PND (4/11/2000) -- Freedom Forum Commits $5 Million to Help Attract Minorities to Careers in Journalism

The Freedom Forum, an Arlington, Virginia-based foundation dedicated to "free press, free speech, and free spirit for all people," has announced a $5 million commitment to help increase the number of minority journalists available for employment in America's newsrooms.

The gift includes a new $1 million partnership with the American Society of Newspaper Editors and the Associated Press Managing Editors. According to Charles L. Overby, chairman and chief executive officer of the Freedom Forum, the partnership money will be spent on efforts to attract minority journalists to smaller daily newspapers.

"For daily newspapers to be vibrant and the First Amendment to have any meaning, we really have to reflect society at large," said Overby at a session of the ASNE, which held its annual convention in Washington, D.C., last week.

A recent study from ASNE found disappointingly small increases in the number of underrepresented minorities in the overall workforce of daily newspapers. According to the ASNE employment survey, minority journalists account for only 11.85 percent of the newsroom workforce, compared with the 28.4 percent of the general population comprised by African-Americans, Asian-Americans, Hispanics and Native Americans.

In addition to the $1 million partnership, Overby announced several initiatives designed to increase the number of minority journalists entering the profession. Receiving total funding of $4 million, these efforts include the establishment of a center at Vanderbilt University to provide journalism training for people with non-traditional backgrounds; the hiring of four diversity fellows who will travel around the United States to colleges to recruit students of color for careers in journalism; and the expansion of the Freedom Forum's 10-year-old Chips Quinn Scholars program, which, by the end of 2000, will have trained nearly 500 journalists of color. Another $1 million diversity partnership fund will also be made available for programs that achieve measurable results toward the goal of increasing the number of minority journalists, and a professional development program will be added for alumni of the Chips Quinn program. The Freedom Forum will also fund the creation and distribution of a video designed to encourage young people of color to choose newspaper careers. The video will be available at no cost to newspapers and journalism schools to aid in their recruiting efforts.

Arvidson, Cheryl. "Freedom Forum Unveils 'Milestone Partnership' for Newsroom Diversity." Freedom Forum Online 4/13/2000.

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