Job Fair `A Reality Check’ For Students Minorities Evaluate Journalism As Career

Ramona Shelton, a black liberal arts student at Spokane Community College, got a close-up look at her future Friday.

Shelton, 22, was at a two-day job fair designed to attract minority students to the newspaper industry.

After spending several hours listening to professionals in the field, an enthusiastic Shelton said: “Journalism is my career.”

More than 70 minority students from around the Pacific Northwest are in Spokane this weekend learning what it takes to get into newspapers.

Sunny Justus, a student at Lane Community College in Eugene, Ore., said she hopes to serve newspaper internships so she’ll have marketable skills when she receives her bachelor’s degree.

Justus said the job fair was a “reality check,” because it showed her what she needs to become a reporter. She was planning to spend some time with a veteran reporter at the fair for a critique of her work.

For several years, newspapers have tried to attract minorities by sponsoring job fairs. More than 20 news organizations with 38 recruiters were at the Spokane event, including the New York Times, Associated Press, the Seattle and Portland dailies and smaller papers from the region.

The Spokane event, which ends today, is one of six job fairs being held around the country this year under the sponsorship of the American Society of Newspaper Editors and the Newspaper Association of America.

The American Society of Newspaper Editors has adopted a goal of employing the same level of minorities found in the general population, or 25 percent. Currently, minorities account for about 10 percent of the work force at newspapers nationwide.

The Spokesman-Review has 61 minority employees out of a work force of 900 full- and part-time workers, not including paper carriers. That is a minority representation of 7 percent, roughly the same percentage as found in the population of Spokane County.

The Spokesman-Review sponsored the minority fair, and supervisors from the paper were interviewing potential job candidates in hopes of increasing that percentage.

Peggy Kuhr, assistant managing editor, said hiring minorities is only one aspect of increasing diversity at the newspaper.

She said the paper wants to build a work force that reflects the broader population not only in race, but also in religion, gender and age. By doing so, the paper will improve its coverage of the community, she said.

“We have no shortage of applicants who are white,” Kuhr said, explaining the minority job fair is intended to extend a hand to help those groups who are underrepresented in the work force.

“You go for qualified people,” said Don Smith, assistant managing editor at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. “We are trying to be more reflective of the community.”

Alejandro Tomas, a photography instructor at Seattle Central Community College, drove seven students across a snowy mountain pass Friday to attend the job fair.

He said he hoped his students not only learn more about becoming photojournalists, but also become acquainted with the people who might hire them someday.

The fair wasn’t just for newsroom jobs. Recruiters from other newspaper departments were there to encourage minority students to consider careers in advertising, accounting and other areas.

Carla Alford, who works in the human resources and accounting departments at the Tri-City Herald, said she attended a minority job fair as a student two years ago, and ended up getting a job in the business. She is black.

This time, she was back as a recruiter, hoping to find qualified minorities for hiring.