I just spent the last week in Minneapolis at the Native American Journalists Association where I partipated in a mentor program designed by UNITY: Journalists of Color, Inc. UNITY recieved a $100,000 grant from the Ford Foundation to develop New U, a pilot program for journalism entrepreneurs. It’s part of a national trend of journalists taking news into their own hands.
“One of the best and most effective ways for journalists to evolve in the 21st century is to own their work product. This professional development opportunity will teach journalists the business side of the industry to help journalists of color not only survive but thrive in a changing economy,” said Barbara Ciara, UNITY President.
New U will be a collaboration with UNITY’s alliance partners, including NABJ, NAHJ, AAJA and NAJA. Doug Mitchell, founder/creator of NPR’s “next generation radio” and Alli Joseph, a producer, entrepreneur, will serve as program managers; Mitchell and Joseph are also the program designers. “The reason the Ford Foundation has funded New U is that there are so few opportunities in entrepreneurship for journalists of color,” said Calvin Sims, Program Officer at The Ford Foundation.
For minority journalists, that’s awesome news. It means that we can own our own businesses and take a more proactive stance in sharing news with the world.Journalists as entrepreneurs comes on the heels of a rapidly changing news industry. Did you know 12,000 to 15,000 reporters have left U.S. newsrooms in the last five years? The mass exodus can be chalked up to a dismal economy. Scores of newspapers laid off staff. Many other newsrooms simply didn’t replace journalists who quit or retired. Annual newsroom revenues are now down by about $20 billion in the last few years.
A recent discussion on the Diane Rehm Show about non-profit journalism points to a news hole of disastrous proportions. News experts estimate that more than one million stories never made it into print because so many journalists are no longer in the newsroom. I am among the missing in print – although you can find me online here at the Buffalo’s Fire. I didn’t get laid off from the newspaper but decided my writing career might fare better outside the newsroom. I wanted to do some in-depth storytelling so I left Lee Enterprises to work on a book about the Cobell v. Salazar lawsuit. I’m also embracing digital storytelling on the airwaves. My new radio program is called Tribal Scene.
Since leaving daily journalism, I’ve had a chance to claim my writing as my own. That means I can use my skills in new ways. In addition to working on the book, I started a business, White Swan Media. It’s a new company, a work in progress. As for the thousands of journalists no longer working at newspapers. Well, we left newspapers, but we didn’t leave the business of making news. Like many other news entrepreneurs, I’m embracing this new business beginning. As minority news consumers, we need more minority news businesses. “As the information eco‐system continues evolving, the emerging patterns demonstrate that information is being distributed in new ways and that older models are no longer sufficient, or perhaps to certain audiences, no longer entirely relevant,” according to a Native Public Media report titled “New Media, Technology and Internet Use in Indian Country:
Quantitative and Qualitative Analyses.”
It’s the digital age. Possiblities abound.
Jodi Rave
