LA gets another Latino journalists group *

The longstanding organization for Latino journalists to hang out with each other in Los Angeles has been for decades the California Chicano News Media Association, recently shortened to CCNMA with the added hyphenate of Latino Journalists of California. The group had offices for executive director Julio Moran at USC until recently; I believe they are now housed at the Arizona State University offices of the Cronkite School of Journalism in Santa Monica. Anyway, last week a new LA chapter of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists met for the first time, and today gets featured in a blog post for KCET's website by Adolfo Guzman-Lopez of KPCC.

The SAG-AFTRA union co-sponsored the mixer. Union representative Ray Bradford said he and other L.A. members of the NAHJ wondered at a national meeting this summer why L.A. didn't have a chapter.

He said there was a gentleman's agreement between the NAHJ and the older, California-based Latino journalist group. "Out of respect for the leadership, the long time leadership of the California Chicano News Media Association, which preceded the formation of NAHJ. And so while NAHJ prospered around the country building chapters across the country we as NAHJ needed to support CCNMA's continued growth in Southern California," he said.

Now the two groups can contend to see which survives, if either. Or is the idea of ethnicity-based professional organizations fading, especially among younger and more digitally oriented journalists?

Noted: Yvette Cabrera, president of CCNMA-Latino Journalists of California, emails that her group and NAHJ are working together to bring the NAHJ national convention to Los Angeles next year. She says many local journalists, including herself, are members of both organizations. CCNMA was honored by NAHJ at the recent Unity conference in Las Vegas.

Fixed Santa Monica reference