Newsrooms after the summer of protest: Has anything really changed?

After a summer of protests about police brutality and racial injustice, news organizations vowed to improve coverage of diverse communities and to step up their own long-promised efforts to diversify newsrooms and leadership.

Join the National Press Club Journalism Institute and the National Press Club Communicators Committee for a candid conversation with Amanda Barrett, deputy managing editor at AP; Rene Sanchez, editor and senior vice president at the Star Tribune; and Dorothy Tucker, president of the National Association of Black Journalists. Michael McCarter, USA Today managing editor of standards, ethics and inclusion, will moderate.

Registration is open for this program, which will take place from 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm EDT on Friday, October 23.

The speakers will explore the following questions:

• Has anything really changed?
• How are newsrooms communicating internally and externally about their efforts?
• What’s next for newsrooms pushing toward equity?

About the speakers

Amanda Barrett, deputy managing editor of AP, oversees newsroom talent development and manages the Nerve Center at AP’s New York headquarters. The Nerve Center serves as AP’s hub for global news coordination, research, customer communication and audience engagement.

As head of talent development, Barrett helps lead efforts to create career paths to retain talented staff across the globe, and to develop a more diverse workforce. She works with news leaders around the globe to drive more inclusive storytelling more fully representing the communities AP journalists cover.

Barrett joined AP in New York in 2007 as a content coordinator, working with journalists across the company on interactive projects. She became deputy East editor in 2009, helping to establish a new regional desk in Philadelphia and lead AP’s coverage of 10 northeastern U.S. states. Two years later, she returned to New York as city news editor, directing AP’s award-winning coverage of Hurricane Sandy and its aftermath. In 2015, she moved to the Nerve Center as planning and administration manager and assumed leadership in 2017.

Barrett has played a critical role in coordinating news coverage of many of the biggest stories of recent years, including hurricanes Harvey and Maria, the #MeToo movement and the 2018 Winter Olympics. Barrett also serves as a leader of AP’s race and ethnicity reporting team.

Before joining AP, Barrett worked at Newsday, where she led a team of interactive journalists and managed the NYNewsday.com and amNY.com websites. She previously worked as a sports editor at the Orlando Sentinel and at the Roanoke Times in her hometown of Roanoke, Va.

Rene Sanchez leads Minnesota’s largest news organization, overseeing all aspects of the Star Tribune’s print and digital editions. He joined the Star Tribune in 2004 as a regional reporter and was later named its Sunday editor. He has subsequently overseen the Metro, Business and Sports departments as well as special reporting projects and investigative work. He helped lead the Star Tribune’s investigation of child deaths at daycare facilities in Minnesota that earned the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting.

Sanchez’s journalism career began in New Orleans at The Times-Picayune, where he reported on sports and local news. He then spent 17 years as a local and national reporter for The Washington Post. In his last six years at the Post, he was based in Los Angeles, covering California and the American West.

A New Orleans native, Sanchez earned his bachelor’s degree in journalism from Loyola University.

Dorothy Tucker is President of the National Association of Black Journalists. A Chicago native, she has been a reporter for CBS 2 Chicago since 1984 and currently is a reporter on the station’s 2 Investigator team.

Tucker has been honored numerous times throughout her career. Her many awards include several local Emmys, including one for her breaking news reports during the 2008 Northern Illinois University shootings and two for her work on CBS 2 Chicago′s 2003 and 2004 broadcasts of the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon.

She was honored by the Chicago Association of Black Journalists with their annual award for Outstanding Television Reporting (1994 and 1987) and received a national UPI Spot News Award.

She joined CBS 2 Chicago from KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh, where she worked as a general assignment reporter and talk show host. Prior to that, Tucker worked at KWGN-TV in Denver, as a general assignment reporter. Previously, she was a reporter and weekend anchor at WREG-TV in Memphis. (1979-80). Tucker began her broadcasting career in Peoria at WMBD-TV, after serving as an intern at CBS 2 Chicago in 1977.

Tucker is a former board member of Northwestern Alumni Association and a current member of the Northwestern University Leadership Circle. Tucker graduated, with honors, from Northwestern University with a B.S. in Communications. Tucker lives in Hyde Park and is the mother of three.

About the moderator

Michael McCarter is managing editor of standards, ethics and inclusion at USA TODAY. In this new role, McCarter works closely with USA TODAY journalists across the country focusing on five building blocks that include ethics, standards, mentoring, education and inclusion.

McCarter previously served as executive editor of Evansville Courier & Press of the USA TODAY Network, and also coordinated coverage with editors and reporters across Indiana and Kentucky.

Prior to his time in Evansville, McCarter worked for 10 years at the Cincinnati Enquirer, where he served as senior news director and director of photography before that.

A graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi, McCarter took an unconventional path into journalism through an elective photography class. After completing a photo internship at the Pensacola (Florida) News Journal, he began his career as a photographer at The Shreveport (Louisiana) Times while pursuing a master’s in psychology at Louisiana State University-Shreveport. Later, he moved to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution where he served as photo editor. He oversaw historic photo coverage of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and a special section commemorating the life and death of Coretta Scott King.

About NPCJI’s programs

The National Press Club Journalism Institute has added weekly programming, a daily newsletter, a daily writing group, and other support for journalists since March, and has waived fees for everything due to the COVID-19 pandemic at a savings of more than $52,000 to participants like you. If you value what you’ve been learning from the Institute during this time, please consider a donation of $5, $10, or whatever you can contribute.