By Jaqueline Munis, The Monitor
NABJ members gathered Thursday at the Hilton Downtown Cleveland for the third and final forum of the 2025 election season. Candidates for president, vice presidents of broadcast and digital, secretary, regional directors for Regions I and III, and a student representative addressed a quiet, half-empty room with their visions for NABJ’s future.
Helen Maynard, a community journalism director at Signal Cleveland, who moderated the forum with Tyler Clifford, a breaking news editor at Bloomberg, called this moment an “inflection point” for NABJ.
The presidential candidates — incumbent Ken Lemon, Errin Haines, and Dion Rabouin — discussed whether NABJ is prepared to face the current attacks against journalism and diversity efforts and emphasized how they will leverage their relationships outside NABJ to improve the organization.
“I believe this moment, our 50th anniversary, has to be more than a celebration. It must be a call to action,” Haines said in her opening statement, addressing the crowd as “family.”
Lemon, who works as beat reporter in North Carolina, spoke about his personal experience with “shrinking newsrooms.”
He emphasized his record, saying that under his leadership, NABJ offered convention grants for the first time, expanded the leadership academy and met with corporate executives to garner support for NABJ.
Rabouin, a financial journalist, founder and CEO, said NABJ “has lost its way,” pointing to low turnout, fewer sponsors and a smaller career fair at this year’s convention. He said the organization has failed to respond to industry challenges and attacks on journalists from Washington.
“No more status quo,” he said.
In response to a question about his best idea to counter attacks from the Trump administration on DEI efforts, Rabouin cited his five-point plan. He proposed creating a rapid response team of lawyers, civil rights groups and labor organizers to help members understand their rights and prepare for potential lawsuits.
Lemon said he has changed DEI policy at two unnamed corporations, ensured more investments in the future of Black journalists and worked with national chapters to build a collective voice against DEI efforts.
Haines said she met with the presidents of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the Urban League, and “both said they are ready to work with me and ready to stand with us.”
The final question focused on what each candidate would do to increase financial support for local chapters.
Haines pointed to her experience “rebuilding” the Atlanta Association of Black Journalists as the vice president of print and said that she focused on improving the finances of the national chapter to then help local associations.
Rabouin explained that under his NABJ Ventures program, local chapters would receive seed funding to hold events and generate revenue for themselves and the national chapter.
After Haines incorrectly said NABJ was “in an $800,000 hole,” Lemon clarified that the organization faces a projected $800,000 budget shortfall — not a deficit — as reported by The Monitor on Thursday. He added that NABJ currently offers $500 chapter grants twice a year, and he hopes to increase them.
“We have lots of money. We’re just managing it very, very poorly,” Rabouin said, drawing laughter from the audience.
The conversation between the candidates for vice president of broadcast focused on leadership experience. Incumbent Walter Smith Randolph said the role, effectively the organization’s number two, requires a deep understanding of NABJ, especially in what he called a “critical moment” for the industry.
When asked by an anonymous audience member what they had done to show “real commitment to NABJ,” Raelyn Johnson, director of weekend programming at MSNBC, defended her track record.
“I’m not going to let my 25 years in this industry be erased,” she said. “I’ll take my resumé and put it up against [other] candidates any single day, and I know that I’m going to get you further.”
Vice president for digital candidates Tre’Vell Anderson and Angela Smith emphasized the need for NABJ and its members to be equipped with tools and training as journalism continues shifting into the digital era.
Smith said she believes everyone is a digital journalist, while Anderson highlighted the potential of incorporating AI and digital training to strengthen NABJ membership.
The two other digital candidates, Vance Lang and Roland Martin, did not attend the forum. Moderators played a prerecorded message from Martin, who had briefly left the convention to speak at another conference.
“This is critically important for us to move into our second 50 years, positioning NABJ for the future,” Martin said in his statement.
Kristen Bannerman contributed to this report.
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