Newsroom survey should include question on sexual orientation / gender identity

Today the American Society of News Editors released its annual report on the makeup of the country’s newsrooms as it closed out its three-day confab in Washington, D.C. While the group found a “very slim increase” in newsroom employees last year, for the third consecutive year the percentage of African-American, Asian, Latino, and Native American [...]

Roy Aarons is Smiling

I didn’t know Leroy Aarons, credited with being the founding father of NLGJA. He died shortly after I attended my first convention in New York and I never had the chance to meet him. Yet, in the midst of the discussion over whether NLGJA should accept an invitation to join UNITY, Aaron’s presence was “visible” [...]

UPDATE: NLGJA Joining UNITY Coalition

Historic news from NLGJA and UNITY this morning.  The NLGJA board has unanimously voted to accept an invitation to join UNITY as a full member.  We will be joining our colleagues at the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, the Asian American Journalists Association and the Native American Journalists Association as the newest member of UNITY [...]

UNITY Asks NLGJA to Join Alliance

Some big news was made last night at the NLGJA convention in Philadelphia when President David Steinberg announced the board has approved him to officially continue talks about NLGJA joining UNITY, an alliance  of “journalists of color” that includes the Asian American Journalists Association, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, and the Native American Journalists [...]

Is WaPo About to Rethink Its Policy of Identifying Gays?

A column by Washington Post Ombudsman Andy Alexander and a follow-up on his blog suggests that the paper is on the verge of reconsidering its policy on identifying the sexual orientation of people in news stories. The possible change comes as many have questioned the paper’s unwillingness to identify a murder victim as gay after [...]