Ricardo Pimentel, editorial page editor at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, has compiled a busy resume during his newspaper career: reporter, metro editor, Washington correspondent, managing editor, executive editor, syndicated columnist, author.
In that mix there is one constant: advocate for diversity.
And now you can add another title: president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ), a position he was elected to last year, at a time of turmoil in our industry, a time when financial support for organizations such as NAHJ is shrinking, a time when there are questions about the attention being paid to diversity these days.
Pimentel, a former colleague and longtime friend and editor of the editorial pages of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel since June, 2004, recently replied to several e-mail questions from Poynter. Here is the edited exchange:
Gregory Favre: What are your goals for NAHJ?
Pimentel: I, of course, want to keep the organization healthy with the help of our very able board and staff. That means financially mostly, but I’m also thinking here of the professional health of our members. We all know how tough things are for media companies. Our membership feels it acutely. It seems as if we hear weekly, if not daily, of someone new ensnared by layoffs or buyouts, both of which translate to being out of work.
So, we are looking at the services we provide to keep people in jobs or find new ones. Our annual conference — this year in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in June — is being planned with these needs in mind. But beyond the conference, we are launching programs that, we hope, will offer help to members suffering in this economic downturn.
Has the support for the association dropped in these tough times and, if so, how are you balancing the budget these days?
Pimentel: Our membership is actually up, from 2,160 in 2007 to 2,370 in 2008. I think it’s probably because of a keen effort on behalf of the board and the staff to keep membership up and an acknowledgment in these tough times that we’re an organization worth belonging to.
But there is no doubt that support we’ve had in the past from news organizations is drying up. We’ve had success with our Parity Project, in which we partner with newsrooms to increase Latino staffing and improve coverage, but that is even getting harder to sustain when so many organizations are hemorrhaging jobs.
We enjoy the support we do get from non-media companies but believe that it is simply shortsighted of media companies to not contribute to their long-term interests. And given the changing demographics, we believe the work NAHJ does to ensure Latino representation in newsrooms and accurate representation on news pages and news broadcasts serves that long-term interest.
Balancing the budget for us simply means looking at what’s coming in and spending commensurately. That has meant a smaller staff than in previous years even though our needs haven’t decreased. But we’re doing OK — under the circumstances.
How do you assess the future of diversity in newsrooms and in print, broadcast and online? And how much impact will the financial woes of the industry have on it?
Pimentel: I worry about it a lot. I did before I assumed this position, and I do even more since I took the helm. Anecdotally, we are hearing of many Latinos losing jobs. Absent hard data, it might be hard to argue that journalists of color are suffering disproportionately from the cuts.
But here’s what else we know: There are already too few Latinos in journalism, just looking at ASNE’s annual census. When you lose folks you have too few of anyway, it has to hurt the considerable contributions this kind of diversity affords a newsroom. You have to wonder who, then, will cover the communities of color with the understanding, sensitivity and balance that comes from personal cultural experience. Losing bilingual or bi-cultural expertise will hurt news organizations’ ability to accomplish the basics and stymie their ability to rebound once this economy recovers. Anecdotally, it seems as if news organizations are not taking diversity into account enough to suit us.
The future of diversity in print, online and broadcast? Questionable and very much up in the air at the moment. Financial impact? These cuts are being billed as matters of financial necessity. We’re saying that there are smart ways to cut and dumb ones. We’d put cutting diversity in that latter category.
As you look back on your years in the news media, what in your view has been the biggest advancement in the area of diversity?
Pimentel: I’ve seen coverage of Latinos — and generally of communities of color — go from horrid to improved. I say improved and not some other superlative because we’ve still got some work to do. I still see too much coverage of Latinos, for instance, as just victims or suspects, but this is better than it used to be. And too much of the coverage of immigration has focused on the numbers of illegal immigration rather than the faces and underlying causes of this migration. And it is simply mind-boggling that I still read headlines with the word “illegals” in them.
Also, sometimes it seems as if the only Latino story out there is immigration. There is so much more to the community than that, though the numbers of immigrants are significant. NAHJ is mulling some initiatives on immigration coverage. It used to be that when newspapers covered “minorities” or ran stories on stats or demographics, Latinos were the invisible people. Not so much anymore.
There have been employment advances that, I fear, are being eroded in this economic climate. Though we can cite a number of Latinos who have advanced to senior positions, it’s still not nearly enough. And, sadly, these numbers also have eroded as of late. For instance, I’d be hard-pressed to name more than one Latino(a) executive editor of a major newspaper at the moment.
I know of three Latino editorial page editors who work for a major newspaper (I’m one of them), but generally see a paucity of Latinos on the opinion side generally — as editorial writers or columnists. These positions come with bullhorns installed and can have a huge impact. So overall, better, but a ways to go yet. It’ll be a difficult trek if diversity is lost in a newsroom.
You have been involved in mentoring throughout the years. What is your best advice about building mentoring programs in a newsroom?
Pimentel: If no formal process exists, just do it, either as a mentor or mentee. For the mentee, my advice: Seek out wisdom. It doesn’t matter much if this wisdom comes from a white, black, brown or purple journalist. Wisdom is wisdom.
From the perspective of senior newsroom leaders: Mentoring is simply good business. It ensures talented succession. It ensures that the culture of ethics and public watch-dogging that you know keeps a news organization thriving occurs as a matter of course because you’ve made sure it will — on purpose. Diversity in newsrooms mostly only happens on purpose. A talented newsroom, grown from the bottom up, only happens on purpose as well.
I’m curious; you have been a reporter, assistant city editor, metro editor, Washington correspondent, columnist, editor and editorial page editor throughout your career. Which of these positions was most rewarding and why?
Pimentel: They’ve all been rewarding in different ways, but I’d have to say two positions in particular were a real hoot to do. If you get the chance to be the editor of your hometown newspaper, do it. Yes, folks will be calling you reminding you of the inane things you did way back when, but there is a sense of obligation that comes when it’s the town or region you grew up in. I know, editors are usually transplants and they still care about the communities they serve because, well, good journalism just dictates that they do. But layer on top of it the fact that it’s your town or state and this adds some emphasis.
The second position: A columnist who was lucky enough to be nationally syndicated. Man, getting those letters and e-mails from all over the country telling me to go back to Mexico (I’m from California), told me I was having an impact. Being an editorial page editor is a thrill because it allows one to exercise community leadership in different ways. As much as I love my current job, though, some of my fondest memories are from those two other jobs.
What do you tell young Latinos and Latinas who want to be journalists? And what questions are they asking about their futures?
Pimentel: They are asking if journalism has a future. And I tell them that it does. It does because what we do is too important to lose. The platform might change from simply print or broadcast to more multimedia efforts, but the kind of journalism that requires its practitioners to seek truth, to speak it to power, to value the needs of the governed more than the governors and, as more than one editor has observed, to turn over rocks, will always be needed.
I don’t know; this might be more hope than reason speaking here, but I’m hoping the news industry doesn’t become purely about the business of news. I’m hoping that quality journalism isn’t just deemed a luxury that impacts the bottom line. There is a future for the nimble and those unafraid to learn new skills, while retaining core principles.
