Native publication aimed at recruitment
Denny McAuliffe saw too few newspapers on reservations and tribal colleges and too few Native journalists in American newspapers. So he created reznet, an online newspaper geared toward Native Americans, at the University of Montana’s journalism school in Missoula, Mont.
McAuliffe said he hopes the online publication (www.reznetnews.org) will bring Native American news to tribal colleges and may also bring young Native journalists into the profession. Many students from Indian country “don’t think of journalism as a career” because newspapers have little presence on so many reservations, said McAuliffe, a former night foreign desk editor for The Washington Post. “Newspapers may play no role in their lives.”
This lack of influence is reflected in America’s newsrooms. An annual diversity survey by the American Society of Newspaper Editors, which polls two-thirds of the nation’s daily newspapers, found that 307 of 54,414 newsroom employees were Native Americans.
Black papers challenge Philly Daily News
Six black newspapers have started a joint advertising campaign to promote Philadelphia’s black press after a boycott of the Philadelphia Daily News due to alleged racial insensitivity in its reporting.
The boycott was in reaction to an Aug. 22 cover story in the Daily News about 41 people – all black, Hispanic, or Asian – who were wanted for murder charges. The story featured a dozen mug shots of minority suspects on the front page. It did not mention that no at-large white murder suspects were being sought by police.
The newspaper apologized, but many black activists, church leaders and others have called for retailers in black areas to stop selling the Daily News. The paper relies heavily on street sales.
Participants in the promotion are The Philadelphia Tribune, the area’s largest black newspaper and the nation’s oldest continuously published black newspaper, The Philadelphia New Observer, The Philadelphia Sunday Sun, Black Suburban Journal, Scoop and Neighborhood Leader.
Tagged under: diversity
