AAJA members selected for mentoring in the business of journalism
By Elwin Green
Diversity Institute Fellow
08.10.04
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The Asian American Journalists Association and The New York Times initiated a pilot mentoring program during the UNITY conference by pairing three Times employees with three AAJA members interested in the business side of journalism.
Dennis Stern, vice president of human resources for the Times, said the mentoring program is based on one started among Times’ employees in 1999. “Our one regret is that we didn’t start it 10 years before,” he said.
The three AAJA participants will be mentored for one year, and Stern said he hopes the new program is so successful that it will be expanded in coming years.
On Wednesday, Times’ trainer Gary Proctor helped prepare participants for their new relationships.
The pilot program with the Times is not AAJA’s first venture into mentoring. Its Executive Leadership Program helps mid-career Asian-American journalists define career goals. In the program, journalists whose goals include management have been able to apply for mentoring.
The first class had five mentor-protégé pairs. The current class, which started in March, has four. Again, the executive mentoring requires a one-year commitment. Wednesday, those mentors and protégés met for a mid-year evaluation.
Mae Cheng, president of AAJA and a reporter at Newsday, is a protégé partnered with Diane McFarlin, publisher of the Sarasota (Fla.) Herald-Tribune and former president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors.
Cheng said that she and McFarlin have so much in common that they would have become friends even if they had met at random.
“It’s nice to bounce things off someone with a lot more experience who is completely on your side and who has no ulterior motives — someone who is focused on you,” Cheng said.
Cheng and McFarlin maintain their relationship by speaking by phone at least once a month, with additional phone calls and e-mails as needed. “She’s extremely responsive,” Cheng said.
Cheng had experience as a mentor, but this is her first time as a protégé.
“Lots of people have gotten through their careers because they’ve had an unofficial mentor, someone who took an interest in them,” Stern said.
But he noted that not everyone finds a mentor on his or her own. “The real beauty of a formal program is, when you sign up for a program, you’re going to get a mentor.”