News Leaders Association
Founded2019
Merger ofAmerican Society of News Editors, Associated Press Media Editors and Association of Opinion Journalists
TypeNonprofit
PurposeJournalism-related and First Amendment issues
HeadquartersReynolds Journalism Institute at the Missouri School of Journalism
2023 NLA President
Alison Gerber
Websitenewsleaders.org

News Leaders Association (NLA) is a non-profit organization that focuses on training and supporting journalists.[1] Formerly the American Society of News Editors and Associated Press Media Editors, the organizations merged in 2019 to form NLA.[2]

History

In 1922, the American Society of Newspaper Editors was formed by top editors to elevate the professionalism and ethics of the journalism business.[3] In 1931, managing editors felt they needed their own organization, forming the Associated Press Managing Editors.[4] Both organizations would later change their names to reflect the changing industry: ASNE became the American Society of News Editors in 2009[5] and APME became the Associated Press Media Editors in 2011.[6] In 2016, the Association of Opinion Journalists was merged with ASNE.[7]

By 2018, the need for two separate organizations was not needed and hence they were merged to form the American Society of News Editors and the Associated Press Media Editors.”[2] At the 2019 annual conference of APME and ASNE, the merger was approved.

In 2020, the NLA canceled its annual conference, postponing it to spring 2021.[8]

On December 8, 2023, the NLA's board of directors unanimously approved the NLA membership’s November vote to dissolve organization and distribute its remaining assets to other nonprofits by June 30, 2024.[9]

Programs

Diversity Survey

In 1978, ASNE launched an annual diversity survey of America's newsrooms.[10] NLA continued this work, under the name "Transformative Transparency Project".[11]

In a 2021 interview with Open the Government, NLA executive director Fran Reilly explained, "We have created an expanded program that is designed to meet the urgency of the lack of DEI in journalism—we will soon be rolling out the Transformative Transparency Project, which still uses a data collection framework to gain insights to understand the full scope of the problem, but is expanded to include tools, resources and programs to help newsrooms improve their DEI culture, and set and reach diversity goals."[12]

NLA paused the survey in 2020 to rework it after years of lackluster participation. In 2021, NLA choose not to release the results of that year's diversity survey, citing problems with the collected demographic information. Those issues included discrepancies in how certain racial and ethnic categories were counted and percentages that did not add up to 100.[13]

In 2022, while NLA had planned for 2,500 print and online organizations to participate in the survey, only 303 news organizations responded that year, down from 429 orgs that responded in 2019, but up from the 293 that responded in 2018, which was the historic low-water mark for participation.[14]

Sunshine Week

Sunshine Week is a national initiative spearheaded by the News Leaders Association to educate the public about the importance of open government and freedom of information.[15] It was established in March 2005 and is celebrated annually during the week containing March 16, which is National Freedom of Information Day.[16]

In December 2023, NLA transferred stewardship of Sunshine Week to the Joseph L. Brechner Freedom of Information (FOI) Project at the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications.[17]

Annual Awards

NLA recognized excellence in journalism and leadership with their annual awards. The NLA Awards continued the long traditions of the previous ASNE and APME Awards, and are among the most prestigious in journalism.[18]

In 2021, a new award was created to recognize an editor or team of editors who have displayed strong leadership in matching the extraordinary moment of an unprecedented year through great journalism and vital decision making on all fronts. Ron Nixon, Associated Press global investigations editor, was named the inaugural News Leader of the Year.[19]

On November 30, 2023, it was announced the NLA transitioned stewardship of the NLA Awards to the Poynter Institute, who will administer the contest from 2024 onward. The awards were renamed to The Poynter Journalism Prizes.[20]

References

  1. ↑ "About". News Leaders Association.
  2. 1 2 Edmonds, Rick (June 21, 2018). "The logic for two separate newspaper organizations evaporates and so they merge". Poynter.
  3. ↑ Leib, Howard (2009). "American Society of News Editors". Middle Tennessee State University. Retrieved December 14, 2023.
  4. ↑ "The Associated Press History". Zippia. August 27, 2020.
  5. ↑ Calderone, Michael (December 16, 2008). "ASNE proposes name change; remove 'newspaper'". Politico. Archived from the original on December 17, 2008.
  6. ↑ Romenesko, Jim (September 14, 2011). "Associated Press Managing Editors changes name to Associated Press Media Editors". Poynter. Retrieved December 14, 2023.
  7. ↑ "AOJ to join forces with ASNE, turn over writing seminar to The Poynter Institute". PR Newswire. May 10, 2016. Retrieved December 14, 2023.
  8. ↑ Edmonds, Rick (2020-03-06). "Merged news editors group is canceling its 2020 conference". Poynter. Retrieved 2023-12-14.
  9. ↑ "NLA board approves membership's vote to dissolve by June 2024". Editor & Publisher. 2023-12-12. Retrieved 2023-12-14.
  10. ↑ Chideya, Farai (May 22, 2018). "'This deepening division is not inevitable': The failing diversity efforts of newsrooms". Columbia Journalism Review.
  11. ↑ "Transformative Transparency Project". News Leaders Association. Archived from the original on March 9, 2021.
  12. ↑ "Q & A with an Accountability Expert". Open the Government. March 23, 2021. Archived from the original on April 16, 2021. Retrieved December 14, 2023.
  13. ↑ Fu, Angela (2022-08-18). "NLA scraps 2021 diversity survey results after finding 'data integrity' issues". Poynter. Retrieved 2023-12-14.
  14. ↑ Scrie, Sarah (April 12, 2022). "Yet again, newsrooms aren't showing up to the industry's largest diversity survey". Nieman Lab. Retrieved 2023-12-14.
  15. ↑ "Celebrate Sunshine Week 2021 March 14-20". March 11, 2021.
  16. ↑ Board, News Editorial. "The Editorial Board: As Sunshine Week dawns, officeholders continue to keep secrets from citizens". The Buffalo News.
  17. ↑ Bennett, Randy (2023-12-11). "Brechner Freedom of Information Project to Lead National Sunshine Week". UF College of Journalism and Communications. Retrieved 2023-12-14.
  18. ↑ Andersen, Travis (March 5, 2021). "Boston Globe columnist wins News Leaders Association opinion prize". The Boston Globe.
  19. ↑ "AP's Nixon wins News Leader of the Year award from NLA". Associated Press. April 5, 2021.
  20. ↑ Orsi, Jennifer (2023-11-30). "Poynter Institute to run respected 45-year-old journalism contest, now renamed The Poynter Journalism Prizes". Poynter. Retrieved 2023-12-14.
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