Recruiting Gay Journalists p. 10

By: Tony Case Major news organizations plan to recruit at this week's National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association convention
NEWS ORGANIZATIONS looking to diversity their staffs have aggresively recruited blacks, Hispanics, Asians and Native Americans. Now they are eagerly pursuing gays and lesbians as well.
When members of the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association converge on New York this week for their second annual convention, they will be greeted by recruiters from some of the country's biggest communications concerns at the first-ever job fair for gay and lesbian newspapeople.
More than 100 media companies were invited to participate in their day-long event, according to organizer Mark Calvey, assistant business editor of the Charlotte (N.C.) Observer. To date 16 businesses have paid $200 a pop to attend.
The convention and job fair come at a time when homosexuals have succeeded in gaining visibility, acceptance and clout in the industry, securing status alongside traditional minorities by demanding equal opportunity.
Time Warner, Dow Jones & Co., Knight-Ridder Inc. and Reuters are just a few of the companies that have included sexual orientation in their antibias pacts with employees. Some organizations offer insurance benefits to the domestic partners of gay and lesbian staff. And respected journalists at print an delectronic media everywhere-many of whom belong to the 800-member NLGJA-have come out of the closet in an effort to build a coalition and shatter stereotypes.
The presence at this confab of such prominent news organizations as Gannett Co., the Washington Post and ABC News is evidence that gay and lesbian journalists have made real headway in the workplace.
Calvey pointed out that this letigitimation has not come easily.
"Anytime you expand your definition of diversity, you're going to have resistance to it,"" he observed. ""I think it's courageous for any company to include sexual orientation in its anti-discrimination policy. We need to move forward in this area and I think this job fair is one way to do that.""
Gay and lesbian journalists ""need to be out and outspoken,"" he said. ""You really need minorities in the newsroom to help create and change corporate policies and raise the sophistication of minority communities.""
Calvey has received support from both gay and straight colleagues at the Observer-some of whom have helped him organize the job fair.

Getting acquainted,
showing support

Most recruiters, when asked why their companies were participating, said they saw the fair as an opportunity to get acquainted with qualified professionals as well as show support for newsroom diversity.
Angela Dodson of the New York Times said her paper could not afford not to be represented.
One reason is that the Times is located in the convention's host city, Dodson noted. Another is that ""We welcome the opportunity to interview and meet with experienced journalists. It's part of our overall effort to find good journalists wherever we might find them.""
The paper does not have minority hiring quotas, she said, ""but we would like to have a newsroom more representative of America and our audience. We have had great success in achieving diversity; we'd like to do better.""
The Miami Herald's Saundra Keyes said attending this first-of-its-kind event was important for seeing how it might fit into the recruitment efforts of both the paper and its parent company Knight Ridder.
"I'd like people on our staff to know that when we say we value diversity, our definition of that is broad, "" she commented.
"I hope we are known as a paper that provides a congenial career environment for very diverse groups of journalists. I think the word tends to be out on the journalist grapevine if a workpalace is supportive and if its diversity effort is genuine.""
Media executives have come to realize that the populace is composed of many groups an dthat these groups need to be recognized on news pages, said Vernon Smith of the Dallas Morning News. ""I think everybody would agree that to do this, you need to have all kinds of people on your staff.""

From firings
to hiring

Observers say the newspaper industry appears to be slowly pulling out of the economic slump that has caused a significant number of journalists to lose their jobs in recent years. This is good news for those organizations now looking to hire-and divversify.
Smith related that this is the first time his paper has actually had newsroom job openings in the three years since he began recruiting for the Morning News.
Even so, is it worth traveling halfway across the country to attend a one-day job fair?
Certainly, he said, because not only will he look for potential employees at the meeting-he will also try to enhance his understanding of minority issues by sitting in on convention sessions and talking shop with speakers and attendees.
Gannett's Bobbi Bowman said she, too, was interested in the convention program as well as eyeing possible job candidates.
Jack Stokes of the Associated press said his company's participation is part of its ""extensive"" effort to let journalists know about its employement opportunities and job application process.
AP recruits at all the national industry conventions as well as regional meetings and college campuses, according to Stokes.
By going to these events, he said, he hopes to get an idea of what to expect at next year's massive Unity '94 gathering in Atlanta, which will bring together the National Association of Black Journalists, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, the Asian American Journalists Association, the Native American Journalists Association and the NLGJA.
Meanwhile, recruiters at this year's NLGJA convention should have a sizable pool of prospects from which to choose. Group spokesman Doug Knight said more than 600 journalists had registered-more than double the attendance of the first meeting last year in San Francisco, where the organization is based.
The job fair and a reception hosted by New York Times publisher arthur Sulzberger Jr. will kick off this year's convention Sept. 10. Throughout the weekend, several speeches and panel discussions are scheduled, featuring news professionals such as network television anchors Tom Brokaw and Dan Rather, AP executive editor William Ahearn, Des Moines Register editor Geneva Overholser and nationally syndicated columnist Deb Price of the Detroit News. nE&P
*The Presence at this confab of such prominent news organizations as Gannett Co., the Washington Post and ABC News is evidence that gay and lesbian journalists have made real headway in the workplace.
*"Anytime you expand your definition of diversity, you're going to have resistance to it. I think it's courageous for any company to include sexual orientation in its anti-discrimination policy. We need to move forward in this area and I think this job fair is one way to do that.""
*- Mark Clavey, assistant business editor, Charolotte (N.C.) Observer.