News Briefs
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Executive Director
New California Media
The Lawrence Young Breakthrough Award
In the ever changing social landscape of America, voices and faces that once were relegated to the shadows are becoming a much more visible and vocal part of our nation’s civic and public life, thanks to Sandy Close, executive director of Pacific News Service and New California Media.
Sandy has infused into traditional mainstream journalism and media the vibrant experiences of the ethnic communities that make up the fabric of mainstream American society. In her efforts to create a more inclusive media, she has given mainstream America a unique window into the once-often ignored communities that now shape and influence our American culture.
Close joined Pacific News Service in 1974 and enhanced its mission of providing public access to ideas and voices mainstream society and the media often excluded. She has helped create venues where these voices could expand our way of looking at the world. Under Close’s leadership, PNS redirected its focus from the Far East to the United States, especially California, a state at the center of dramatic racial shifts in its population.
To further diversify the sources of news and commentary available to mainstream media, New California Media was launched in 1996.
New California Media was born out of a conversation between Close and Pacific News Services’ ethnic partners. “They realized they could go further, “said Mary Jo McConahay, a PNS senior editor and “that the rest of the world did not understand the power of the ethnic press in their communities or that people would read the ethnic papers more than mainstream papers.”
Thus, NCM was created to increase more awareness about the important roles of the ethnic media in the communities and raise its visibility.
McConahay, who has known Close for over 20 years, calls Close a visionary and the center of all that PNS does. “Her gift is her ability to find partners who are dedicated, passionate and capable,” she says.
New California Media is a network of over 600 ethnic news organizations working together to enhance inter-ethnic understanding and editorial exchange. Working to increase the visibility of ethnic media and unify multi-ethnic media, NCM includes ethnic news organizations of all languages and all cultures and encompasses media that targets a specific audience like gays and lesbians, for example. NCM works to create a cross-ethnic editorial exchange and expand access to ethnic media. Each media organization within NCM is unique and cannot be replicated by mainstream media. New California Media also tracks the circulation and ratings performances of non-English media and ethnic media in California and seeks to bolster ethnic media's access to advertisers through a direct placement service. “I am someone who is restless and starved for multiple lenses…they transform my sense of what communication can be about,” said Close at a diversity forum to senior media managers and executives of color in October 2003. Although the growth of ethnic media has been fueled by demographics, Close says the ethnic media give their audiences the sense that they matter, that they belong because they are visible in this media culture.
In the last several years, the ethnic media has become competitive with attracting a larger share of advertising revenue and readership. Thousands gather at the NCM expo to talk about the role and relevance of ethnic media. More than just a journalism conference, it is a showcase for collective marketing and critical relationship building.
Just as important, the NCM Ethnic Pulitzers recognize journalistic excellence in ethnic media, honoring the best ethnic news reporting throughout California. In a state where over 40 percent of the population speaks languages other than English at home, the awards honor the outstanding work by journalists who write and broadcast in more than 20 languages. Awardees for the Ethnic Pulitzers come from over 200 entries in 12 languages.
Ethnic media is a media that sees itself as an empowerment tool with a deeply embedded commitment to the community., according to Close. “These media live and breathe the culture they report,” she says, “where chronicling the intimate life of the neighborhoods is in the front page of the news, the life, birth, the wedding, the death. This is not relegated to the back of the book, this is the front page of the paper, the top of the news.”
Close developed and launched several initiatives to further promote civic exchange among individuals and communities. “YO, Youth Outlook,” was launched in 1991, as a monthly journal of youth life and expression in the San Francisco Bay area that chronicles the world through the eyes and voices of young people ages 15-25.
Offering a unique window into California’s youth culture, “YO” gives voice to critical issues facing young people. The latest issue of “YO” for example, profiles young people “standing up to the bullshit,” as demonstrated by a commentary by Ryan Furtado on the March anti-war protest in downtown San Francisco. Furtado tell readers he’s barely qualified to write the article but he did his best to observe what was going on around him. “If you’re looking for razor sharp political analysis, sorry, I’m fresh out,” he writes.
The Beat Within began in 1996 with a writing workshop and conversation in one of San Francisco's Juvenile Hall units about Tupac Shakur's death. The topic produced an incredible amount of emotion in the youth but they did not have a venue to express their thoughts in Juvenile Hall. Thus, the weekly publication was developed to provide an outlet for the thoughts, stories, opinions and ideas of young people who are locked up and want to express themselves. The Beat Within conducts 45 writing workshops a week in 8 Juvenile halls. “What do you feel like when you are not like everyone else,” Close asks. “These kids taught me that being invisible in this media culture, you experience a despair that is so deep.”
The Beat Within lets these young people know that despite being incarcerated, they are not alone. It also educates readers inside and outside the system. More than just a publication, it is, in the words of one of its inmate writers, “my people, my family, my friends.” The Beat Within connects these isolated youths on the margins of society to each other and the larger community outside, as poignantly expressed by the author who realizes that “freedom is not out there, it’s in you.” As one Beat Within writer eloquently states, "For as long as we have pen and paper, we will be heard. We will never be alone. We will make a difference in our own lives and the lives of others." Sandy Close continues to connect the forces that are reshaping and redefining the tapestry of mainstream American society.