HELP APME, HELP YOURSELF

APME is committed to providing low-cost training and support for managing editors. If you read our quarterly magazine or these weekly e-mail Updates, you know what we mean. If you've attended NewsTrain or taken part in our Credibility Roundtables, you've benefited from our work. If you come to our conference this October in Washington, D.C., we promise you'll go home with 500 great ideas for staying ahead and producing great journalism.

We're a mostly volunteer organization, but we do have expenses. That's why we're asking your support to help us raise $152,000 by May 31.

When we hit that goal – and we're oh-so-close – we'll receive $73,000 from the Knight Foundation, the Ford Foundation and Ethics and Excellence in Journalism. We need your help now to help us build a stronger organization. Here's how to do it:

   • 1. Grab your checkbook, write a check made out to "APME Foundation." In the memo field, write: Challenge Grant. Then send it, pronto, to Mark Mittelstadt, Executive Director, Associated Press Managing Editors, at Associated Press Managing Editors, 19 Commerce Court West, Cranbury, N.J., 08512-2416.

   • 2. Donate online by clicking here: https://www.123signup.com/register?id=xgztq. If you're not yet on our mailing list or a Supporting Member, you'll need to register. But once you do it's an easy, secure way to give.

   • 3. Call Mark at the APME office – his phone is 212-621-1838 – make a pledge, give him your credit card number and he'll do the rest.

   • 4. APME does not require dues to become a member. But we do ask each member (or their paper) to become a Supporting Member for $100 or an Editors Circle Member for $250. If you're neither and you give now, that full amount goes to the Challenge Grant; if you're upgrading from Supporting Member to Editors Circle, $150 of the $250 goes to the Challenge Grant. You can enroll here: https://www.123signup.com/enroll?Org=apme

   • 5. Ask your employer if they'll match your contribution. Then ask again. Some employers do not routinely match employee contributions, but will on request when they hear their managing editors gave and believe in APME. Corporate gifts to the Challenge Grant are allowed only when they match an individual's contribution; and the match can be greater than 1:1.

If we make our goal, we will use the money for important core development of the organization: while APME has large participation, too many managing editors are not part of the organization, largely because we don't have a complete database record or standard protocol for sorting out which managing editors are part of APME and which are not.

We will upgrade our database and become more effective in reaching out to members, associates, friends and donors. We believe we can grow the organization by a methodical approach built on strong data. We will develop a much better system of managing our communication, membership and donor programs.

And we will continue to support NewsTrain, which has reached more than 3,000 journalists in all 50 states.

All of this, of course, is geared toward APME's goal of being every managing editor's best and most useful resource. APME will stand by its managing editors in these challenging times, but it now needs the managing editors to stand up for it in achieving the goal of the Challenge Grant.

(Hank Klibanoff is the APME Challenge Grant Chairman. He's managing editor, news, at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and recently won the Pulitzer Prize for history as co-author of "The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation.")

AN IRE MEDAL WINNER TALKS ABOUT HIS WORK

By Teri Hayt
APME First Amendment Committee Vice Chairwoman

Reporter George Sanchez recently won an Investigative Reporters and Editors medal for his work with the Center for Investigative Reporting (San Francisco) and the Monterey County Herald. His project, "Nuestra Familia: Our Family," was a documentary film on Latino gangs in Salinas, Calif. Sanchez worked on the film with the Center for Investigative Reporting, producer-director Oriana Zill de Granados and co-producer-reporter Julia Reynolds.

Sanchez sat down with APME Update to discuss the project.

Sanchez: About one year after I graduated from the University of San Francisco with a bachelor's degree in communications, I was able to work with the Center for Investigative Reporting through its Next Generation fellowship program. While I had worked the previous year for Mother Jones magazine and Motherjones.com and had experience as a freelance reporter, I was still a very young reporter with little experience in investigative reporting. One month into my fellowship, Julia Reynolds, who at the time was the center's crime reporter and El Andar magazine's investigative reporting editor, asked me to look into some statistics CIR had recently compiled on homicide rates among young Latinos in California. That was the beginning of multi-year project that in some ways remains unfinished.

APME: Why did you want to investigate this topic?

Sanchez: Initially I did not want to report on gangs, specifically Latino gangs. Both Julia and I discussed this issue at length before we went ahead with the project. Neither one of us had touched the issue in the past because we did not want to perpetuate negative stereotypes of the community. But much of the reporting that had been done on the general topic was largely superficial and shamefully sensational. While gang violence had been covered before, outside of a few newspapers in Northern California, few reporters had documented the history and problems unique to this area, namely that of the Nuestra Familia, norteño street gang structure and the federal investigation known as Operation Black Widow. For me personally, I had to recognize that negative image or not, gangs were a community problem and until they were honestly addressed as such, it would continue to be something taboo to be swept under the rug as someone else's problem.

APME: How did you and Julia do this?

Sanchez: We didn't. There were plenty of other reporters, editors, interns and fellows who helped with everything from creating databases to additional reporting. This was a collaborative effort and stands as a testament to team reporting.

APME: What did you learn over the process of this project?

Sanchez: We learned the value of persistence. This project took years to complete, first as a series of print articles and later as a television documentary and related radio projects. This story was initially rejected by dozens of national media outlets. As the costs began to mount and no outlet in sight, our bosses told us to stop working but we continued. We spent months with sources gaining their trust. We never went undercover and were always upfront about the project. Even some people who swore they'd never speak with us eventually came around.

APME: What advice do you have for young reporters interested in investigative reporting?

Sanchez: For young reporters, I'd say to find someone whose work you admire and seek him or her out as a mentor. One of the reasons I applied for CIR's fellowship was because I wanted to work with Julia Reynolds and El Andar. Secondly, don't get discouraged by the state of the industry; despite the changes going on now. There remain outlets supportive of aggressive, investigative reporting. Don't dismiss the small town papers either, because they need aggressive reporters just as much as the Times and the Post. Lastly, don't ever let an official or spokesperson browbeat you into thinking your work is insignificant. If you're asking a question that's uncomfortable, or sets that person off, you're probably asking the right thing.

Find the project at http://nuestrafamiliaourfamily.org/pages/credits.html.

All of this year's IRE winners are listed at www.ire.org/contest/06winners.html.

(Teri Hayt is managing editor of the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson. Contact her at thayt@azstarnet.com. George Sanchez is now an education writer at the Star. Contact him at gsanchez@azstarnet.com.)

REGISTER BEFORE JUNE 1 FOR THE APME CONFERENCE AND SAVE

Join print, online and photo editors from around the country for the annual conference of the Associated Press Managing Editors and AP Photo Managers Oct. 3-6 in Washington, D.C. Engaging discussions on reaching new audiences, retaining journalists of color, Great Ideas you can take back to your newsroom and a visit to the Freedom Forum's brand new Newseum will highlight APME's first conference ever to be held in the nation's capital. You can't afford to miss this meeting. Sign up now and save $50 on your conference registration.

To register for the conference go to:

https://www.123signup.com/register?id=qkknd

Or to learn more go to:

https://www.123signup.com/event?id=qkknd

To take advantage of APME's discounted rate of $235 a night at the JW Marriott, go to:

http://marriott.com/property/propertypage/wasjw?groupCode=apmapma&app=resvlink

To receive e-mail notification of new APME Updates, write to APME@ap.org

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