UNITY Reflections: Re-energizing the news business

As I reflect on UNITY: Journalists of Color 2008, six R's come to mind - reunion, recession, retention, retraining, recruitment and re-energized.

For news junkies like me, it was a time to reconnect with longtime warriors in the business and make new friends. It's always good to see folks like Art Thompson III, who is living his dream of being the NBA writer for the Orange County Register, Ray Suarez, senior correspondent of PBS' The NewsHour, and Edwina Blackwell-Clark, publisher of Cox's Southwest Ohio newspapers. They're all pioneers and proof of some progress in the industry.

Given the economy, there was lots of talk of the recession, buyouts and layoffs as more than 6,000 journalists of color, students, educators, recruiters and other professionals converged in Chicago in late July.

Most folks know the news business is undergoing transformational change with more than 3,000 job cuts announced in news organizations across the nation in the last year. Within a week of the UNITY convention, organizations such as the Dallas Morning News, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Star Ledger in Newark, N.J., announced more cuts.

"There's a significant problem that UNITY groups need to step up to address and that's how are we going to protect the diversity we've already achieved in times of such contraction," said David Boardman, executive editor of the Seattle Times.

In other words, that's the retention dilemma. It's encouraging that the "Ten by 2010: Transforming Journalism Through Diversity Leadership" initiative was launched by UNITY with the support of the Newspaper Association of America Foundation, the American Society of Newspaper Editors and the Radio-Television News Directors Association. The goal is for 10 media companies to commit to selecting at least one high-potential manager of color to promote to a senior management position by midyear 2010, according to Karen Lincoln Michel, UNITY president.

Given the increasing diversity in America, it's disappointing that only three companies - Gannett, The New York Times and Schurz Communications - have made the commitment a week after the convention closed. More companies are encouraged to make the commitment.

That brings me to the next R and that's retraining. One major benefit of UNITY - whether you're red, black, blue, white or whatever - was the smorgasbord of training for newbies to veteran journalists. There were more than 100 workshops with sessions ranging from "Monetizing Your Web Site" to "Finding Your Voice: Improving Your Most Important Communication Tool".

Despite much chatter about the recession, there were more than 200 companies on the exhibit floor of McCormick Place ranging from ABC Television and AccuWeather to The Wall Street Journal and Wal-Mart. Recruitment and networking were hot and heavy.

Catherine Shen, senior vice president for human resources at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, offered this advice to potential job seekers: "They have to be more entrepreneurial and more opportunistic about seeing possibilities for the industry...They have to be mentally very nimble and very comfortable with constant change."

Yes, companies are hiring journalists. Just ask two recent Florida A&M University journalism graduates. John Marsh, a spring 2008 graduate, has been hired by National Football League Films. Sidney Wright, the National Association of Black Journalists' Student Journalist of the Year, graduates August 8, and is scheduled to started work the same month at ABC News in New York City.

They're multimedia journalists, and I'm re-energized because it is young talent like this that will rewrite the scripts and face of journalism as we know it in the next decade.

Dorothy Bland, a 25-year media veteran as a reporter, editor and publisher in print and online, is the director of the division of journalism at Florida A&M University and on the board of directors for the Newspaper Association of America's Foundation.