By Elijah Pittman
NABJ Monitor
The NABJ and National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) split for the 2024 joint convention brought out spirited dialog at the board and business meetings this week.
To the surprise of the memberships of each organization, NAHJ chose to divorce NABJ for the 2024 convention and celebrate their 40th convention alone in Hollywood.
The hotel agreement for the 2024 Chicago joint convention was signed several years ago by then-Executive Director Alberto Mendoza.
One reason NAHJ gave for not wanting to meet jointly was its desire to celebrate its 40th anniversary alone.
Berry added that NABJ and NAHJ signed the hotel agreement for Chicago with Mendoza. According to Berry, there were multiple potential reasons for the split, but ultimately it was on the account of NAHJ.
“You have to ask them why they pulled out,” Berry responded when asked by a member of the business meeting.
Despite Berry urging the board members to ask NAHJ, he suggested several potential reasons for the split: losses in leadership, Hollywood being a better fit as it is the city of founding for NAHJ, and financial conflicts.
Both NABJ and NAHJ members were disappointed at the lack of a joint convention, as expressed on social media and in person at each organization’s respective 2023 conventions.
“Members, including myself, always look forward to joint conferences,” said Hugo Balta, former president of the NAHJ who signed the initial agreement for the joint NAHJ convention in 2014. “It gives us an opportunity to see friends and colleagues we normally don’t see throughout the year…I think overall from those I [have] spoken to, it [has] been a disappointment.”
At the board meeting Tuesday, Berry explained that Chicago is a union city, which made convention planning expensive, and the collaborative effort would have softened the financial blow of Chicago. Berry mentioned that NABJ would not bear the cost of the convention alone.
“We’re not going to absorb the cost alone and we’re working through those issues in a cordial, professional manner,” Berry said to the board.
“The Chicago Hilton has already offered to amend the contract, remove NAHJ, and right-size the event to suit NABJ’s needs. At that time we have not been informed by NABJ of any other costs that would be incurred,” Yvette Cabrera, the president of NAHJ, said.
Berry assured the board and the membership that there would not be a decrease in revenue due to the cancellation of the joint convention, citing previous convention numbers.
He mentioned, in both meetings, that the Birmingham convention is expected to clear in excess of $700,000 whereas the 2022 Las Vegas joint convention with NAHJ only cleared $301,817 in surplus.
“I’m disappointed, I mean, I think it’s great when we meet together,” said Bob Butler, former president of NABJ. “It’s hard to explain when you walk into a hall and you see Black journalists, Latino journalists all coming together.
“I mean, you’re talking about thousands of people coming together. You have different cultures coming together. I think it’s a great enriching experience.”
This story has been updated to reflect requests made by NAHJ regarding its decision to meet jointly to celebrate its 40th anniversary alone, include a response from NAHJ President Yvette Cabrera and to clarify NABJ Executive Director Drew Berry’s opinion on the 2024 joint convention split in Chicago.
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