After receiving a report projecting a $391,000 year-end loss, the Society of Professional Journalists halted plans for its 2024 conference and is seeking financial support from its foundation.
The society bills itself as “the nation’s most broad-based journalism organization” and is most well-known for its code of ethics. As a 501(c)(6), SPJ advocates for journalists and the First Amendment. It is separate from the SPJ Foundation, which is a 501(c)(3) charity that accepts tax-deductible donations and works to support the society and other journalism organizations.
“The foundation was actually created to be in support of the society, not just from a programming and educational standpoint, but also in many cases, a financial standpoint,” SPJ president Ashanti Blaize-Hopkins said. “This is an occasion where they’re needed a little bit more than we’ve needed them in the past, and they’re stepping up and they’re answering the call.”
Declining membership numbers and the loss of key clients and sponsorships have caused SPJ’s revenues to fall even as its expenses remain steady, interim director Jennifer Royer said. The society closed out 2021 with a $53,000 deficit and 2022 with a $300,000 deficit. An internal financial report dated Sept. 14 predicted another loss for 2023 and revealed that year-to-date, the organization is sitting on a $96,000 deficit.
Membership has always been SPJ’s biggest source of revenue, Royer said. The news industry has contracted significantly in the past decade, affecting SPJ’s membership. The organization had roughly 8,000 members nine years ago. As of mid-September, it had a little more than half that.
SPJ has several regional chapters, and on the eve of its annual convention this year, the SPJ Florida chapter sent members an email blasting the organization for not being more transparent and sharing numbers from the Sept. 14 financial report.
Former SPJ treasurer Israel Balderas said the organization has worked hard to be transparent, hosting open board meetings on Zoom and posting the recordings online. He said that when the board discussed its budget for 2023 while he was still treasurer, he took issue with what he said were unrealistic predictions. For example, last year, membership revenue brought in $259,000. The budget proposed for this year anticipated SPJ making $350,000 through memberships despite the wave of layoffs that has hit the industry.
“That would require that we would have an unbelievable amount of journalists signing up for SPJ, but that hasn’t been the reality for years,” Balderas said. “I don’t see how you can overcome these deficits this high without making those severe cuts.”
Balderas suggested that the organization might need to lay off staff or reduce benefits for its seven employees. The SPJ board voted at its conference Sept. 27 to cancel next year’s conference as a cost-cutting measure. Royer said that SPJ has also left roles unfulfilled after staff departures, made several roles contract positions and cut stipends for regional conferences in a bid to save money. The organization has also recently hired a new fundraising director to plan events and an end-of-year campaign.
Though Balderas and the leaders of the Florida chapter have suggested that SPJ’s financial issues are an existential risk to the organization, Blaize-Hopkins and SPJ Foundation president Hagit Limor said that is simply not true. The foundation — which reported $17.2 million in assets in 2021, much of it from donations and investment income made off its endowment — is working on a “reinvestment plan” that will support the society. They declined to give specifics because the details are still being negotiated, but they hope to deal with the current year’s financial issues within the next month before tackling the 2024 budget. The reinvestment plan will not involve combining the society and the foundation — as Balderas has argued for.
SPJ leaders stressed that the numbers in the financial report were projections. Limor said that during the conference, which ended Saturday, “there was one amount of money that was approved that already will change the projected shortfall … regarding the convention.” Depending on the final 2023 numbers and the reinvestment plan, SPJ may be able to add back expenses it previously cut, Blaize-Hopkins said.
“There is a world in which we are able to settle on this reinvestment plan and put the convention for 2024 back on the table,” Blaize-Hopkins said.
At a time when the news industry is steadily shrinking, SPJ will have to make sure journalists understand the benefits of a membership and the work that the society does, Blaize-Hopkins said. She added that SPJ must also explore additional streams of revenue to ensure it has a sustainable future.
Throughout its 114-year history, SPJ has weathered a number of financial challenges, including one shortfall that forced the organization to move headquarters. Blaize-Hopkins and Limor said that the foundation’s stability has helped give the society time to work out solutions during more difficult years.
“To have some financial challenges come up every 50 years or so, I think, is not going to be a significant black eye on an organization in any way,” Limor said. “I really believe this is just a normal business course of events, and the message is that we are going to get past it together.”
