NAHJ Launches Parity Project @ Three West Texas Newspapers.

The National Association of Hispanic Journalists successfully launched the Parity Project at three Scripps newspapers in West Texas Dec. 15-17. The NAHJ has so far launched the parity project at a total of six Scripps newspapers this year.

NAHJ unveiled the project with the San Angelo Standard Times on Dec. 15, the Abilene Reporter-News Dec. 16 and the Wichita Falls Times Record News Dec. 17.

In all three cities, NAHJ conducted diversity training sessions with the staff members of each newspaper.

NAHJ’s Michael Zamba leads diversity training session with newspaper staff of the Abilene Reporter-News.

NAHJ also held a town hall meeting in San Angelo and Wichita Falls with members of the Hispanic community to discuss the paper’s coverage of issues affecting the city’s Latino community. More than 50 community representatives attended each meeting. NAHJ will return to Abilene in January to co-host a town all meeting.

NAHJ announced the creation of the Parity Project in October of 2002. The goal of the project is to increase dramatically the employment of Latino journalists during the next five years. NAHJ will work with the news industry, through the Parity Project, to double the percentage of Latino journalists working in our nation’s newsrooms.

The Parity Project will identify cities where Latinos are underrepresented in the newsrooms but make up a significant portion of the population. In those cities, NAHJ will offer to work jointly with existing print and broadcast outlets, area journalism schools, foundations and Latino community leaders to develop comprehensive model programs that will increase Latino newsroom presence and influence.

The Scripps newspaper chain is NAHJ’s first Parity Project partner. Last April, NAHJ launched the project at Scripps’ flagship paper, the Rocky Mountain News, in Denver. NAHJ also kicked off the project with the Ventura County Star in June and the Naples Daily News in September.

NAHJ’s Parity Project has received initial financial support from both the McCormick Tribune Foundation and the John S. Knight Foundation. The NAHJ board has set a goal of raising $3.6 million over the next five years to expand rapidly the Parity Project to dozens of target cities.