Getting African American Journalists On The `Write' Track - William W. Sutton Jr - Interview

Black Issues in Higher Education, August 16, 2001 by Pearl Stewart

Outgoing president of the National Association of Black Journalists speaks with BI correspondent Pearl Stewart about the declining number of minority journalists; educating students of color for journalism careers; and the challenges facing Black journalists in the newsroom.

William W. Sutton Jr., 45, is outgoing president of the National Association of Black Journalists and a deputy managing editor at The News & Observer in Raleigh-Durham, N.C. He is a 1977 graduate of Hampton Institute (now University); he briefly attended law school at Rutgers University-Camden and received a prestigious Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University in 1987-88.

Sutton's professional career includes more than 10 years with The Philadelphia Inquirer in various reporting and editing jobs before joining the Post-Tribune in Gary, Ind., as managing editor in 1991. Two years later he became editor and vice president of the Post-Tribune.

Once he hit the management track, Sutton sprinted ahead, leaving Gary to join the staff at The News & Observer in January 1997 as an assistant managing editor responsible for recruiting and community outreach. He became deputy managing editor in December 1997.

Sutton has been an active member of NABJ since 1977, where he served more than five years on NABJ's board of directors in the mid-1980s. Along with Juan Gonzalez of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, Sutton was instrumental in bringing the four media organizations of journalists of color together for a joint convention, which led to the historic Unity '94.

BI: What is your view of ought journalism education, especially the education of Black student journalists?

SUTTON: One of the biggest gaps for Black student journalists is the opportunity to work on a daily student newspaper. Those Black students who attend universities such as Northwestern, the University of Maryland or Columbia can have that opportunity, though they face other serious issues at those publications.

However, not a single HBCU (historically Black college and university) has a five-, six-or seven-day a week student newspaper. Like the sciences and other fields of study, you cannot properly prepare for the profession with just class work. It is important to have the balance of class study and practical experience. A daily student newspaper is an important asset, and the HBCU that recognizes that, supports the concept and takes action to create a daily student newspaper complete with free press authorization, will find that their students will get a lot of attention real fast.

BI: What were your goals as NABJ president related to journalism students? Did you meat those goals?

SUTTON: One of the primary goals was to refocus our NABJ-specific, internship efforts on internships for first-time interns. Because of the fight to have the industry do more for African American students through the year, the media industry has a lot of programs geared toward the best and the brightest Black students. NABJ was focused that way, too.

But we've changed that. With the help of Robin Stone, Louise Ritchie and Gregory Lee, we have focused our internships on Black students who need a first break, a first-time opportunity to see what the media business is all about. We've added a spring internship boot camp to provide these young people with specific skills and an introduction to newspaper journalism so they'll be more prepared when they go into these newspaper newsrooms. I want to emphasize that our internships have been open and continue to be open to Black students at all colleges and universities, but we certainly have a special affinity for HBCUs.

BI: As associate NABJ members, are journalism professors considered an important component of NABJ? Can more be done to promote participation among academics?

SUTTON: Frankly, NABJ needs more from our journalism professors, and journalism professors need to push NABJ for more. They are right there in the trenches with many of the students we need to reach. We have the experience -- the daily, weekly and monthly news jobs so many of these students want. We have a wonderful organization that can provide Black students a significant leg up if they associate with us and allow us to help them. Journalism professors like Gerald Jordan at Arkansas, Joe Ritchie at FAMU, Susan Mango Curtis at Northwestern and others know that, so they are continuously involved with NABJ, helping their students make the appropriate connections.

BI: What is NABJ doing to involve students in the organization? Is the internship program successful?

SUTTON: NABJ has always done a lot to get students involved in the association, and we continue to do a lot. We have more than $100,000 in scholarships and internships awarded each year. We have students involved at the chapter, regional and national level to help them grow professionally and to grow their leadership skills. We include students in a lot of our professional development programs, but we place special emphasis on student development with student-specific development.