Ernest R. Sotomayor to Succeed Jackie Greene as UNITY President

WASHINGTON (Jan. 1, 2003) -- The UNITY: Journalists of Color Board of Directors elected Newsday.com Long Island Editor Ernest R. Sotomayor as its 2003-2004 president during a recent meeting in Washington, D.C. 

Mr. Sotomayor, who begins his two-year term on January 1, 2003, is currently the organization’s vice president and has served on the UNITY Board of Directors since 2001.

Ernest R. Sotomayor

“UNITY has come far in the past decade since the four alliance associations came together to begin planning the first convention in Atlanta, but it still has far to go as we watch some of the gains we’ve made in the media in recent years begin to erode,” Sotomayor said.  “As media companies large and small, in print and in broadcast, and the major industry organizations begin their cutbacks, our message is that their efforts to diversify in hiring, management, training and particularly in coverage, must remain a high priority.”

Sotomayor’s goal is to take UNITY to the next level of its organizational transition over the course of the next two years.

“As we move forward with the planning of the UNITY 2004 Convention in Washington, D.C., our message to the industry will get louder and stronger and UNITY’s support of its four alliance partners will be strengthened so that they can in turn fulfill their missions to improve journalism,” Sotomayor said.

As Long Island Editor with Newsday.com, Sotomayor oversees the newspaper’s online coverage of local news and the evening production of the web site. Mr. Sotomayor joined New York Newsday in 1989 and was Brooklyn/Queens Editor, overseeing coverage in the outer boroughs of New York City until 1995, when the New York edition closed.  He then became regional editor on Long Island, and later became deputy business editor for technology, directing the daily local business news reporting staff.

Sotomayor succeeds Jackie Greene (director of technology planning & fulfillment at USA TODAY), who became UNITY’s first elected president in January 2001.  Under Mr. Greene’s leadership, the newly restructured organization continued its successful transition from a convention-planning organization to an ongoing strategic national alliance. Additionally, during Greene’s tenure, the covenant partnerships between ASNE (American Society of Newspaper Editors), NAA (Newspaper Association of America) and RTNDA (Radio-Television News Directors Association) were strengthened, and UNITY’s executive management streamlined its budget expenses, achieving substantial surpluses during both fiscal years 2001 and 2002.

Along with Mr. Sotomayor, the UNITY Board elected Esther Wu as vice president and re-elected Robert McDonald as secretary of the organization. Ms. Wu is a columnist and staff writer for The Dallas Morning News, and serves as national secretary of the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA). Mr. McDonald is the higher education reporter at The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, a mentor in the UNITY Mentor Program, and has been involved with the Native American Journalists Association (NAJA) as a convention volunteer in their student projects.

# # #

About UNITY: Journalists of Color
UNITY: Journalists of Color, Inc. is a strategic alliance advocating news coverage about people of color, and aggressively challenging its organizations at all levels to reflect the nation’s diversity. UNITY, representing more than 10,000 journalists of color, is comprised of four national associations: Asian American Journalists Association, National Association of Black Journalists, National Association of Hispanic Journalists, and the Native American Journalists Association.

In addition to planning the largest regular gathering of journalists in the nation, UNITY develops programs and institutional relationships that promote its mission. For more information on UNITY, visit www.unityjournalists.org, email info@unityjournalists.org or call (703) 854-3585.