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Updated: Wednesday, October 1, 2008 Posted: July 3, 2008

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The last few weeks in the newspaper industry have been horrible, leaving many people scared, frustrated and wondering what this business will look like in five years. What will it look like in a year? Or a month even?

The National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), an organization where a majority of its members are print journalists, is concerned about the current trend in the industry and about the careers of our members.        

Why the angst?

A weak economy, a double-figure dip in advertising revenue, and the changing habits of readers have forced newspapers to make adjustments.
In fact for the last two years, declining ad sales have been a catalyst for hiring and salary freezes, then buyouts, and layoffs.

Last week and this week, nearly 1,000 journalists lost their jobs.

Here is the story so far:

• The Palm Beach Newspapers Inc. said Wednesday it will cut 300 workers from its payroll of 1,350 people companywide. That includes a 40 percent reduction in the newsroom of the Palm Beach Post. If 300 people don’t leave voluntarily, layoffs will begin in August.
• The Boston Herald is laying off up to 160 people.
• The Daytona Beach News-Journal is cutting 99 jobs.
• The Baltimore Sun announced that it will eliminate 100 positions in August.
• Earlier this month, McClatchy, which owns the Miami Herald, Sacramento Bee, Kansas City Star, Charlotte Observer and News & Observer, among others, announced a 10 percent reduction in jobs. About 1,400 people will lose jobs.
• Media News laid off 14 managers last week at 16 papers, including the Oakland Tribune. Twenty-nine reporters are getting pink slips this week. More than 100 employees took buyouts last February.         
• While giants like the Washington Post, New York Times and Media General have all announced cuts, smaller papers like the Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram cut 31 jobs.
• News is not good in Detroit or Hartford either.

            And it hasn’t let up.

On Monday, word came down that the Chicago Tribune would let go 120 people. On Wednesday, The Tampa Tribune laid off 11 people. The L.A. Times will cut 150 editorial positions and 250 company wide.

As you can see, everyone is hurting and we are all in the same boat.
It is without question that when writing and editing staffs are cut, the overall quality of the product suffers. The industry must never sacrifice quality for quantity. Yes, more can be done with less, but that doesn't mean more should be done with less.

Which brings us to diversity.

Last year, as reported by the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE), newsrooms suffered through the biggest loss of jobs in three decades, while doing little to increase their percentage of minorities. Daily newsrooms shrank by 2,400 journalists in the past year, and there were nearly 300 fewer journalists of color working in those newsrooms. Blacks made up only 5.3 percent of the workforce.

In the past when a company announced layoffs, NABJ would send a letter reminding them that diversity is important… that our members are often the last hired and most likely to be near the bottom of the seniority list.

Management was urged when they make those staff decisions they maintain the commitment to the diversity that enriches the news product, and that this is no time to treat diversity like a disposable commodity.

No one ever responded to those letters.

In fact two companies we sent letters to laid off the same guy twice.

We are not sending any more of those.

Instead, let this serve as an open letter to the entire industry:

NABJ will hold you accountable if you do not consider diversity in your hiring and, particularly, firing practices.

Diversity has too often been the first casualty in the assault on journalism.

Black journalists at NABJ are determined to let every new generation of news management know that minority hiring; promotion and retention are not disposable concepts. No, diversity is a constant whose value never diminishes.

Discrimination in hiring, race-based promotion decisions, racially motivated firings and layoffs are reprehensible practices.

The historic nature of this year’s presidential election bears witness to that.

If ever the country needed the insights and expertise of black journalists it is now. The industry needs to make sure black journalists give you their informed perspective not only with the presidential election, but also on issues like housing, predatory lending, the impact of the economic collapse in our communities, the Iraq War, the abandonment of cities, the war on poverty and even the culture of music, relationships, family and education.

Diversity is not a luxury or a fad. It is a necessity for telling balanced news stories about America and for putting a fresh story perspective before the readers through the lens of minority journalists. While papers and news organizations are weighing their strategies for layoffs, they must respect the many arguments that have been made to encourage staffing papers with educated and insightful journalists of color.

Also, young minority journalists losing jobs seems to be in a dead heat with veterans also being pushed out. The generation that led the fight for integrated news staffs is being eliminated through forced early retirement and buyouts, instead of being retained as valued sages. Many of them may be at least savvy and energetic enough to make a transition into public relations, academia, freelancing or even starting their own businesses. But that institutional knowledge that is leaving the newsroom will be difficult if not impossible to replace.

NABJ is committed to doing its part to help, because we all know that after all the changes are made the future is going to be about readers and audience development. Currently, 42 percent of the children now in public schools are minorities and 40 percent of all Americans under the age of 18 are minorities – mostly black and Latino.

Those are our future readers and we are here to remind you that as you talk about audience development, that audience looks like us. It is very clear what the future of this country is.

The answer for us – the 4,000 NABJ members in all fields and the 2,790 blacks that ASNE says were working in newsrooms last year – is to help our members navigate these treacherous waters and maintain the hard-fought achievements.

 As the industry is going through the transformation from print to presenting news and information on multiple platforms, NABJ is focusing on equipping members with tools to ensure they adjust and thrive. There has been talk about making next year’s NABJ convention in Tampa totally skills-based. That is a good idea, but we are not waiting until next summer to hold boot camps and high-impact workshops.

NABJ’s Media Institute is designed to provide professional development and technical training for black journalists year round. A visit to our Web site will give you an idea of the current curriculum that has NABJ venturing to all corners of this country to bring programming. NABJ’s small professional staff of six – which is too small and always swamped – is in the final stages of publishing a course schedule that will chart a year’s worth of programming for the institute.

You will see the creative ideas that focus on multimedia training, online development, entrepreneurship and management training.

We also have to look at the pipeline. There are fewer paid internships and fewer corporate dollars for scholarships. This summer, NABJ provided 11 internships to young journalists, many of whom might have had no other opportunities. It is our goal to continue providing internships and scholarships to deserving students.

It has become evident that NABJ has to be in the position to help our members retrain themselves and to realign their skills with the needs of Web publications, magazines, freelancing, blogging and certain newspaper jobs that aren't disappearing – like sports, health, infotainment, and business writing, as well as editing.

It is time for us to stop convincing ourselves that “our day will come,” and help each other become multimedia specialists, theme specialists and other highly specialized journalists.  It is time for us to help members find non-traditional opportunities.

But we can’t do it alone.

It will be very important for local chapters and local leadership to organize and disseminate information to your members. It is important for you to take the lead --host seminars and webinars.

Lobby your local media companies to keep diversity at the forefront.

In Philadelphia recently, leaders of the local NABJ chapter met with managers of a local radio station to discuss the station’s actions that included the firing of a deejay for playing a racist song on the air. The leaders used the opportunity to not only address the problem, but also to discuss internships, scholarships and sponsorships of chapter events.

There are 14 members of the NABJ Board of Directors, but more than 4,000 members of this organization.

NABJ and the industry are better served if we are all working together.