NLGJA News Blog

2006-09-08T13:01:00.000-07:00

No gala, but lots of party options

By Mashaun D. Simon

Anyone who’s surprised that there is no closing banquet at NLGJA on Saturday evening should not be shocked. It’s tradition, according to Pamela Strother, NLGJA Executive Director, that banquets be held every five years.

“Last year’s gala was the first since the 10th anniversary convention in San Francisco,” Strother said.

Members were very cognizant of how special an occasion the gala was last year, Strother said, adding that most members should be aware that Saturday evening banquets are not an annual thing.

NLGJA's 2006 Excellence in Journalism Awards & Hall of Fame Ceremony will be held Wednesday, Nov. 8, at the Palmer House Hilton in Chicago.

One hundred plus attendees are expected to attend.

Attendees looking to find something to do on Saturday evening can attend A Key West New Year: The Not-So Silent Auction in the Americana Ballroom, Salon 4, Second floor from 6:45 to 8:45 p.m.

Club NLGJA will also take place tomorrow evening in the lobby of the second floor, with a DJ, dance floor and bar.

2006-09-08T12:24:00.000-07:00

‘Dirty Laundry’ won’t be aired

The film “Dirty Laundry,” sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign, will not be shown as scheduled tonight in Poinciana Salon 3 because the film’s director, Maurice Jamal, missed his flight to Miami.

Jamal was one of the special guests scheduled to appear at tonight’s NLGJA’s Diversity Reception. A shoot for Jamal’s latest film ran long causing him to miss a flight that would get him to Miami in time for the event.

“He kept getting bumped to a later and later flight after he missed the first one,” said Thomas Cashman Avila, Deputy Executive Director for NLGJA. However, his bid to board a flight failed.

2006-09-08T12:17:00.000-07:00

Untold stories: Journalists urged to focus on poor

In days following Katrina’s devastation of the Gulf coast there was intense coverage of the hurricane’s impact on the poor. However, other stories go neglected, panelists noted at this morning’s plenary luncheon titled “Covering the Uncovered: Reporting on the Poor and Powerless.”

“We have to dig up those stories, find stories that lend [themselves] to the issues, and keep them alive,” said panelist Jen Christensen, an investigative field producer for CNN.

“Shame the system into doing something,” Christensen advised NLGJA members. “The system is easier to cover, so talk to the people, see how they struggle, personify the problem and bring it to the people who can effect change.”

— Megan Wright

2006-09-08T08:24:00.000-07:00

Out and on TV

By Mashaun D. Simon

LGBT television anchors are more accepted on the local level than nationally, due to the relationships they have created with their viewers, said John Yang, a Washington Correspondent for ABC News.

In advance of this morning’s panel discussion titled “Off Camera: The Challenges for LGBT TV Anchors,” Yang called this an incredible development.

“I never thought an LGBT TV anchor would happen when I first got into journalism,” he said. “It does not seem to matter to the viewers.

The session will explore sticky questions such as taking your partner to public events, how to describe your personal life on the company web site and the lack of openly lesbian anchors.

Moderator Patrick Noland, an anchor at WFTX-TV, a FOX affiliated in Fort Myers-Naples, Fla., will be joined by Mike Dunston, an anchor at ABC 11, Raleigh-Durham, NC.

2006-09-08T06:23:00.000-07:00

Dennis Mitchell/NLGJA Reporter
Welcome! NLGJA members sample the
goodies at the Welcoming reception
yesterday evening.

2006-09-07T12:17:00.000-07:00

NFL guards play hardball

By Mashaun D. Simon

NLGJA and its hotel cohabitants aren’t off to a pleasant start.

Two weeks ago, the National Football League, along with more than $1 million worth of equipment, moved into the Loews Miami Beach hotel as the organization prepares to kick off its 2006 season.

When NLGJA moved in to begin prepping and organizing for this week’s convention, a security team, contracted to protect the NFL’s belongings, started playing defense.

Posted in a hallway just beyond the third floor elevators of the hotel, where NLGJA student project participants, among others, must pass to get to their meeting rooms, the security guards stopped badgeless NLGJA convention participants in their tracks.

Some were prevented from moving forward, even though, as they explained, they had no badge because NLGJA’s registration desk had not opened yet.

“Unfortunately, many of our participants and attendees do not posses the proper credentials because our meeting has not yet started,” Sam Snyder, NLGJA’s meeting planner, said before the start of the conference.

When Snyder, who has been an NLGJA meeting planner since 1999, heard about some of the incidents and ran into problems herself, she contacted Frank Bustamante, her contact at the hotel. “Immediately, the situation was addressed,” she said.

Snyder said this situation reminded her of an incident that happened during the 2002 Philadelphia conference. “There was a pharmaceutical company in-house,” she said, and it sought to keep its business information under wraps amid a hotel full of journalists.

Bustamante would not comment on the issue when contacted, saying that a comment had to come from the hotel’s public relations department.

An NFL spokesperson could not be reached.

2006-09-07T11:59:00.000-07:00

LGBT media share war stories

By Alena Scarver

At a session today titled “Bringing up Baby: Moving from Survival to Success in LGBT Media,” panelists shared stories about how they have kept their publications afloat despite many obstacles.

Mark Segal, of the Philadelphia Gay News, recalled once putting the paper together in a friend’s apartment at 3 a.m. Tracy Baim, publisher of the Windy City Media Group, talked about trying to gain private funding as a 22-year-old managing editor.

“Keeping a small staff and using a lot of freelancers have kept costs down tremendously,” said Baim. “It’s a labor of love. It’s about documenting what’s going on in the gay community.”

Despite their struggles, The Philadelphia Gay News and the Metro Weekly prided themselves on never missing a deadline.

The panelists also offered suggestions on how to handle advertising and distribution. “The biggest way to build a paper is by building sales and advertising,” said Segal.

2006-09-07T11:43:00.000-07:00

Quick Katrina Q&A

By Emily Alpert

Poynter Institute Vice President Roy Peter Clark will lead a Friday breakout session, “Writing Days and Boogie Nights: How to Put the Music Back Into Your Prose.” In an interview with The Digital Reporter, he also discussed news coverage of Hurricane Katrina, one year after the storm hit.

Here’s a brief Q&A. For more, see Friday’s print edition of the Reporter.

Q: You wrote an interesting piece about news coverage of looters during Hurricane Katrina and the obligation of journalists to uphold the “social contract.” A year after Katrina, do you see journalists taking on that responsibility?

A: In certain specific terms, journalists did a wonderful job in the early coverage of Katrina. The problem – and I think we now understand it, later – is that a lot of the horror stories that were told in the earliest days after the storm turned out to be gross exaggerations or outright lies. And one of the things that we now know is that it was much more serious misbehavior, if you will, among government officials who were responsible for the care of citizens and journalists in their watchdog role. I think journalists have continued to pay attention to that, and to try to hold those people accountable.

2006-09-07T11:35:00.000-07:00

Spotlight on convergence

By Mashaun D. Simon

The gathering of news once and distribution of that same news via different channels is how Dana Eagles, staff development editor of the Orlando Sentinel, defines convergence.

Convergence will be the subject of a 75-minute session at today’s NLGJA convention. Titled “Playing Both Sides: How to Make Your Mark in Print & Broadcast Media,” the session will focus on the phenomenon that has journalists thinking about their futures in the industry.

“Journalists have to be more flexible,” said Eagles, who is here in Miami to recruit for the Tribune company paper. “Journalists have to be more versatile and open to gathering and delivering information in different ways.”

2006-09-06T07:09:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the NLGJA Digital Reporter blog. Check back soon for breaking coverage from this year's convention in Miami.