NAMME To Honor Media Industry Change Agents

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April 7, 2004

Contact:
Linda A. Smith
(301) 265-5386
l.edwardssmith@juno.com

Ebony and JET Magazine's Johnson, NY Times' Sulzberger and PBS' Ifill to be Recognized as Champions of Diversity

photo by NAMME Photographer

NAMME award (hi-res, lo-res)

WASHINGTON, DC- The National Association of Minority Media Executives (NAMME), an influential organization of media managers and executives of color working in mainstream media, will hold its Annual Awards Banquet on Thursday, April 22, 2004 at the J.W. Marriott Hotel, 1331 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. in Washington, D.C.

Called "A Celebration of Diversity," NAMME's Annual Awards Banquet honors industry leaders who have championed the cause of diversity. This year's honorees are)Frank del Olmo (posthumously), associate editor and columnist for the L.A.Times (The Robert C. Maynard Legend Award); John Johnson, founder, publisher, chairman and CEO of Johnson Publishing Company in Chicago (Distinguished Diversity Award for Lifetime Achievement); Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr., Chairman of The New York Times Company and publisher of The New York Times (Catalyst Award for Print); Gwen Ifill, moderator and managing editor of Washington Week and senior correspondent for The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer (Catalyst Award for Broadcast) and Web entrepreneur Steven Chin (Catalyst Award for New Media).

A sixth award added last year, the Lawrence Young Breakthrough Award, is given to an individual who transforms the paradigm of diversity in the media. This award is named in honor of the late Lawrence Young, a newspaper editor and board member of NAMME, whose personal mission was to help shape the next generation of media industry leaders and inspire them to continue his efforts to advance diversity and quality journalism. This award will be presented to Sandy Close, executive director of New California Media, a non-profit association representing more than 400 ethnic media organizations.

"NAMME is excited to announce this year's diversity award winners," said Toni Laws, NAMME Executive Director. These men and women personify our mission and goal, which is to encourage more diversity among senior ranks of the media industry. This annual banquet is a time for us to celebrate how far we've come, but also to remind those in the industry of how far we still have to go."

In addition to the six diversity awards, NAMME will pay special tribute to those journalists of color who have won the Pulitzer Prize for Excellence in Journalism. Since 1961, 37 journalists of color have won the coveted journalism honor, and for the first time ever, NAMME will gather them all in one room-including Yasuhi Nagao of the Asian newspaper Mainichi Shimbun, who won the Prize in 1961 to the Washington Post columnist Colbert I. King, who won it in 2003. Two winners, Dennis Bell of Newsday and Monetta Sleet, Jr. of Ebony are deceased. Banquet sponsors include John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Kia Motors America, Inc., and The Pulitzer Foundation.

Serving as Co-Chairs for this year's "Celebration of Diversity" banquet are P. Anthony Ridder, Chairman/CEO of Knight Ridder and Peter Bhatia, Executive Editor of the Oregonian newspaper. Also serving on the Honorary Host Committee are Andrew E. Barnes, Chairman of the Board & CEO, St. Petersburg Times; Frank A. Blethen, Publisher, CEO and Chairman, Seattle Times Company; Sue Clark-Johnson, CEO & Publisher, The Arizona Republic; Thomas Curley, President and CEO, Associated Press; Dennis J. FitzSimons, President & CEO , Tribune Publishing Company; Alan M. Horton, Sr. VP/Newspapers, The E.W. Scripps Company; David Honig, Executive Director, Minority Media and Telecommunications Council; Boisfeuillet Jones, Jr., Publisher, The Washington Post; Allen H. Neuharth, Founder, Freedom Forum; Arthur O. Sulzberger, Jr., Chairman & Publisher, the New York Times Company; Gary L. Watson, President Newspaper Division, Gannett Company Inc.; and Mitsy Wilson, Senior Vice President/Diversity Development, Fox Entertainment Group.

Founded in 1990, NAMME is a multicultural organization of media managers and executives working in mainstream media. More than 90 percent of its membership is African American, Hispanic, Asian American and Native American. For more information on the organization or for additional background on the awards, visit the organization's website at www.namme.org.

To obtain a press registration for this event, contact Linda A. Smith, (301) 265-5386 or l.edwardssmith@juno.com