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Updated: Wednesday, November 7, 2007 Published: Monday, February 26, 2007

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

Strategic Plan
With the tremendous help of NABJ member Larry Olmstead, who now heads Leading Edge Associates, we are nearing the completion of our roadmap for the future of the association, the 2007 NABJ Strategic Plan. The full plan will be available in April, but an early look shows that it will help us solidify our base and propel us into the future. Approximately 230 individuals new and veteran NABJ members, past NABJ leaders, current Board members, local chapter leaders, NABJ staff, friends of NABJ, journalism educators, donors, potential donors and recruiters provided input during the process. Data from a 2006 membership survey also was used, yielding the following themes:

Thank you Larry, NABJ Secretary Sarah Glover and the rewrite committee for getting us this far, and to the entire membership ready to embrace change and take us to the next level.

2007 Convention & Career Fair update
The convention planning team led by Region IV representative Leisa Richardson is once again putting together, pound for pound, the most seminars, most workshops, most plenaries, and most social activities of any journalism association convention this year. They have sorted through more than 60+ proposals in an effort to whittle down to about 40-50 slots. Those who submitted workshop proposals will be notified by mid-March about their sessions. We hope to touch on everything from cutbacks in the newsroom to new opportunities in digital journalism to what is happening with campus journalism. That said, we are also working hard to create tracks for New Media and technology, minimize the chance of strong workshops competing directly against each other, and creating a schedule that understands the many other activities in Vegas outside of the convention.

And even before we open up convention registration process this week, we are well on the way to selling out our convention room block at Bally's Hotel & Casino, Aug. 8-12. We projected the availability of about 4,000 room nights during the convention week, and the hotel reports that convention attendees have already booked more than 1,300 of the nights. And, at only $104/night, the rest of the rooms will surely go fast.

New Digital Journalism Task Force
NABJ has created an exciting, new task force focused on New Media, online journalism and its impact on storytelling in the African-American community. The NABJ Digital Journalism Task Force (DJTF) will look at the Web, mobile technologies, broadband television and the continuing divide between many communities of color and more affluent and more wired segments of society. Hats off to member Andrew Humphrey in Detroit for taking on the leadership of the new task force. If you want to join, contact Andrew at andrewhumphrey1@yahoo.com .

Budget update
At our winter meeting in January, your NABJ Board of Directors approved a sweeping 2007 budget that projects about $2.85 million in revenue against about $2.75 million in expenses. We hope to end the year with at least $100,000 in excess revenue. The budget includes:

We are still awaiting a complete picture from our 2006 audit, but, as we mentioned earlier, early projections show that we saw a deficit of several hundred thousand dollars for the 2006 fiscal year. This is primarily due to a dramatic falloff in contributions and corporate sponsorships, particularly from struggling media companies, and the fallout from the difficult management changes at the national office in 2006. We've already cut spending dramatically trimming or avoiding more than $800,000 in expenses and instituted our own round of staff cuts last fall. While we were able to draw from our reserves to cover the operating shortfall tapping that rainy day fund we still have more than $200,000 in reserves and our separate scholarship fund is nearly at $1 million, a historic high. Also, at the recommendation of the Finance Committee, we brought key functions such as finance and accounting in house, saving tens of thousands of dollars and increasing control and oversight. We are also working with independent fundraisers to help us tap new opportunities with foundations, new companies and grants. We are working to increase revenue from a variety of sources, including partnering more with non-media companies who share our same values and concerns about diversity, journalism and the First Amendment. But, more importantly we continue to expand our non-convention revenue opportunities from growing membership to creating a more focused development strategy and promoting the successful NABJ Freedom Fund.

NABJ Freedom Fund
Speaking of the Freedom Fund launched last year to help the organization become more self-sufficient through individual support from members and the community we are nearing the halfway point to our goal of raising $100,000 by May 1, 2007, already having brought in more than $54,000 in individual contributions. (If we hit the $100k mark by the deadline, NABJ stands to receive another $50,000 in matching funds from the Challenge Fund for Journalism, by the Ford Foundation and Knight Foundation.) We have hosted receptions at the homes of NABJ members in several key cities to raise awareness and funds. Thanks go out to Rodney and Shelia Brooks in Washington, D.C., Les Payne in New York, and Robert Beatty in Miami for opening up their homes and supporting NABJ. Another fundraiser is planned in Chicago at the home of Marc Watts and Diann Burns in April, in conjunction with the spring board meeting. If you want to contribute online and help us reach our $100,000 goal, click here.

