The Newsroom Outreach Project works to further NLGJA’s
mission through meetings with broadcast, print and online newsroom
leaders
across the country. We discuss LGBT
journalism issues, including appropriate use of terminology, as
well as workplace issues affecting
LGBT employees.
Since this is the first program of its kind among the minority journalism
organizations, there was no model. NLGJA launched the project after
carefully developing a list of topics pertinent to our mission that
could be used as discussion points during newsroom meetings.
In 2003, NLGJA leaders conducted two informal meetings about coverage
at The Detroit Free Press and The Arizona Republic. The conversations
were dynamic, prompting the organization to form a more structured
approach to this journalist-to-journalist model.
The first official Newsroom Outreach Project meeting
took place on January 23, 2004 at the Times-Picayune in New Orleans,
LA during
NLGJA’s annual Mid-Year Meeting. Our next meeting was three
weeks later, at The Washington Post.
By the end of 2004, NLGJA had visited
16 newsrooms, from WFLA-TV in Tampa to The Mercury News in
San Jose.
