The New York Times / Journal-isms
The New York Times won’t support the 2012 National Association of Black Journalists convention and instead will attend UNITY. The Times made the choice after NABJ decided to break away from UNITY, which brings members of minority journalism associations together every four years for a convention. The larger convention was convenient for media companies because they only had to attend one event rather than four. “This was never a debate about not supporting NABJ, of course. It’s about attending an alternate convention in a UNITY year,” Dana Canedy, a senior editor at the Times, said by phone. “We have every intention of returning to the NABJ convention in non-UNITY years.”
Kathy Y. Times, NABJ president, responded to the Times’ decision by saying its contribution has been minimal anyway. “Again, this year, they are only exhibiting in the career fair ($2,000),” she told Journal-isms. But Canedy said that figure vastly underestimates the Times’ contribution. This year The New York Times Co. has paid for three booths — for the Times, The Boston Globe and the Times regional newspaper group — as well as a reception. In past years the company has sponsored conference workshops, hosted receptions for the Student Journalism Institute, the New York Times Leadership/NABJ Academy, and promising job candidates, and paid for a delegation of eight to 12 Times employees. Other New York Times Co. newspapers can make their own decisions on paying for employees to go, but she expects that the Times’ efforts to contain costs will influence them.
A representative of CNN told the Times that the news org hoped that NABJ and Unity would work together. The Washington Post said it will be spending less on convention support across the board in 2012.
