Newsrooms need more Native Americans, Neuharth says

Matt Kelley
Special to The Freedom Forum Online

05.01.00

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	Al Neuharth

CRAZY HORSE, S.D. — America's newspapers desperately need more Native Americans in their newsrooms, USA TODAY founder Allen H. Neuharth told a group of aspiring Indian journalists.

"The number of Native American journalists on daily newspapers in this country is less than 300 — at last count it's 266. That is a pitifully small number," Neuharth told about 80 Indian student journalists on April 28. News executives know that, he said, so "Not only will Native Americans get a fair chance, but probably a better break than others, and it's about time."

Neuharth, who also founded The Freedom Forum, spoke to students from reservation high schools and tribal colleges at the first-ever Native American Newspaper Career Conference. The students practiced reporting and writing stories and taking photographs at the Crazy Horse mountain carving in South Dakota's Black Hills.

Neuharth encouraged the students to work on their school newspapers and develop their curiosity. He recalled that his start in journalism was being editor of The Echo, the high school newspaper in his tiny hometown of Alpena, S.D.

"I was the nosiest kid in class," Neuharth said. "The best journalists are the nosiest people around. You've got to be interested, not just in your own business, but in everybody's business as well."

The Freedom Forum, the Knight Foundation, the American Society of Newspaper Editors and the Associated Press Managing Editors association are teaming up to spend $6 million a year to recruit minority journalists, Neuharth said.

Although the groups have not decided precisely how that money will be spent, the commitment reflects the need for more minorities in general and American Indians in particular to become journalists, he said.

Journalists get a unique "window on the world," Neuharth said. "As a journalist, you're the one that gets to see everything, go to everything and do everything."

And that's really rewarding, he said. "I want to try to sell you on the idea that you can have more fun and do more good ... if you choose a career in journalism than anything else you can do," Neuharth said.