In the Know: Q&A Eric Wee

May 2003

By Garbo Cheung-Jasik

Eric Wee is the founder of JournalismNext.com, a new online job bank that connects media companies with media professionals of color. Wee was a staff writer at The Washington Post from 1993 until 2002. At The Post, he wrote numerous front-page stories about the changing cultural shifts in American society. In 1999, he was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in feature writing.

Wee also has worked at The Oregonian in Portland, OR. He was a Poynter Institute summer journalism fellow and has taught journalism at Georgetown University and The University of Richmond. Wee is a member of the Washington D.C. chapter of the Asian American Journalists Association.

Wee discusses why he started JournalismNext.com and how technology can help bridge the gap between media employers and talented media professionals of color.

Q: How did JournalismNext.com get its start?

How did you settle on the name JournalismNext and what is the meaning behind the name? A: We started JournalismNext.com after I left The Washington Post. I had long felt that technology could help diversify media organizations by bringing together minority job seekers and employers in a more efficient manner. JournalismNext.com refers to the next generation of journalists and media professionals, which we hope will be more diverse in its representation.

Q: What motivated you to create such a site?

A: I had been to many job and career fairs for minority journalists over the past decade. They are effective, but there was a lot of time between them. I thought that if there was a job site like JournalismNext.com, media companies and job seekers could connect every day. That's our goal and that's what we've been doing - using technology to give employers a pool of minority applicants.

Also, it can be expensive for many smaller papers, television stations, radio stations and other media organizations to travel to these job fairs. At the same time, these are the organizations that often need the most help diversifying. We provide them with a low-cost alternative. Also, I saw that there wasn't one place online that employers could go and find minority candidates from all backgrounds - Asian Americans, Hispanics, African Americans, Native Americans. JournalismNext.com does that.

Media companies also often complain that it's hard to find good qualified applicants. We now have nearly 1,400 fresh resumes in a database that can be searched by key words and categories. That number is growing each day. Applicants are from all backgrounds from smart new graduates to award-winning professionals.

Q: What's been the response to the site?

A: The response has been overwhelming. About 300 companies are now using the site from all sectors of the media spectrum. Companies are making hires from people they found on the site and minority job seekers are saying they are getting calls from employers that they would never have known to contact. While journalists are many of our users, we have also added a new category for media business related jobs. That section has been growing rapidly. We also post positions in the production areas of media.

Q: Several research studies show that people of color are leaving the industry. What can the industry do better to retain current people of color as well as recruit the next generation of media professionals?

A: The media industry has been trying. But I do think that often media professionals of color feel forgotten once they are hired. More attention should be focused on mentoring these same people that companies expend so much energy to attract. Otherwise, the best employees are going to look for other industries where they will be rewarded.

Q: There's been discussion about a diversity backlash. Do you see this happening?

A: There is always some degree of anxiety when changes are made. But I don't see that as a major problem right now. I think the key is for employers to hire talented candidates, whatever their background. Also, managers need to remind people that the benchmark diversity goals are only trying to get newsrooms to look more like the communities they cover. If that message is re-emphasized in the newsroom community, that can go a long way toward stemming any backlash.

Q: Was it difficult to start a web-based business, especially in a current economic slump and after the dot com collapse?

A: It's always difficult to start any business. It wasn't any harder to start a web based one in our case. Despite the downturn of the high tech world, the Internet is here to stay and it's changed the way people and companies live and especially look for jobs. Q: What is the percentage of success stories from your site?

A: It's impossible for us to put a percentage on the success stories since the interactions between employers and job seekers happen without us. But employers are telling us they are finding good applicants from the site and job seekers say they are getting interviews and job offers.

Q: How have you gone about promoting the site? How does the site generate revenue?

A: We have reached out to employers in person, online and over the phone. They have been very welcoming and often grateful once they learn about us. Currently there is no charge to post, but we will soon begin charging a modest fee to post jobs. Also companies have been asking whether they can put their logo on the front of our webpage. We now let companies become featured employers and we allow them to purchase space where we display their logo. When that logo is clicked, job seekers will see their open jobs on JournalismNext.com. Companies can also pay a small fee to have their individual jobs featured. We also have banner ad space for purchase.

Q: How does a media company start the process of recruiting people of color in JournalismNext.com?

A: They can post a job in 5 minutes themselves. They first need to go to www.journalismnext.com. They can also email us at info@journalismnext.com or call us at (703) 739-0408 if they have any questions or need help.

Q: Where do you see the site five years from now? What is long-range goal of JournalismNext.com?

A: We want to the site to continue to grow. We want to help more companies diversify. And we want to help more journalists of color find jobs. In five years' time, we see the site being the first place employers turn to get the word out about their jobs.

Cheung-Jasik is the program director for the NAMME Foundation.