A roadmap for the future

April 1, 2004

UNITY President's Message Ernest Sotomayor

We are doing just that.

On March 19-21, 2004, UNITY’s board of directors was joined by the executive leadership of the four alliance associations in a joint session, the first in five years, to move toward completion of UNITY’s five-year strategic plan. The meeting was hosted by the Gannett Co. at its corporate headquarters in McLean, Va., which also house its flagship, USA Today, and the Gannett Foundation (see remarks from the dinner).

With input over the past six months from each association, the plan is charting smarter ways to supplement each association’s work, strengthen our voice and our advocacy for more representative coverage and hiring of people of color, build new alliances and develop new revenue sources. Initiatives would include new models for our UNITY convention and convening sessions between those convention years, conducting original research and stepping up our joint advocacy efforts.

The strategic plan will be unveiled to our members and the industry at UNITY 2004 in Washington this August, where you’ll see a number of our initiatives already underway, and others in preparation to follow the convention.

Among the steps already taken by the board was a decision last fall to set the UNITY conventions on schedule with the national presidential elections. That means our next UNITY gathering is set for 2008, with the location to be determined. Our goal will include sponsorship of a national presidential debate that year to put before the voters as never before the issues most important to people of color.

In the meantime, we’re putting final touches on this year’s convention, “A Powerful Alliance. A Force for Change,” set for Aug. 4-8. Register now and book your lodging. Watch UNITY’s and the alliance association Web sites for more in coming days on major programs, speakers, and other details.

In recent months, UNITY’s officers have spread the word about our upcoming convention, and continued our push for more diversity in local television and radio newsrooms.

• I spoke before a symposium of policy-makers from the Federal Communications Commission, legal scholars, educators, researchers and broadcast executives that was gathering input about diversity in the local broadcasting markets. The input is intended to help guide the FCC as it prepares to implement new rules on local competition in broadcasting, with UNITY promoting the need for rules that would move broadcasters to bring more people of color into newsrooms.

• In January, UNITY and the Radio and Television News Directors Association convened a summit on diversity in broadcasting, with Columbia University’s Department of Journalism as our host. Among those attending were the presidents of news divisions at ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN, along with two dozen other news executives from local broadcasting outlets. During the daylong session, we had a candid discussion about why representation of people of color in local broadcasting is dropping, what we believe broadcasters need to do to accelerate the hiring of our people, tactics they should employ, invited collaborations and pledged to work with any company to bring about changes. UNITY will seek to reunite the participants later this year to continue the dialogue at our convention. 

• I lectured at the University of Texas Department of Journalism on diversity, will be moderating a program on diversity in local coverage held in conjunction with the local SPJ chapter and ASNE at the University of Iowa next month.
  
  
• UNITY and our associations will send contigents to the annual RTNDA/NAB and ASNE conventions in Las Vegas and Washington, again advocating for greater diversity in hiring and coverage. During those conventions, we’ll be meeting with the boards of the associations and previewing our agenda for the convention, and the initiatives we have planned afterward.

While we’ve all prepared for the convention, the alliance associations have been accomplishing much on their own. Here’s a recap of their work in recent months:

» Achievements of UNITY alliance partners since last fall

Ernest R. Sotomayor
President, Board of Directors, and chair, Executive Committee
UNITY: Journalists of Color, Inc.

| Back to Top |