Freedom Forum names 26 fellows in program to bring diversity to small newspapers
By Kate Kennedy
freedomforum.org
11.19.01
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| Jenna Naranjo at The Santa Fe New Mexican. |
Twenty-six journalists of color have been named ASNE/APME Fellows, surpassing the halfway point in the program designed to increase diversity at small newspapers.
The Freedom Forum is funding up to 50 fellows in a $1 million partnership with the American Society of Newspaper Editors and the Associated Press Managing Editors.
The first 26 ASNE/APME Fellows are reporters and photographers at 21 newspapers across the country. Ten newspaper companies and three privately owned newspapers are participating by employing fellows in full-time positions (see list at bottom).
“At the halfway point, we already see success in the journalists of color who are bringing their talents and their voices to small newspapers across the country,” said Charles L. Overby, chairman and chief executive officer of the Freedom Forum. “We’re happy about the results so far and hopeful about what’s ahead.”
“I found it an incredible tool for us,” said participating editor Rich Rassmann, managing editor of The Herald in Rock Hill, S.C. “It’s like a gift, really. It was possible to find a pool of candidates that included some diversity. This made it easier for us to follow through on our commitment to diversity."
Erica Pippins, reporter at The Herald, said her interest in being an ASNE/APME Fellow grew out of an earlier internship experience at another newspaper.
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| Reporter Erica Pippins on the job for The Herald, Rock Hill, S.C. |
During the internship she was the only journalist of color in a small newsroom. “As an intern, I was able to tell the stories” of the community’s large African-American and Native American communities. “But I always wondered what was going to happen after I left.
“Our readers, our communities are from all walks of life, all different kinds of diverse backgrounds, and the newsroom should be a reflection of that. The ASNE/APME fellowship promotes diversity, and to me that’s a big component of what the newsroom should be,” Pippins said.
Developed by the Freedom Forum after hearing from small-newspaper editors that they couldn't recruit journalists of color, the program awards fellowships of $20,000 each — over and above the salary paid by the newspaper — to journalists of color who work in newsroom positions at newspapers under 75,000 circulation for at least two years.
“One of my favorite sports these days is reading the testimonials about this program from editors and the participants,” said Tim McGuire, editor of the Star Tribune in Minneapolis and ASNE president. “This program is making a real difference in real lives.”
Current fellows and their newspapers:
Three fellows are awaiting newspaper placement: Patrina Bostic of Beaumont, Texas; Hermione Malone of Charlotte, N.C.; and Jade Jackson of Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
Small newspapers, big benefits
“A lot of times people think covering a smaller area or working for a smaller paper is a disadvantage, but I think the opposite,” fellow Jenna Naranjo of The Santa Fe New Mexican told editors at the APME convention in Milwaukee this fall.
She showed editors a copy of a New Mexican local-news section and pointed out the stories she had written. “In a week’s time, I covered six or seven very different issues. Small papers give you a chance to learn a lot,” she said.
Her managing editor, Rob Dean, said many stories would not have been written without her. “A lot of these stories were missed before Jenna joined the newspaper.”
Naranjo, a New Mexico native and a Pueblo Indian, “understands the area; she has connections built in. She teaches others in the newsroom how we might approach those stories as well,” Dean said. “I’m very enthusiastic about the program.”
"This project is tearing down some of the persistent barriers that get in the way of newsrooms telling the fullest possible stories,” said Caesar Andrews, editor of Gannett News Service and APME president. “The importance of diverse staffs must not be ignored and cannot be talked over, around or under. It has to be dealt with head-on. That's exactly what this Freedom Forum program does."
Naranjo said, “Being a Freedom Forum fellow has given me a lot more confidence.”
Pippins agreed: “One surprise has been some of the assignments I’ve been given early on. There were a couple of stories I thought might have gone to a more experienced reporter. But the fact that Rich and the other editors have enough confidence in my ability to do those assignment says a lot for them and made me feel more confidence in my abilities as a journalist.”
Not only is Pippins doing Page One stories, Rassmann said, but she also has begun editing on the city desk. “She’s rising fast on the staff,” he said.
Rassman said that the abilities of fellows such as Pippins to make significant contributions and to grow and develop are among the benefits of working at a smaller newspaper. “I’m a believer in small newspapers,” he said.
While recruiting journalists of color to smaller newspapers is a primary goal of the program, retaining them in the industry is another, said Mary Kay Blake, Freedom Forum senior vice president/partnerships and initiatives.
“Too often, new journalists are too narrowly assigned and too easily overlooked among the more experienced staffs at larger newspapers," Blake said. "Too often, they miss out on the good grounding a smaller newsroom can provide through a wide range of assignments and the personal attention of several editors and colleagues — key elements of success in the critical first few developmental years. And when that happens, too often new journalists become frustrated and leave, and we have lost valuable current and future talent.”
Blake noted that the program’s two-year commitment allows the fellows to truly understand a newspaper and its community, and allows the newspaper to get a fair return on its hiring investment and have some staffing stability.
Mentors, partners and a coach
Fellows are assigned a mentor and a professional partner at the newspaper and work with a career coach provided by the Freedom Forum.
“One of our goals is to offer professional support to our fellows to help them both develop their journalism skills and navigate the culture of the newsroom, ” said Cindy Stiff, career coach. “We hope such support will help retain these journalists.
"A single mentor, a single partnering colleague, a single writing coach, a single assignment editor can make an important difference in the life of a reporter, especially a journalist of color who may be the only person of color or one of the few in the newsroom," Stiff said.
Fellows are required to participate in news-budget meetings or committee opportunities provided by the newspaper and to write a report every six months about their progress. They also are asked to work with the newspaper’s high school journalism program, if one exists.
Naranjo and her immediate supervisor are spending time at a local high school. “It’s really encouraging to pass on the information and knowledge I’m giving about journalism and to hope these high school students will be journalists some day,” she said.
She also has participated in a focus group on younger readers and attended a National Credibility Roundtable sponsored by her newspaper. Naranjo calls these experiences “helpful in that I was involved in groups or meetings that I saw as important.”
Participating newspapers are required to respond to ASNE's annual newsroom-employment survey and to enable the fellow to attend a professional convention each year with an editor. (Fellows’ expenses are paid by the Freedom Forum.) Newspapers also are asked to have quarterly career conversations between a key editor and the fellow.
Blake said the program seeks newspapers that already do a good job of developing talent, “because fellows in those newsrooms have a head start on success.”
Fellows employed from Gastonia to Great Falls
Current ASNE/APME Fellows are employed at newspapers across the country. Ten newspaper companies and three privately owned newspapers participate in the program by employing fellows:
Advance Publications
Community Newspaper Co.
E.W. Scripps Co.
Freedom Communications Inc.
Gannett Co., Inc.
McClatchy Co.
Morris Communications Corp.
New York Times Co.
North Jersey Media Group Inc.
Swift Newspapers Inc.
Privately owned newspapers
For more information about the ASNE/APME Fellows program, contact partnerships@freedomforum.org. Also see the related ASNE/APME program link below.