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This important conversation is the third of a three-part Pay Equity Series following our August conversation with Media2070 and a SRCCON session in June.

In this session, Carrington Tatum and Elizabeth Montgomery will share their personal experiencesas journalists seeking equitable pay in an unequal system. This discussion will also build on insights shared from the prior two sessions about ways to move the conversation forward on pay equity in journalism, including strategies and ideas on how to rethink the relationship between journalists, newsrooms, and pay.

This session was developed with the support of Ava Macha of the Maynard Institute as part of Vision25: Building Racial Equity in Newsrooms, an effort from The Online News Association, OpenNews and the Maynard Institute that seeks to build journalistic institutions where newsrooms are actively anti-racist and collaborative, and journalists of color feel like they truly belong. Learn more about Vision25.

Co-facilitated by Diana Lopez of ONA and Erika Owners of OpenNews, this session is designed for:

• Newsroom leaders looking to take their organizations beyond conversations about diversity and inclusion
• Industry professionals interested in building out collaborations and partnerships to support racial equity
• Everyone who believes better, more equitable organizations, industries and societies are possible

*Must be registered for the Online News Association Conference to attend. This session will be available virtually for registered attendees.

The year 2021 proved to be history-making for Black journalists in positions of power. Six women were tapped to lead print news organizations as executive editor, roles traditionally held by white men. They are charged with coverage, operational budgets, hiring, retention and the overall health and viability of their organizations. In a wide-ranging conversation, seven ground-breaking women share their journeys, issues they face inside and outside their organizations, and what they are doing to ensure more journalists of color have opportunities to succeed. Participants will gain strategies on earning or maintaining a seat at the leadership table.

Panelists

• Rana Cash, executive editor, The Charlotte Observer
• Katrice Hardy, executive editor, The Dallas Morning News
• Mary Irby-Jones, executive editor, The Courier Journal
• Maria Reeve, executive editor, The Houston Chronicle
• Leisa Richardson, executive editor, The State Journal-Register (Springfield, Ill.)
• Monica Richardson, executive editor, The Miami Herald
• Debra Adams Simmons, executive editor, National Geographic

Award-winning newspaper editor and Maynard Institute Director of Cultural Competency Felecia D. Henderson will moderate the panel discussion.

*Must be registered for the NABJ/NAHJ Convention to attend

RSVP to reserve your spot

Attendees of the 2022 NABJ-NAHJ convention in Las Vegas are invited to join us at a special reception celebrating the Maynard Institute’s 45th anniversary on Thursday, August 4th from 6:00pm to 7:30pm.

45 years ago Robert C. Maynard and six other journalists of diverse backgrounds founded the Maynard Institute with a goal of desegregating the media industry.

We are thrilled to celebrate this milestone and acknowledge continued importance of our efforts to advance diversity in the journalism industry with a reception at the National Association of Black Journalists and National Association of Hispanic Journalists 2022 Conference.

There will be light appetizers and drinks for attendees. The event is free of charge but RSVP is required. Space is limited!

Hosted by the Maynard Institute’s Board Chair, John X. Miller, Co-Executive Directors, Evelyn Hsu and Martin G. Reynolds, and Felecia Henderson, Director of Director of Cultural Competency.

Space is limited. Advance RSVP is required. Waitlist expected. Registration closes August 3, 2022.

RSVP today to reserve your spot!

Learn more about #NABJNAHJ22 convention program including the panel discussion titled The New Face of Executive Leadership: Black Women Smash Print Industry’s Glass Ceiling on August 5th at 3:30pm moderated by Felecia Henderson of the Maynard Institute. Speakers will share their journeys, issues they face inside and outside their organizations, and what they are doing to ensure more journalists of color have opportunities to succeed. Participants will gain strategies on earning or maintaining a seat at the leadership table.

Register today!

Media2070 and Vision25: Building Racial Equity come together to discuss pay exploitation in the news industry and to imagine a more equitable future in newsrooms.

Martin Reynolds, co-executive director of the Maynard Institute, will be joined by Alicia Bell and Diamond Hardiman of Media2070, an organization that earlier this year exposed the daily struggle for fair wages through their documentary on Black journalist Elizabeth Montgomery, who struggled to “pay rent or buy groceries” on the salary she received from a major U.S. newsroom.

The conversation strives to address newsroom strategies for pay equity as a follow up to individualized scope of the Vision25 SRCCON session, “A Playbook of Pay Equity Comebacks: Scripts to use when people make excuses for not implementing pay transparency.”

