UNITY Journalists of Color, Inc.’s New U: News Entrepreneurs Working through UNITY (New U) project announced today that its participants had reached the voting stage of the competitive program.

Pending an online vote by their peers from all four UNITY alliance associations (AAJA, NABJ, NAHJ and NAJA), four participants will each receive $5,000 in seed money for their business.

View the videos, vote and learn more about New U »

Welcome to the voting page for the 2010 New U: News Entrepreneurs Working Through UNITY business concept competition.

New U is a competitive program for journalists of color who want to become entrepreneurs. Last summer, 16 participants joined a Ford Foundation-sponsored UNITY curriculum over the course of the four minority journalism conferences (NAHJ, NAJA, NABJ and AAJA) to learn about entrepreneurship and pitch their ideas.

Their pitches were recorded on video, and now we’re asking you, the participants’ peers, to vote for the very best business concept. One finalist from each UNITY alliance association (AAJA, NABJ, NAHJ and NAJA) will be selected to win a seed grant for their business plan. Thank you in advance for your assistance in selecting the best idea.

Native American Journalists Association

John Gregg

Producer Profile originally written by Zach Oliva for Native American Public Telecommunications

John Gregg has known for a while that moving away from Lincoln, Neb., was a possibility. But the longtime “AIROS” manager and project coordinator for Native Radio Theater decided it was time after 12 years producing Native American radio for NAPT.

Gregg (Iňupiat/Hopi) moved to Lincoln Nebraska from Tuba City, Ariz., when he was offered the assistant manager position at the American Indian Radio on Satellite or AIROS. Created in 1994, AIROS started as a Native American radio service to deliver programming, including music, news and entertainment, via satellite to the 33 tribal and public radio stations in the nation.