FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 15, 2023
NAHJ expresses concern about disbanding of award-winning staff of Spanish-language newspaper Al Día
(Washington, D.C.) – The National Association of Hispanic Journalists is disturbed by reports that the parent company of the Dallas Morning News has made demoralizing changes to its Spanish-language newspaper, Al Día, by dismantling and redistributing its award-winning staff. Journalists working exclusively for Spanish-speaking audiences were reassigned to English-language teams without their input or clear instructions about the future of their jobs.
The NAHJ met with the DallasNews Corporation’s top editor, Katrice Hardy, who said the shift comes in response to dwindling readership, trends and a desire to integrate Al Día’s Spanish-focused journalism into broader play for its Latino audience, including second-generation, English-dominant Latinos. She reassured the NAHJ that this was not a business decision and affirmed the company’s commitment to Spanish-speaking communities. Al Día staffers, she said, will continue to write stories in Spanish, translated to English, and will be encouraged to expand coverage via deeply-reported enterprise and investigations. Al Día will also continue to publish once a week and will maintain its digital website. Hardy plans to communicate this to the community before March 6 when full implementation begins.
However, feedback from staff members indicates that intention, however sincere, has not been effectively communicated. That poor communication and implementation has destabilized Al Día staff. These actions are already resulting in a breach of confidence between the news organization and Latino readers. Staffers were left to flounder and interpret this move as a pretext for the eventual shuttering of the publication and their dismissal.
At a time when Spanish-speaking communities are targeted by misinformation across the country, Al Día has been a cherished beacon of reliable, utilitarian news that has served the Dallas Metroplex for nearly two decades. It has earned the trust and admiration of readers through content aimed at improving lives and telling stories for and by community members. Shutting down or shrinking Spanish-language operations is part of a pattern we’ve seen all too often at news organizations that fail to understand the value of content created for communities of color.
The fundamental shift from producing stories for and by Dallas’s Spanish-speaking community, to writing for an English-speaking audience changes the mandate. It also damages the connection between Al Día’s reporting staff and their local Hispanic community. This move could render the respected Al Día newspaper to little more than a repository for translated dispatches.
Hardy describes the change as an “integration” strategy aimed at expanding Latino community coverage that’s produced by all DMN staff. But the NAHJ shares the view of some staffers and the union that this is a forced assimilation without input from readers and staff.
The NAHJ is deeply concerned about the fates of these journalists and our members. Moreover, Al Día’s staff have been chronically underpaid for years. The salary disparity will be more pronounced now that they will be working shoulder-to-shoulder with their English language counterparts. Now is the time to address that disparity.
We, the NAHJ, are hopeful that the reassurances given by Hardy and the Dallas Morning News will protect the legacy and future of Al Día, and we look forward to continuing the dialogue to ensure fair treatment of Al Día’s staff. We are ready to work with DMN and other industry leaders to devise solutions that serve all our Latino and Hispanic communities around the country in an authentic and respectful manner.
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About NAHJ:
The National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) is the largest organization of Latino journalists in the United States and is dedicated to the recognition and professional advancement of Hispanics in the news industry. Established in April 1984, NAHJ created a national voice and unified vision for all Hispanic journalists. The mission of NAHJ is to increase the number of Latinos in the newsrooms and to work toward fair and accurate representation of Latinos in news media. NAHJ has more than 3,400 members, including working journalists, journalism students, other media-related professionals and journalism educators. For more information please visit NAHJ.org or follow on Twitter @NAHJ.
Media Contact: NAHJ Executive Director David Peña Jr.; [email protected]