We hope to lastly imagine the incredible organizing and reporting journalists could accomplish if all were given fair wages and resources. The sentiment was echoed in the first episode of Vision25 Belonging in the News featuring Nikole Hannah-Jones, who said, “The 1619 Project would not exist if I was not being treated as if I belonged in the newsroom. You have to treat me as an equal who is worth investing in.”

Media 2070 is a project of Free Press, a 501(c)(3) nonpartisan organization fighting for your rights to connect and communicate. The group advocates for media institutions to make reparations to the Black community and for regulators and lawmakers to make reparations for policies that have baked inequities into our media system.

The Online News Association, OpenNews and the Maynard Institute have come together to create Vision25: Building Racial Equity in Newsrooms, a catalyst in a social change movement that seeks to build journalistic institutions where newsrooms are actively anti-racist and collaborative, and journalists of color feel like they truly belong. Learn more here.

Please email info@mije.org with any questions or comments.

Support the Maynard Institute’s work and become a member.

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Founded in 1981, the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) is a membership nonprofit advancing diversity in newsrooms and ensuring fair and accurate coverage of communities of color. AAJA has more than 1,500 members across the United States and Asia.

AAJA is partnering with AAJA-Los Angeles, its founding chapter, to organize an AAJA convention that serves members’ professional development needs, uplifts the community, facilitates important dialogues around equity and inclusion, innovation, and the evolution of newsrooms, and makes the most of what the City of Angels has to offer. AAJA also anticipates joint programming with AAJA-Asia to tackle important issues journalists and the industry worldwide face.

The Maynard Institute’s Co-director of the Oakland Voices program Momo Chang joined a panel discussion titled Habits of Successful Freelancers on July 30th at 1:30pm Pacific Time. This panel dissected the practices, systems and tactics of thriving, sustainable freelancers — and their tools for achieving financial success while being creatively fulfilled. Speakers shared their budgeting, goal-setting, networking and work practices and explain how they lead to successful assignments, professional relationships, a healthy mind and career landmarks.

Panelists include:

• Nandita Godbole, cookbook author, @currycravings
• Sophie Park, Freelance Photojournalist, @_sophieupark
• Momo Chang, Freelance Journalist and Oakland Voices Co-Director, @_momo_chang
• Katherine Lewis, Author/Journalist, Co-Founder of The Center for Independent Journalists, @KatherineLewis
• Ellen Lee, Independent Journalist, @helloellenlee

Attendees were also invited to attend the special Maynard Institute happy hour reception on July 28th. We enjoyed reconnecting with our AAJA family in Los Angeles this summer!

RSVP to reserve your spot

Attendees of the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) convention are invited to join us at a networking happy hour reception and book signing on Thursday, July 28th from 5:00pm to 7:00pm.

The Maynard Institute’s Co-Executive Director Evelyn Hsu and Co-director of the Oakland Voices program Momo Chang will be joined by Jeff Yang and Phil Yu, co-authors of the new book Rise: A Pop History of Asian America from the Nineties to Now.

RISE is a love letter to and for Asian Americans—a vivid scrapbook of voices, emotions, and memories from an era in which Asian American culture was forged and transformed, and a way to preserve both the headlines and the intimate conversations that have shaped the community.

Space is limited. Advance RSVP is required. Waitlist expected.

All guests will receive two complimentary drink tickets. Swag and books available for purchase. Located at the Garland Hotel Courtyard in North Hollywood, approximately 5 minutes from by car from the convention.

RSVP today to reserve your spot!

Learn more about #AAJA22 convention program including the panel discussion titled Habits of Successful Freelancers on July 30th at 1:30pm Pacific Time featuring Momo Chang. This panel will dissect the practices, systems and tactics of thriving, sustainable freelancers — and their tools for achieving financial success while being creatively fulfilled. Speakers will share their budgeting, goal-setting, networking and work practices and explain how they lead to successful assignments, professional relationships, a healthy mind and career landmarks.

Register to watch the recording

One of the goals for the Vision25: Building Racial Equity in Newsrooms collaboration is to establish ‘institutions of belonging.’ The term describes actively anti-racist news organizations where journalists of color have a sense of agency and belonging in the newsroom. We believe that institutions of belonging are part of the solution to creating a diverse, equitable and trustworthy press.

So how can your news organization become an institution of belonging?

