When the National Association of Hispanic Journalists announced earlier this month that it had a $300,000 budget shortfall, people began tweeting the news and expressing concern over the group’s financial woes. One NAHJ member, Mo Krochmal, tweeted that the shortfall is an indication that “at some point, minority journalists orgs are going to have to merge to save funds.”
But Rafael Olmeda, former Unity president who stepped down from his leadership role last week, disagrees. He tweeted a response to Krochmal, who he knows from NAHJ: “The minority journalism orgs do not need to merge any more than the beat journalism orgs. Adapt? yes. Merge, no.”
As membership in many of the 40 or 50 journalism associations in the U.S. declines, more question just how these groups will adapt and whether some will merge.
Olmeda, who said he gave up his presidency for professional and personal reasons that included the death of his brother and a desire to spend more time with his newborn son, addressed this question in a recent phone interview. The key to remaining viable, he said, has less to do with merging the minority journalism organizations and more to do with diversifying their funding sources and cutting back on the number of conferences they hold.
“We cannot pretend that one overall organization is going to be able to satisfy the unique needs” of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, the National Association of Black Journalists, the Native American Journalists Association and the Asian American Journalists Association, he said. “It’s very important that they stand on their own.”
Each group has its own identity and distinct needs that members of the other minority journalism groups might not fully understand. NAJA members, for instance, have expertise in tribal issues that give them added credibility when they speak out on controversial stories involving Native Americans. NAJA and the other three minority journalism groups, Olmeda said, should be able to act independently.
“The idea of merging the organizations by definition weakens them because instead of being able to stand up and say, ‘Hey, this is what we think,’ they have to stand up and convince the other groups that this is what they should say,” said Olmeda, who was NAHJ president before becoming Unity president in January 2009. “We should not answer to each other or anyone else.”
Olmeda, breaking news reporter at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, spoke about the need for Unity and the minority journalism organizations to find new ways of raising money as an alternative to merging. He suggested that they ask high-profile individuals, particularly entertainers, for donations that financially-strapped journalists and news organizations may not be able to give.
“We’re taking money from news organizations and we’re taking money from Fox and criticizing them,” he said. “We have hit up our members over and over again, but our members are suffering so we need to branch out elsewhere.”
Cutting back on convention costs
As journalism organizations look for ways to trim expenses, they’re considering new approaches to staying afloat, including opening up membership to non-journalists and holding joint conferences. At the same time, they’re seeing attendance drop at their conventions, which can cost hundreds of dollars or more to attend and thousands of dollars to hold.
It makes sense then, Olmeda said, to have a Unity conference every two years instead of every four years — the idea being that the minority journalism groups would hold their individual conferences during the off-years instead of every year.
“I think we need to recognize that having four separate conventions takes a toll on newsrooms and newsroom budgets in a way that may be counterproductive to our long-term goals,” said Olmeda, reinforcing an idea that originated with Unity founders Will Sutton and Juan Gonzalez. Having the conferences every other year is “a way of showing the industry that we’re as concerned about budget issues as they are.”
Barbara Ciara, a reporter at WTKR-TV in Norfolk, Va., who became Unity’s new president last week, said she disagrees with the idea of holding a Unity convention every two years. She recently had a discussion with the other board members about this and said they supported the idea of keeping the convention schedule as is. She added that the board has not officially discussed anything about merging the minority journalism organizations.
“All of the alliances are committed to continuing to having their own individual conventions,” said Ciara, who was NABJ president before assuming her new Unity role. “Everyone is excited about continuing to have a Unity conference that happens so we can get together, but no one wants to sacrifice their own individual events for obvious reasons.”
NAHJ, for example, offers Spanish-language workshops at its conferences. Reducing NAHJ’s annual conferences to every other year would mean there would be less of an opportunity for such workshops to take place. “We have a limited number of NAHJ program[s] during Unity conventions,” Ciara said, “yet [members] want more and deserve more.”
In terms of the minority journalism groups merging, Ciar said the board has never formally discussed this.
Moving forward, she said, Unity and the minority journalism groups are pursuing cost-saving efforts that include finding nontraditional sponsorship and reducing the size of their conventions and perhaps the number of convention days.
Ciara’s points were in line with Olmeda’s tweet to Krochmal about the importance not of merging, but of adapting. Olmeda said that as the four minority journalism organizations and Unity change, the need to serve their members and help educate the public on issues of diversity remain constant.
“The dialogue in this country has deteriorated to the level where people can’t speak to each other anymore,” Olmeda said. “Let’s start talking about bridging gaps and helping people understand each other. That, to me is the most important thing that Unity can do in the future.”
