New American Media, ethnic media advocate closes its doors

The New American Media announces its own demise.

AFTER 45 YEARS of encouraging journalists from unrepresented minorities, bringing respect to the multitude of ethnic media and developing a voice for minority media New America Media (NAM), and its parent organization, Pacific News Service (PNS), closed its doors Nov. 30.


“For 45 years, Pacific News Service has pioneered new ways to diversify American journalism and communications,” said Board Chair Lawrence Wilkinson. Wilkinson is chairman of Heminge & Condell, a strategic advisory and investment firm, and co-founder of Global Business Network (GBN).

“Long before terms like civic engagement, youth media, collaborative reporting, and inclusive journalism were in vogue, PNS and NAM were inventing how to implement them,” noted fellow board member James Bettinger, longtime director (now emeritus) of the John S. Knight Stanford Journalism Fellowship program.

I was managing editor of the Philippine News when the newspaper, the largest Filipino/American publication with a national readership, joined dozens of other ethnic media in the San Francisco Bay Area to form New American Media.

Of all PNS’ initiatives, none was more ambitious in scope and impact than New America Media. Founded 20 years ago at a Chinese lunch in San Francisco for some 24 ethnic media reporters, it was inspired by PNS’ search for more effective ways to report on an increasingly diverse America.
“How could a mainstream news service like ours do its job when there was no longer a mainstream?” Close said. “We decided to seek out partnerships with ethnic media outlets that would allow us to share content about and between the Bay Area’s growing racial and language groups.”

The founding lunch opened the door to a parallel universe of journalists and media makers hungry to transcend their cultural silos and expand their coverage. Ethnic media leaders realized that, after years of being ignored by the mainstream media, they could gain visibility and respect by coming together.

“If you add our combined circulations, we’re larger than the mainstream dailies,” Alex Esclamado, then the publisher of Philippine News, exclaimed.

Ethnic media became our direction-givers, noted NAM executive director Sandy Close, inspiring NAM to go beyond journalism to become a quasi-trade association and develop a social marketing arm. NAM organized awards and expos to bring the sector greater visibility, held press briefings with experts and elected officials, coordinated fellowship programs and professional training workshops, facilitated a news exchange, and developed public awareness campaigns that have brought over $10 million to the sector.

“NAM’s ethnic media directory is like a map of America’s new topography,” said Bettinger. “Its gatherings brought reporters from Black, Hispanic, Asian, Middle Eastern, Eastern European, African and AfroCaribbean communities together – often for the first time – educating policy makers even as they expanded the sector’s own knowledge base.”

PNS and NAM were able to present a perspective of what was happening in Vietnam and under the Marcos dictatorship in the Philippines that mainstream media was reluctant to delve into. Eventually, the dailies caught on that they were presenting only a narrow view of the world and became more aggressive in reporting these events across the Pacific and in Latin America.

As the wars ended or died down, NAM turned to the U.S. ethnic communities where another type of war was being waged. NAM gave a voice to the ethnic communities in the U.S. and legitimized the marginalized media to advertisers and mainstream media. Through NAM, publications sprouted up in communities that traditionally had no media of their own. Through its youth programs and publications, it discovered and nurtured journalists, poets and writers to tell their stories through their own voices and eyes.

“We’ve always aspired to do more than our resources allowed,” said Close. “We grew too fast, and were reluctant to cut off programs after their funding expired. We reached a point where we were not sustainable, as currently constituted.”

“Today our challenge is to make sure NAM’s work can live on without NAM,” said Close.

With the continuing influx of immigrant communities, scores of publications and websites have materialized serving those neighborhoods and segments of society that have been overlooked or ignored. Over the coming weeks, NAM will be exploring alternative ways to continue key projects that leverage ethnic media’s unique access to underserved audiences.

NAM’s work put ethnic media on the radar in a way nothing else had, recalled founding NAM member Monica Lozano, publisher of the Spanish-language La Opinion and CEO of its parent company, ImpreMedia LLC. “NAM has had such an enormous impact that will live long beyond the organization. It built communal ties that will continue to change the narrative, elevate voices, bring communities together and demonstrate to the larger society that we are stronger than any divisive measures others try to impose.”

“We are confident that, for all the challenges, the ethnic media sector will not disappear,” Wilkinson said. “As global migration accelerates, too many diaspora populations will need trusted media messengers to stay informed and connected. More immediately, we also believe that the sector’s commitment to work together – to be a bridge across racial and ethnic divides – will be more vital than ever.”

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