In this episode of Belonging in the News, co-executive director of the Maynard Institute Martin Reynolds, discussed belonging with award winning-journalist and the current editor-in-chief of Teen Vogue, Versha Sharma. Teen Vogue, a web-only Condé Nast publication, pivoted to become a strong voice on social justice issues in recent years. The discussion explores:

• having a sense of agency in the newsroom
• belonging as a journalist of color while reporting for a major US publication
• what feels like to be a “first” and Versha’s experience as the first South Asian American woman to helm Teen Vogue

Stay for the after party to share your thoughts

Belonging in the News events are one hour. The last 15 minutes focus on audience questions. NEW For the first time ever we hosted a moderated, post-event party for members of the audience to flesh out any of the comments or themes from the live discussion. This after party discussion was moderated by executive members of Vision25 in the chat on our Crowdcast livestream. The chat and discussion is availale to view at the same location as the main event.

The Online News Association, OpenNews and the Maynard Institute have come together to create Vision25: Building Racial Equity in Newsrooms, a catalyst in a social change movement that seeks to build journalistic institutions where newsrooms are actively anti-racist and collaborative, and journalists of color feel like they truly belong. Learn more here.

Please email info@mije.org with any questions or comments.

Support the Maynard Institute’s work and become a member.

Access the Event Recording

Black Professional Month hosted the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Conference and Awards on Saturday, October 30, 10am-2pm ET.

This event featured DEI professionals discussing critical topics that impact black professionals including the Maynard Institute’s Felecia Henderson. It also recognized and celebrated the demonstrated commitment that organizations and individuals have made to creating effective diversity, equity and inclusion programs within their business.

The Black Professionals Month (BPM), is an initiative of the International Careeer and Business Alliance (ICABA), a member-based, global business network assisting professionals and entrepreneurs of color to attain their career, business and lifestyle aspirations. Held annually in October, BPM is an unprecedented 31-days of virtual programs, events, and recognitions to ignite the leadership advancement of black professionals around the world. This worldwide platform is designed to help black professionals step up, stand out and break through into roles of leadership, including the C-suite executive level.

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The first symposium on diversity and inclusion hosted by Investigative Reporters & Editors (IRE) virtually on October 21-22, 2021, included a session “Confronting our social Fault Lines: Pushing past our biases” on Friday, October 22nd from 3:00pm – 4:00pm ET, featuring the Maynard Institute’s Co-executive director Martin G. Reynolds and Stronghold’s Founder Karena H. Montag, MFT.

Journalism is at a crossroads. The so-called “racial reckoning” of 2020 highlighted the need for the profession to take a deep, hard look at how it has perpetuated structural racism and caused harm to people and communities. That examination must start with those of us who practice the craft of journalism. The conversation will provide an opportunity to hear from an experienced practitioner who has worked at the intersection of trauma and restorative practice for more than 20 years, and a long-time journalist who is fighting for equity and belonging across the news media.

The IRE DBEI Symposium focuses on helping journalists with newsroom diversity issues and with investigating inequality in their communities, from education and health care to housing and climate change. IRE and the Maynard Institute collaborated on this session.

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Founded in 1984, the Journalism & Women Symposium (JAWS) brings together working journalists, journalism educators and researchers from across the country to share resources, support, training and information about issues that affect women in the industry.

The annual Conference and Mentoring Project (CAMP) took place virtually October 15 – 17, 2021. The conference theme this year is “Re-emerging and reimagining: What’s next for women in journalism?” The idea behind the theme is to look forward, from the tumultuous events of the past year and a half and to envision how we can make journalism a healthier, saner, stronger and more trusted profession.

The Maynard Institute’s Co-executive director Evelyn Hsu moderated the panel discussion titled What’s changed in newsrooms since George Floyd’s death? on October 15th at 3:30pm Eastern. The session explored how many newsrooms faced their own internal reckoning after the murder of George Floyd and created new leadership positions devoted to diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. Panelists candidly discussed the progress and challenges they foresee ahead.

Panelists include:

• Ashley Alvarado, Vice President, Community Engagement & Strategic Initiatives, Southern California Public Radio (KPCC/LAist)
• Cynthia Benjamin, Director of Audience Engagement & Trust, Gannett and USA TODAY Network
• Krissah Thompson, Managing Editor, Washington Post
• Naomi Ishisaka, Assistant Managing Editor for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, Seattle Times

Learn how news organizations need more than job titles to establish anti-racist, diverse, equitable and trustworthy newsrooms.