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January 2004 KCABJ Newsletter
December Snowfall Cancels Monthly Meeting
KCABJ President Anita K. Parran decided on the morning of Saturday, Dec.
13, that the 7-inch snowfall that hit Kansas City overnight was a bit too
much. The KCABJ meeting that day was canceled and will be rescheduled soon.
Officers for 2004 were to be elected. A complimentary Gates barbecue lunch
was planned for KCABJ members. The new meeting date will include the agenda
items, the free lunch and information about an offer to KCABJ to collaborate
with the American Business Womens Association on programs in the new year.
NABJ News
Early Bird registration for the UNITY 2004 Conference -- Aug. 4-8 in Washington,
D.C. -- runs through Feb. 15. This will be the third UNITY conference of
African-American, Hispanic, Asian American and Native American journalists
organizations. The first was in 1994 in Atlanta. The second was in 1999 in
Seattle.
NABJ will take applications for the Student Development Program for the
UNITY convention. A total of 104 students will be picked to work on the
newspaper, radio, television and new media projects covering the conference.
Each of the four sponsoring journalists organizations will pick 26 students
to handle the convention coverage. The students will make up the staffs of
the NABJ Monitor, a daily convention newspaper; NABJ-TV, a student-produced
nightly half-hour newscast; NABJ-Radio, a student run news program; and NABJ
Online for the NABJ convention Web site coverage. Students can apply for up
to two media projects. They must be full-time college students, available
Aug. 1-8, age 18 and must submit a UNITY Student Project application before
the March 5 deadline. The application can be found at
www.unityjournalists.org/DC2004/.
KCABJ workshop graduate Kara Edgerson was on the staff of the NABJ Monitor during the 2003
NABJ convention in Dallas. KCABJ member Glenn E. Rice helped her with the
hook-up.
NABJ also is partnering with other journalism organizations to offer a
2004 Sports Journalism Institute. It is a nine-week training and internship
program for college students interested in sports journalism careers. The
program runs June 18 to Aug. 13. Its purpose is to increase racial and
gender diversity in sports departments at newspapers nationwide. For more
information check out http://apse.dallasnews.com/news/sjiapplication.html.
Other News
The percentage of women in daily newsrooms again declined slightly from
37.05 percent to 36.86 percent, according to the 2003 American Society of
Newspaper Editors survey. ASNE three years ago began keeping track of the
percentage of women in the industry. Then it was 37.35 percent. In the past
three years, the number of minority women has increased by 195 while the
number of white women has declined by 1,088. Women journalists of color
constitute 15.8 percent of daily newspaper staffs. Women now head 23 of the
100 largest newspapers. Knight Ridder, which owns The Kansas City Star, has
women heading five of its newspapers.
The Knight Center in Editing is conducting an online survey to assess the
workload and training of copy editors. The results will be used to determine
ways to upgrade editing courses. All responses to the survey will be
confidential. The Web address is http://freeonline
surveys.com/rendersurvey.asp?id=46144.
A "Broadcast News Reporting'' seminar will teach participants who want
to learn how to be successful in the ``convergence'' media environment ways
to do voice-overs, narration, conduct interviews and how to construct a news
package. Also for the workshop, participants will produce a resume tape of
professional quality. For more information check out
http://www.ire.org/training/broadcastReporting.html.
People interested in attending guest lectures at the University of
Missouri-Columbia School of Journalism can check out
http://journalism.missouri.edu/news/guests-2003.html.
Jobs and More
The Missouri Lifestyle Journalism Program, which had been called
Penney-Missouri, is accepting applications for its 2004 contest, sponsored
by the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Journalism. Trophies and
prize money totaling $18,000 are given in the feature writing and editing
competition. For more information check out
http://journalism.missouri.edu/affiliations/lifestylejournalism/entry.html.
The Howard Simons Graduate Fellowship is now seeking applications. The
fellowship is offered by The Washington Post and the University of Maryland.
It was created to expand opportunities for minority journalists in the
newspaper industry. For more information check out
www.washpost.com/howardsimons.
WB Kansas City (KSMO-TV) has openings for a writer/producer and a
copy/continuity coordinator. Send e-mail to jeskew@ksmo.sbjnet.com for more
information.
