NAHJ 2025 Conference Playbook: An anchor walks into a conference…
| ¡Buenos días, NAHJ familia! Hola from your hosts today: Susan Barnett and Luisana Ortiz! A daily morning white mocha and 10-minute wait in line — we mean, meditation time — has provided motivation throughout this nonstop week! Being part of the Latino Reporter student newsroom at the National Association of Hispanic Journalists conference is hard work. But it has its perks! After his conversation with the NBCU Academy, Tom Llamas, newly appointed anchor of “NBC Nightly News,” stopped by our newsroom to share words of encouragement for those of us embarking on our journalism careers. “I’ve been coming to NAHJ for almost 20 years now (and it’s) always been an opportunity for me to meet people, to network, to show my work and get feedback, which is so important,” Llamas said. “I can still remember workshops that I went to for NAHJ. I learned a lot because they would set up these sorts of exercises where it would make you really question your journalism and your ethics and your standards, and they were great exercises. I owe a lot to NAHJ (and) that’s why I always come back, because I want to give back.” Llamas’ workshop was a highlight of another jam-packed day at the 41st NAHJ Conference & Expo. Oriana Torre talked to journalists of all ages who are inspired by his successful career. |
| WHAT IS A SANCTUARY CITY “Sanctuary cities” — what exactly earns them that title, and why have they become the focus of President Trump’s immigration policies? Gian Marco Velásquez demystifies the locations and the way the federal government has attempted to undermine them. Watch our short explainer here. |
| HELLO, BIG EASY! Next year’s NAHJ conference will be held in New Orleans, a change from previous years when the conference has been held in cities with high Latino populations. NAHJ said financial costs and member impact drove the location decision. “The more diverse, the more different (the conference) looks from the previous one, the better,” said NAHJ President Dunia Elvir. “As journalists, we may want to go to the places that look the most different from where we are working at because that’s where we are gonna learn.” Araceli Ramirez has more details. |
| RELIVE THE MAGIC! The opening ceremonies of the NAHJ 2025 Conference & Expo featured dance and music performances, award recognitions and the official kick-off of the conference! Our exclusive photo gallery from Araceli Ramirez and Alana Rosario captures all the highlights! |
| HEARD IN THE HALLS @ NAHJ As journalists, we never have a shortage of questions… so, we asked attendees what they consider to be the biggest challenge for journalists in today’s climate. Here’s what they shared:  Steve Padilla is a long-time editor at the L.A. Times. He visited the Latino Reporter newsroom on Thursday, July 10 to conduct a writing workshop. SUSAN BARNETT/THE LATINO REPORTER.One of our biggest challenges is maintaining the joy in our work. Sometimes we cover really God awful things, like in LA with the ICE raids and the wildfires, and we’ve had two rounds of buyouts. There’s so much you cannot control and that’s going to be the case in newsrooms where you work, but there’s one thing I can control, no matter what’s going on, I can control whether a sentence sings. I either can make that sentence sing or, more ideally, I enable the writer to make it sing. I hope you guys can maintain the joy.  Kat Duncan, director of innovation at Reynolds Journalism Institute, attends the NAHJ Conference & Expo 2025 on July 10. SUSAN BARNETT/THE LATINO REPORTER. What I’m hearing from newsrooms right now is really building trust with their communities. Due to AI and misinformation, there’s a lot of stuff out there that people don’t know if they can believe. I think something that journalists are really working on right now is building trust with their communities, helping them understand that they’re real people, that everything done is fact based. That’s going to become more and more of a challenge as AI increases and misinformation increases, because people feel like they’re less and less able to believe news online.  Sierra Fox peruses the NAHJ Job Fair on Thursday, July 10. There are over 45 recruiters at this year’s conference. SUSAN BARNETT/THE LATINO REPORTER.I think right now with people saying “fake news” and wondering if journalists are telling the truth and are we being factual, and then with all the misinformation online right now, I think the challenge is that noise. But I think journalists still just have to continue to do their job and make sure they have all their facts correct and that they’re being unbiased. We’ve seen that some journalists have made statements more so out of advocacy or sharing their opinion and, you know, there’s punishment for that. So I think it’s just important to really draw that line. It’s easy to get attached to stories or want to share your own personal view, but remember, there’s viewers who have all different perspectives and so it’s important to just stay in the middle and be fair.  Rhema Blant, deputy director of news, talent, culture, and training at McClatchy, attends the NAHJ Conference & Expo 2025 on July 10. LUISANA ORTIZ/THE LATINO REPORTERIt sounds cliché, but I think the public’s understanding of the importance of information has diminished. [Understanding] the vital role of democracy…[that] has diminished as well. The challenge for journalists is to illustrate that need to the public. As a society, we’ve taken that for granted, and it’s difficult. Our survival depends on us getting that point across to the public. |
CAN’T MISS @ THE CONFERENCE
- Today is your last day to find your next job or internship at the Expo and Career Fair! You can meet with over 45 organizations looking to recruit talent at the conference. There are still opportunities for on-site interviews (Pro Tip: upload your resume to NAHJ’s Career Center).
- If going to grad school has been on your mind, drop in to one of five “So You’re Interested in Grad School” sessions with some of the top-ranked communications schools in the country! Panels are spread out throughout the day, so you can attend one or all if you’re looking to find your best-fit program.
- Today’s plenary on “Protests, pressure, and press freedom: Reporting in a time of escalating risk” is a don’t-miss session. With a stacked lineup featuring seasoned speakers from the Associated Press and Noticias Telemundo – as well as one of NAHJ’s founders, Juan D. Gonzalez – this panel will prove valuable to anyone struggling to keep up with the growing demands of the industry as it stands today.
To see what other sessions are being offered this year, visit the conference schedule online or download the NAHJ conference app for easier access to the schedule.
The Latino Reporter is a news website sponsored by the National Association of Hispanic Journalists that features journalism independently produced by student reporters tasked with covering the organization and its annual conference. Meet the Latino Reporter 2025 staff!