Membership Survey
Under the leadership of Membership Committee chair Kathy Times, we have posted the results of a recent NABJ Membership Survey looking at layoffs, buyouts and the impact they are having on our members. Of the more than 250 members who responded, 14 percent said that they had been out of work due to layoffs, buyouts or other changes in the media industry. Check out the release and survey here.

Media Institute
The Media Institute committee, consisting of NABJ members Wayne Dawkins, Delawese Fulton and Teresa Kaidel and staff liaison Ryan Williams, has been busy developing programming for the year. You already know about the first-ever NABJ Media Institute/New York Times Leadership Academy that kicked off in the fall and continues at Harvard this year with the Maynard Institutes Media Academy. The committee also has partnered with Bloomberg to create a weekend session on Business Reporting, to be held May 19-20 in New York City. The registration deadline is April 20.

In addition, we are developing a new Media Institute program called Get Digital: Internet Journalism Tools to be held at the Associated Press in New York City on May 12, and already have secured nearly $10,000 in sponsorship. Check out the Web site for more details coming soon.

Advocacy
NABJ continues our tradition of standing up for black journalists and for issues of inclusion, diversity and free speech, no matter where they happen. In the past few months alone we have taken on the lopsided layoffs at The Philadelphia Inquirer, sent strong letters in protest of the censorship of student journalists at Grambling University, joined with our Unity partners to speak out of Net Neutrality and Media Consolidation. We also have not waited for events to happen, instead taking a proactive action. Vice President/Print Ernie Suggs drafted a statement to the heads of media organizations urging the inclusion of black journalists in the coverage of the upcoming presidential campaigns, a statement that already has yielded results. And, last December, Vice President/Broadcast Barbara Ciara quietly put together a private letter to CBS News president Sean McManus urging the consideration of black journalists to fill the vacancy left by the passing of Ed Bradley. Unfortunately, McManus has yet to respond to NABJ.

'Adopt a High School'
As many of you know, last year NABJ extended membership opportunity to high school students with an interest in journalism and the media. This year, were going a step further and challenging each local NABJ chapter to reach out and adopt a high school journalism or media program. We know that too many schools in our community either have no journalism, newspaper or other media program, or have one that may be struggling. What better way to grow the next generation and expose young black students to journalism than to connect our local members with curious and energetic high school students? In fact, many of our chapters have already done exactly that. In Kansas City, KCABJ has been running its Urban Journalism workshop for decades and serves as a great model for other chapters. The Garden State chapter also had a program with the Camden school district. Region V representative Russell LaCour and the High School Membership Committee are developing a step-by-step tutorial for local chapters who want to start their own. Meanwhile, Linda Shockley at the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund has an excellent guide online. And former NABJ president Dorothy Gilliam has helped develop another excellent site with ASNE here.

Associate Members
As the media industry continues to evolve, more and more of our members find themselves in other parts of the business from journalism education to media relations to PR. In fact, only a handful of the 44 NABJ founders themselves are still practicing journalism full-time today. That reality highlights even more the value and importance of our Associate members, many of whom continue to be the backbone of local chapters and hold dear the values, ethics and professionalism of working journalists. I am continuing to reach to those members in an upcoming separate communication directly to them, but know that they can contribute in many areas -- from fundraising, grant writing and development to event planning, curriculum development and communications. If you are interested in any of these areas, please contact Associate representative Angela McClendon Johnson .

Region III Conference
I would be remiss if I didn't encourage everyone, particular members in the south, to attend our upcoming Region III Conference, Bridging The Gap: Career Development, Technology and Cultural Understanding on March 8-10, 2007 in Montgomery, AL. The weekend will offer dynamic workshops featuring George Curry's Journalism Boot Camp and also will expose journalists to new ideas in Digital Journalism. There is still room, so sign up here.