The National Society of Newspaper Columnists is seeking entries for its
Humanitarian Award, 2004 General Columnist Contest and Herb Caen Memorial
Award. For more information send e-mail to director@columnists.com or call
(415) 722-7030.
The Knight Center for Specialized Journalism is offering fellowships for
its ``Grids, Gridlock & the Politics of Power'' seminar Feb. 17-20. For more
information call the Knight Center at (301) 405-4817 or check out
www.knightcenter.umd.edu.
The Nieman Fellows program is seeking applications for its yearlong
program. It includes a $55,000 stipend, plus a housing allowance. For more
information check out http://nieman.harvard.edu.
The E.W. Scripps Company has established the Scripps Academy for Hispanic
Journalists. It's a training and education program to help early career
Hispanic journalists develop the skills to succeed in daily newspaper
careers. The academy will be at the Rocky Mountain News under the direction
of Michael Madigan, an assistant managing editor at the newspaper.
The Times Union of Albany, N.Y., is seeking an executive photo editor.
For more information contact Mike Spain at www.timesunion.com.
The Dallas Morning News is seeking a copy chief for its business copy
desk. Send e-mail to businessnews@dallasnews.com for more information.
Applications are being accepted for the John S. Knight Fellowships at
Stanford University. For more information call (650) 723-4937 or check out
http://knight.stanford.edu.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is seeking an education reporter. For more
information call David Shribman at (412) 263-1601 or e-mail him at
dshribman@post-gazette.com.
KC People
KCABJ closed 2003 with a paid membership of 51. Eugene T. Scott and
Cherronna R. Mitchell are the newest members of the organization. All
memberships must be renewed starting in January. Membership runs from
January through December. Click here for the membership form.
Former KCABJ member Melanie Coffee with The Associate Press wrote a
flattering love story about KCABJ Secretary Kia Shant'e Breaux. Kia and
Melanie are friends, sorority sisters and were students at the University of
Missouri-Columbia School of Journalism. The story is of Kia's love and
marriage to John Randle III. It ran in December on the AP wire.
Celeste Garrett and Bennie Currie, a married couple who were KCABJ members in the late 1980s, both recently left large news organizations for jobs in the Chicago public sector. Celeste, a longtime metropolitan editor at the Chicago Tribune, has joined the public relations staff of the Chicago Board of Education. Bennie, an Associated Press reporter in recent years, has joined the Chicago Public Building Commission.
A journalist's voice is silenced
Ben Johnson, a distinguished journalist and passionate diversity advocate for more than 30 years, was found dead last month near his home in Huntsville, Ala. Ben, who in recent years had worked as a copy editor, columnist and radio commentator in Huntsville, apparently died of a self-inflicted gunshot. He was 53.
 Ben Johnson
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Ben was well-known to KCABJ members during his time in the University of Missouri journalism school in the late 1980s. While at MU he directed the ground-breaking Multicultural Management Program, which was the first program of its kind to immerse working journalists in nut-and-bolts management training, business planning and diversity awareness. Some of today's leading print and new-media journalists participated in MMP during and after Johnson's stay in Columbia. One of them, Dwight Lewis of the Nashville Tennessean, recently wrote a column about Ben.
Ben was a Marines Corps journalist and later worked at the Washington Post, the Louisville Courier-Journal, the Detroit Free Press and the St. Petersburg Times. Throughout his career Ben was fervent voice for diversity in newsrooms, and late in his life became an expert on African cultural and business issues.
He is survived by his wife, Mary Esther Bullard-Johnson, two daughters and a grandson.
More information about Ben's career and tragic passing is posted on the NABJ Web site and at the Huntsville Times.
KCABJ Membership Application
Mail this application with your $20 check to cover your annual membership
dues. It entitles you to receive the KCABJ monthly newsletter and monthly
meeting notices.
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(Membership in KCABJ runs from January through December. Annual dues of
$20 in the organization has not changed since 1981. It is the lowest of any
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2004 Kansas City Association of Black Journalists
P.O. Box 32744, Kansas City, Mo. 64111
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