NABJ Feels Financial Pinch

By: Dwight Cunningham The National Association of Black Journalists lives and dies by the profitability of its annual convention.

Last week, it got a near-fatal dose of reality.

Facing a deepening financial crisis, concerned NABJ members pushed their leaders to develop a recovery plan that includes a finance committee with outside advisers to help stave off bankruptcy. Such a recovery plan could result in fewer scholarships for college students, as well as scaled-down conventions held geographically closer to the group's eastern membership base, NABJ officials said.

Those were two of several options under discussion at the NABJ's 26th annual convention and job fair, held in the Dolphin Hotel at Walt Disney World here. But a range of other possibilities lie ahead as the 3,300-member organization seeks to wean itself from relying on conventions with robust attendance and sponsorships from media companies that have become increasingly reluctant to cover NABJ expenses.

"Everything is up for grabs," said William W. Sutton Jr., the NABJ president, during the last week of his two-year term.

NABJ members approved the financial-oversight panel at its business meeting Friday. Before the compromise was reached, NABJ leaders were embroiled in a tension-filled week defending against accusations of mismanagement that caused the group to dip into its reserve fund for $200,000 to cover expenses.

Moreover, the NABJ may have to use its reserves again soon, depending on the profitability of this year's convention, said Glenn E. Rice, NABJ treasurer and reporter at The Kansas City (Mo.) Star. "Early returns show that 2001 continues to pace behind our projections," he said.

The compromise agreement, reached after a series of daylong meetings and late-night sessions, calls for a financial committee to issue quarterly reports to the membership after reviews of spending and income. Earlier, the dissident coalition of more than 100 members had advocated a panel with veto power over expenditures exceeding $5,000.

The new committee, slated to begin work within the next 90 days, is composed of Rice, past NABJ treasurers Jackie Greene and Rodney Brooks (both of USA Today), and two independent advisers with financial expertise. It would be chaired by a top media company executive yet to be named.

Sutton, a deputy managing editor at The News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C., characterized his tenure as "a difficult stretch," but expressed confidence that the compromise agreement would lead to a fundamental change in NABJ thinking. "In the past, we've said we'll fund student short courses, no matter what, fellowships to Africa, no matter what, and scholarships, no matter what. We can no longer say, 'No matter what.'"

The NABJ has an annual budget of $2 million, but has overspent by about $500,000, despite making several cutbacks since the beginning of the year.

Much of the financial crisis was pinned on two unprofitable conventions in Seattle in 1999 and in Phoenix last year. Seattle was the Unity '99 convention, a venue where the NABJ shared revenue with other minority-journalist organizations. Phoenix was even less profitable, NABJ officials conceded. The organization also recently experienced stock-market losses totaling another $436,000, Rice said.

"Few nonprofits rely on their convention revenue to operate," said Jackie Jones, a dissident leader and former NABJ board member. Jones expressed optimism that new revenue sources could be found and then tapped. Still, she and NABJ officials agreed that tough decisions await the incoming NABJ board and its new financial-review panel.

NABJ officials said they may charge more for training programs, increase membership fees (currently $80 for a full member), and establish a publishing house for the growing number of black journalists turned authors.

"The problem, now that we're in tight financial times, is how do we find seed money for these projects," said Jones, a business editor at The Washington Post.

Rice agreed: "We have more needs than dollars."