Kathy Times, NABJ Vice President of Broadcast
By KATHY TIMES
As Vice President of Broadcast for the National Association of Black Journalists, there’s something on my things-to-do list everyday, but it has been a wonderful journey. Since you elected me last August, I have had meetings with the presidents of ABC News, CBS News, Fox News and NBC News to discuss hiring, training and promoting more African-American journalists. I’ve worked with a committed NABJ Board of Directors to crank out a bare-bones budget. It was quite an experience cutting, adding and subtracting to make sure we have funds to offer quality events and programs and pay down debt. We did it in one weekend.
As the chair of the Media Institute committee, I am responsible for NABJ professional development beyond the annual convention. NABJ President Barbara Ciara has challenged the committee to offer you a workshop or incentives to get training every month. Starting in the fall, NABJ plans to offer coast-to-coast training every month. Get ready for classes on digital journalism, political reporting, dissecting standardized tests and much more. Details will be posted soon on NABJ’s Web site. With the support of The New York Times and television networks, we’ll offer management training. Earlier this year, we partnered with Investigative Reporters and Editors for a “Better Watchdog” class. We also teamed up with San Francisco State University, CNN and the Knight Digital Media Center to offer members intensive training in digital media.
The smorgasbord of workshops continues at Unity 2008 in Chicago. Here are some things to remember if you’re going to attend the convention:
NABJ’s big events are being held at the Sheraton Hotel. The Career Expo opens Wednesday, July 23, instead of Thursday. Get there early. We’re sharing the stage with three organizations that represent journalists of color. You’ll be competing with twice as many people for an interview or critique. On Thursday, make plans to hear the presidential candidates. Spend Saturday with some of the best in the business as NABJ honors Journalist of the Year Leonard Pitts and other super journalists during the Salute To Excellence. You don’t want to miss the Tampa party Saturday night as we get crunked for NABJ 2009 in Florida.
Here is some great news that came out of the spring board meeting in Atlanta. In response to the 266 black journalists who lost their jobs or left the nation’s newsrooms last year, the board established scholarships that will pay the Unity registration fees for those who lost their jobs since January of 2007. For information, go to www.nabj.org.
If I can help you or if you would like to volunteer to make NABJ a stronger body, don’t hesitate to e-mail me at kytimes (at) aol.com. Thanks to those of you who came to my going-away bash in Birmingham. I can’t wait to see you all at the convention in Chicago.
Kathy Times, National Association of Black Journalist vice president-broadcast, is evening anchor for WDBD-TV in Jackson, Miss. She is a former investigative reporter for NBC-13 in Birmingham and past treasurer of BABJ.
