PRESIDENT'S CORNER LINKS Past Messages President's Biography Letter to the FCC On Minority Media Ownership

Greetings NABJ,

How does that expression go? Don’t pee on my leg and tell me that it’s raining.

No doubt these remain challenging times for black journalists. It seems every few weeks there’s another announcement of a print or broadcast company announcing downsizing, layoffs, or buyouts. Members, I would describe the state of our industry as a thunderstorm, but there is some sunshine in the forecast.

That’s why NABJ is working harder and smarter to protect jobs where we can - and provide professional development for those who want to stay current and expand their resumes. 

In January, I tasked Vice President-Broadcast & NABJ Media Institute chair Kathy Times and NABJ program director Ryan Williams to develop professional development programming every month of the year. With dedicated volunteers, the Media Institute Committee, partnering media companies, universities and program coordinators, I’m proud to present the beginning of insightful, relevant and necessary programming geared to lifelong learning, throughout the year.

I encourage NABJ members to stay ahead of the curve. Look for our schedule of adult-learning opportunities to hit the NABJ.org website this month at www.NABJ.org/Media_Institute. Be sure to forward this information to colleagues and friends in your newsroom.

In an effort to save jobs and create new opportunities, we have had a series of face-to-face meetings with network executives, cable news executives, newspaper publishers, and other media companies to negotiate  partnerships and training opportunities as well as to offer to advise these companies on how to avoid sacrificing diversity in favor of downsizing.

We walked the halls of Capitol Hill to press legislators on what legendary journalist Bernard Shaw so eloquently called “the people’s right to know” into the “people’s fight to know.” Our stand for media reform and against consolidation at the local level proved worthwhile with the Senate’s recent reversal of the FCC’s December ruling that would limit quality journalism and local content.

As we moved closer to UNITY: Journalists of Color 2008, many of you expressed concern that your unemployed colleagues may not be able to afford to attend the UNITY convention and take advantage of the career fair, workshops and full-day seminars. The NABJ Board of Directors answered your call and voted to provide some paid registrations to out-of-work journalists. That news inspired TV One CEO Johnathan Rodgers to pen a personal check to create 10 additional adult scholarships to cover convention registration. We thank Johnathan and members like him whose contributions make a difference in the lives of our professional and student members.

We are now launching our “NABJ On The Move” campaign to prepare for our relocation to the University of Maryland campus. In the Fall of 2009, NABJ will be housed at Knight Hall, a new state-of-the-art facility complete with digital media technology and expanded learning venues. NABJ will have access to signature spaces which include: a two-story Great Hall; The Richard Eaton Broadcast Theater; the Gaylord Journalism Resource Center; a multi-media “news bubble” lab, four 18-seat news labs; three seminar rooms; two, 30-seat classrooms; and multiple meeting spaces for formal and informal gatherings.

The NABJ office suite is designed to accommodate the future growth of the organization. Serving as a learning center for Media Institute programming, a resource to the academic and journalism community, and a long-standing monument to our profession and the women and men who helped make this organization possible.

As we raise the $150,000 to sufficiently move the office, look for us to come to a city near you and hold “NABJ On The Move” fundraisers to ensure the legacy of our beloved NABJ. Our first event is a Harlem Tea June 29 with NABJ’s Journalist of the Year Leonard Pitts. 

We have much to celebrate as we prepare for UNITY 2008! Check out who is moving up!

• The New York Post's Frankie Edozien has joined New York University’s Journalism Department. Professor Edozien will direct NYU’s Journalism in Ghana: Reporting Africa Program this summer before teaching full-time this fall.
• NABJ treasurer and The Boston Globe’s senior assistant sports editor Greg Lee is now the Number 2 editor in the sports department with online, editing and managing duties and supervision of Olympic coverage in Beijing this August.
• After 25 years in journalism and six as a distinguished educator, Lorraine Branham is the new Dean of Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.
• Washington Post photographer Michel Du Cille won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for photographs detailing the substandard housing conditions wounded American soldiers and their families experience at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
• Vice President-Print Ernie Suggs is a  2009 Nieman Fellow who will study at Harvard University for the 2008-2009 academic year. We look forward to his in-depth research on historically black colleges and universities.
• Camille Edwards became news director at NBC's WRC-TV (Washington). She comes from NBC's WMAQ-TV in Chicago, where she also was news director. She replaces Vickie Burns, who left WRC in March for NBC's WNBC-TV as its news director in NYC.

Lastly, don’t miss important opportunities by attending UNITY 2008 July 23-27 in Chicago.

• Network, Network, Network with the best in the business as media companies look to hire at the Career Expo.
• Participate in full day seminars in newsroom management & digital and environmental journalism.
• Celebrate your achievement and those who have blazed the trail for all of us at the Hall of Fame Banquet & the Salute to Excellence Awards Gala.

Now more than ever NABJ is an important resource for its members.

Get to Know Us… Learn to Use Us!

Yours in service,
Barbara Ciara
President, National Association of Black Journalists