write columns on Native American issues more frequently, start blogging and continue to speak on Native-American and other diversity issues across the nation.”
• Neal Scarbrough, general manager and editor of AOL Sports, has been chosen one of the 20 most influential people in online sports by the Street & Smith Sports Business Journal. He is the only person of color on the list.
• “We just finished an unprecedented two-hour, no-holds-barred interview with President al-Bashir” of Sudan, reporter Ann Curry wrote Monday on the NBC News “Daily Nightly” blog. “He was emphatic that the world misunderstands what is happening in Darfur. We will air this interview on Nightly News, TODAY and Dateline this week, and will post it as soon as we can here on MSNBC.com.”
• Veteran journalist Dwight Cunningham’s interest in the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita led him to a job as a lead writer for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Now he has joined ICF International, a Fairfax-Va.-based company with the contract to implement The Road Home Program, Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco’s effort to help an estimated 120,000 Louisianians rebuild their homes. He is deputy public information officer, working in Baton Rouge, La. Cunningham left the Freedom Forum’s Diversity Institute in December 2005 and became a newsroom training consultant and reporting/writing coach before taking the FEMA job.
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“Nearly a year after the Austin American-Statesman published a gripping four-part series detailing the systematic expulsion of blacks from small communities throughout the South, the author of the series wants nothing to do with the version that made it into print,” Kevin Brass wrote Friday in the Austin (Texas) Chronicle. Elliot Jaspin, the series’ author, who complained about changes made to accommodate the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, was quoted as saying, “This is the first time that I’ve seen a story go into print that I knew was wrong.”

• Armando Acuna, public editor of the Sacramento Bee, defended the paper’s front-page stories about the arrest of Sacramento Kings star Ron Artest on suspicion of domestic violence, as well as the naming of Kimsha Artest as the victim of the alleged domestic violence.
• “Ciaphus Julius Caesar is the Citizen Kane figure in David Barr III’s new play ‘Black Caesar,'” Mark Fitzgerald wrote Thursday in Editor & Publisher. “The play is running through April 1 in a production by the Chicago theatre group Pegasus Players. Like Kane, C.J. Caesar in the course of this two-hour play will start a newspaper out of idealism that will propel him to spectacular success and power. And like Kane, a corrupted and compromised Caesar will greedily grasp for political power. But Barr’s Caesar is also a mixture of the legendary figures of the black newspaper press, such as Chicago Defender founder Robert S. Abbott and his nephew John Sengstacke, who ran the paper for decades and turned it into a daily.”
• “Kentucky lawmakers recently honored the late Alice Allison Dunnigan during Black History Month. A Russellville native, Dunnigan became the first African-American journalist to cover a presidential tour,” Ryan Dearbone reported Sunday on WBKO-TV in Bowling Green, Ky.
• Magazine Publishers of America is hosting a “Career Insight Conference” Thursday to introduce new audiences to magazines and showcase multicultural talent within the industry, according to Shaunice Hawkins, MPA’s director of diversity development. Scheduled as an all-day event at McGraw-Hill in New York, the conference is geared toward anyone interested in building a magazine career. It has attracted more than 260 attendees.