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Updated:
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Posted: March 18, 2008 |
Contact:
NABJ Communications
(866) 479-NABJ
NABJ Responds to Potential Hearst Layoffs
NABJ President Barbara Ciara called on Hearst Newspapers President Steven Swartz and Houston Chronicle Publisher Jack Sweeney to consider diversity in the newsroom while assessing the company’s restructuring.
“We would like to discuss your plans to realize a newsroom that reflects the metro area’s population,” Ciara wrote in the letter. “There have been several departures recently, reflecting a grim outlook for the newspaper’s African American journalists and the Houston community.”
Ciara pointed out that according to the 2008 ASNE census the Houston Chronicle’s editorial staff was 7.3 percent African-American while the metro area’s population was 18 percent African-American.
On behalf of NABJ leadership, Ciara requested a conference call to discuss how the organization can help to ensure the Chronicle does not lose ground in its diversity.
An advocacy group established in 1975 in Washington, D.C., NABJ is the largest organization of journalists of color in the nation, with more than 4,100 members, and provides educational, career development and support to black journalists worldwide.
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