NNPA Mid-Winter Training Conference focuses on allies, the Black vote and tech 

By Alexis TaylorAFRO Managing Editor

The Nationwide Newspaper Publishers Affiliation, the commerce affiliation which represents greater than 240 Black publications throughout the nation, held their Mid-Winter Coaching Convention in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Jan. 24 to Jan. 27.

Publishers, editors, writers and businessmen and ladies from across the nation gathered beneath the theme of empowering the “Black Press, the Black vote and Black America.” Bobby R. Henry Sr., NNPA chairman, spoke on the importance of selecting such an embattled state to carry the affiliation’s convention.

“Right here in Florida, you perceive what Florida has develop into to our nation– it’s actually an eye fixed sore,” stated Henry. “I needed to wrestle that.” 

Henry stated that he in the end determined to carry the convention in Florida due to the truth that members of the Black Press are certainly “making headway and addressing points and constructing coalitions that work– not simply in phrase, however in deed additionally.” 

On the primary day of the convention, board conferences have been held to handle NNPA enterprise issues and funding. Later within the day, attendees have been chauffeured to the African American Analysis Library and Cultural Heart for a nationwide city corridor assembly, titled “Affirming the Relationship Between Blacks and Jews in America. 

“The Black Press is 197 years . When Russworm and Cornish first printed Freedom’s Journal in 1827, a few of their financing to begin the primary Black newspaper got here from the Jewish neighborhood of New York. We’ve been concerned with the Jewish neighborhood for 197 years– significantly in the course of the Civil Rights Motion,” Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. informed the AFRO.  “We deliberate this fashion earlier than Oct. 7, again in August, as a result of we knew that Broward County has a really giant Jewish inhabitants and a big Black inhabitants. Once we go to a area people and have our nationwide occasions, we need to engage with the neighborhood.”

On the second day of the gathering, publishers have been in a position to attend periods akin to “Income Producing Methods within the Publishing Digital Age” and “Harnessing the Energy of the Group, the Black Press and Inclusive Company Management.” Each have been matters of dialogue all through the size of the convention, together with find out how to attain voters in an election yr. Attendees had a possibility to interface with members of the Google Information Initiative staff and learn to higher perceive their viewers..

Day two of the convention additionally included time for recipients of the PGA Excursions Scholarship, Jasmine Corridor of Bethune Cookman College and Victoria Gisel Montanet, of Florida Agricultural and Mechanical College, to obtain recognition. As well as, the Black Wall Road Ticker was launched by Dr. Charles Walker, founder and CEO of FOTM International. 

Within the night, members of the Black Press have been hosted on the Holocaust Documentation and Schooling Heart (HDEC). Throughout their go to, they heard from two Jewish survivors of the Holocaust, and discovered how genocide is feasible anyplace stereotypes, hate and bigotry go unchecked. 

The third day of the assembly featured vital panel discussions on find out how to use Google analytics to additional have interaction audiences and find out how to incorporate expertise and broaden media protection with digital storytelling. The night supplied these in attendance a possibility to have a good time with John and Carol Zippert, NNPA Writer Lifetime Achievement Award recipients. 

The Zipperts have been publishers of the Inexperienced County Democrat Newspaper in Alabama since 1985, after they put the previous homeowners, who used the pages to advertise White supremacy, out of enterprise. Collectively, with the assistance of the native residents, the 2 turned a publication beforehand recognized to advertise racist views right into a publication that caters to the Black neighborhood–which makes up 85 % of the county inhabitants. 

Day after day, night time after night time, attendees of the NNPA Mid-Winter Coaching Convention got alternatives to be taught, develop and admire the onerous work carried out by Black media professionals. The convention concluded on Jan. 27 with a breakfast, coupled with a suppose tank session. 

In opposition to the backdrop of sunny Florida, publishers have been in a position to decide up new methods to interact audiences and make change, editors got ideas to enhance their native newsroom and all in attendance took dwelling a brand new fervor for advancing the mission of the Black Press.