Whither NLGJA?

The leading professional organization for LGBT journalists is facing a crisis that threatens its survival. In a changing media landscape and a tough economy, how does a small nonprofit live up to its mission and retain members?

By Christopher Lisotta

An Advocate.com exclusive posted December 20, 2008

On December 16 the board of directors of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association sent out an e-mail to its members, who are mostly working writers, editors, and photographers in outlets as varied as national magazines and local radio stations. The e-mail was not a Happy Holidays message or even an electronic pep talk to its many members working at media companies who are facing layoffs, budget cuts, or worse.

The e-mail did not “bury the lede,” to use a journalistic term that describes putting the big kicker at the end of a story. “We need your help,” NLGJA’s national president, David Steinberg, wrote bluntly. “Today, we ask all NLGJA members to join together to show support for our mission and programs by making a gift of at least $25 by the year’s end.”

The money will be used to help fund NLGJA’s ongoing education program, a newsroom outreach project, internships, and its Rapid Response Task Force, which works behind-the-scenes to ensure fair and accurate coverage of LGBT issues. In years past NLGJA had the money to cover all these programs through dues plus corporate and foundation grants, but in today’s economy that’s no longer possible.

“It’s been rough, no question about it,” Steinberg said on the phone a few days after the e-mail went out. “I don’t think it was a surprise to many of us -- we’ve been in a recession for a year. And next year is going to be really tough as well.”

First off, some disclosure; I am a former NLGJA Los Angeles chapter president and I serve on the local chapter’s board. NLGJA was an important organization for me when I began to write full-time about eight years ago. Founded in 1991 by the late Leroy Aarons, NLGJA was an outgrowth of a survey Aarons did for the American Society of Newspaper Editors of LGBT journalists in newsrooms (Aarons, the senior vice president for news at The Oakland Tribune at the time, publicly came out when he presented the report). In 1992, NLGJA held its first national convention, where The New York Times announced it was adding domestic-partner benefits. Over the years the annual NLGJA conventions have been must-attend events for networking, socializing, and even newsmaking; major media players like Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw, Judy Woodruff, and Harry Smith showed up to moderate and participate in panels. And along the way NLGJA helped develop style guides and worked with media companies as they added nondiscrimination policies and addressed domestic-partnership issues.

As a working journalist who freelances for a number of different outlets, I’m more than aware it’s a tough time in the media industry. Thanks to the explosive success of websites like Craigslist, there has been a precipitous decline in classified advertising revenue at big daily newspapers, devastating the bottom line of outlets from The San Diego Union-Tribune to The New York Times. Add to that the general advertising malaise, which has depressed revenues in not just print but also TV and radio media. The current issue of The New Yorker noted newspaper readership has been dropping modestly for decades, “but the Internet helped turn that slow puncture into a blowout.” The Advocate has not been immune to changing times; as part of a major redesign the print magazine is going from biweekly to monthly publication.

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Lisotta is a frequent contributor to Advocate.com.

Reader Comments

These comments are reproduced as written by visitors to this Web site. They have not been edited for content, grammar, or spelling. The viewpoints appearing here are those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the opinion or views of advocate.com, The Advocate, or its affiliates.

Name: Charles Pizzo
Date posted: 2009-01-06 3:35 PM
Hometown: Dallas, TX

Comment:

Let's face it, when it comes to associations, the first thing people think is "what's in it for me?" If they perceive value, then they join & renew. For me, the networking opportunity is unequaled. It's rare to meet with a group of people with similar career interests yet so free of prejudice. That has made NLGJA a safe harbor to learn and stretch one's professional life. One constructive criticism is the mixed activity levels of various chapters. Some are active, some are not. I have spoken with several national leaders and expressed the opinion that members need to feel the benefit locally, not just once a year at a conference. Do we as gay media professionals have something to gain in an alliance? That's the question NLGJA will have to sort out. I fear the drum beat of obsolescence has begun. That headline... Whither NLGJA? A bit premature, eh? Complacency is NLGJA's enemy.

Name: John
Date posted: 2008-12-23 3:36 PM
Hometown: NYC

Comment:

I believe the core problem with NLGJA is that a large part of what they would normally do has already been done--since before NLGJA was founded--by GLAAD, with a fair degree of success (depending on how you measure). Hence NLGJA is somewhat reduced to being a professional development organization. But there are no longer many major battles to fight among English-language media in this country. They don't have the resources to go into the Spanish- and other-language media, and GLAAD has balanced coverage activities there--so what's left? Some professional development; some networking at social hours and conferences; and otherwise, a place for journos to chat amongst ourselves ... and try to get laid. And all of those can be postponed, dispensed with, or found elsewhere in a bad economy.

Name: Jeff
Date posted: 2008-12-22 7:38 PM
Hometown: Boston

Comment:

@Polly: Wah, wah, wah. One of NLGJA's problems is it tried to be everything to everyone and ended up pleasing nobody. The problem with the politically correct types is they are the first to bitch and moan, but they do not, as all good bohemians know, join, pay dues, attend conferences, or contribute anything beyond this whiny PC groupthink. I've been to many NLGJA conferences and, if anything, they spent far too much time with the mental masturbation-type conference seminars that the PC types love. Unfortunately, this chased off the bread and butter of NLGJA: real working journalists who attended regardless of gender or anything else. Polly would rather see gender parity at the cost of writing a good article. This is all the Pollys of the world ever want. My women friends at the Boston Globe would be embarrassed by this kind of thing.

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