NAHJ 2025 Conference Playbook: Singing in the Chicago rain
| ¡Buenos días, NAHJ familia! Happy Saturday! We, Araceli Ramirez and Micah Sandy, are your hosts today for what is our final newsletter of the conference! We hope you managed to stay dry during this week in Chicago. In case your weather app betrayed you, meteorologist John Morales imparts some words of wisdom for avoiding unplanned wet pantsuits. “U.S. meteorologists call them crap apps, to be honest. An app is simply taking very coarse, very coarse meteorological forecasts off of a single computer forecast model,” Morales said. “There’s no human element in that forecast, no experience from a meteorologist.” If apps are currently a sensitive topic for you — looking at you, Apple Weather and LinkedIn — you’re in luck. Scroll through this email-based newsletter as we, and other attendees, share some of our NAHJ takeaways with you!  Latino Reporter staffers Gian Marco Velasquez, Micah Sandy, Ashley Neyra and Paul C. Fisher pose for a rain shower selfie under two Walgreens umbrellas in a surprise downpour in downtown Chicago on July 8, 2025. GIAN MARCO VELASQUEZ/THE LATINO REPORTER Micah: You can never pack enough shoes. Have I been a naysayer to multi-shoe travelers before? Yes, but they might be right. When the rain limits you to exclusively your dress shoes for four days of NAHJ, you reconsider what is worth walking for. The Proclaimers’ “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” is pure fiction. Araceli: What would you do if John Quiñones stopped you in the lobby to ask for directions? Pro tip: Don’t freeze like I did. It was such a highlight seeing him throughout the conference and even better getting a photo with him at the career expo! Emiliano Tahui Gómez, a Latino communities reporter at the Austin American-Statesman, said he learned a lot from panels on immigration reporting. “It can become very personal, the question of immigration,” he said. Victor Rodriguez Tafoya, a graduate student at Sacramento State University, said “one of the biggest takeaways has been the panel on Afro Latino journalists … something that we haven’t seen in NAHJ in the last couple of years.” Richard Requena, a Chicago Tribune reporter, said “it’s important that we have Latinos all around the newsroom, not just reporting, but editing and making decisions and mentoring one another.” Ivania Montes, a reporter at KEYT-TV, said she values the opportunity to grow among others. “Whether it’s the work you do specifically to also just the journey crafting your way into the journalism world.” |
| TAKING A STAND A small group of protesters gathered outside of the Hilton Chicago for five hours yesterday, holding a banner with the photos of 24 individuals recently detained by ICE. The protest, organized by Chicago’s chapter of RefuseFascism, was not outside the NAHJ Conference and Expo’s hotel by chance. Read Luisana Ortiz’s article here to learn more. |
| NAHJ CARES Our Viviana Garcia laced up her sneakers and followed along NAHJ’s run club, part of the inaugural NAHJ Cares initiative. NAHJ Cares, the brainchild of NAHJ Executive Director Yaneth Guillen-Diaz, was created to promote health and wellness to journalists amid burnout and traumatic events. |
| PA’ QUE SEPAN When a Puerto Rican journalism professor received a mysterious call on a Saturday, he never imagined it would lead him to edit Bad Bunny’s surprise newspaper. In a matter of days, he and six students transformed “Pa’ Que Sepan” into a real newsroom, covering politics, beaches and more in Puerto Rico as part of a global pop star’s marketing campaign. “It didn’t surprise me that much because I think at that point we, or at least Bad Bunny’s followers, had already been noticing his concern for social issues and his attention to Puerto Rico’s social and political situation,” said David Cordero Mercado, a journalism professor at the University of Puerto Rico in Río Piedras. Read Alana Rosario’s article in español here! |
| 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: |
 Jonathan Torres, a reporter for the Investigative Project on Race and Equity, awaits a panel on the third floor of the Hilton Chicago on July 11, 2025. MICAH SANDY/THE LATINO REPORTER One of the biggest highlights I had was just like, seeing how friendly everyone is. A big thing that we have at the conferences — like the Latino heritage that we have here — everyone talks about [that] when [they’re] connecting with [Latino] sources.  Andrea Flores, a reporter for the LA Times, stands by a statue on the third floor of the Hilton Chicago on July 11, 2025. MICAH SANDY/THE LATINO REPORTER The biggest thing is that now I feel a bit more confident about putting myself out there and putting my work out there. I think the world is evolving, and in order to get to the masses, and reach people, we’re gonna have to meet them where they’re at, which is on social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Tiktok.  Francisco Molina, an LA-based freelancer with The Sporting Tribune, stands outside the Expo & Career Fair on July 11, 2025. ARACELI RAMIREZ/THE LATINO REPORTER It can be a little tricky because you can send so many applications but there’s no guarantee of anyone reaching out back to you or even being able to pitch yourself, but here you have the chance to sit down with someone face to face. |
CAN’T MISS @ THE CONFERENCE
- Hall of Fame Gala: Got your ticket? Meet us in the Grand Ballroom at 7 p.m. to celebrate the trailblazers who opened doors for Latinos in journalism! Let’s toast to their legacy and the incredible impact they’ve made in sharing our stories with passion and truth. Hope you brought your dancing shoes for the Gran Baile that follows.
- Coping with Covering Traumatic News: We’re looking forward to hearing from three journalists who’ve covered everything from LA wildfires to Cuban hurricanes as they share how to manage the emotional toll of reporting. 11 a.m., Boulevard Room on the second floor
- Moving weather forecasting forward: We would be remiss to leave an event like this one out, given our weather pour at the top. This session will take you behind the scenes of broadcast weather segments and discuss weather preparedness, key topics even for non-meteorologists. 1 p.m., Marquette Room on the third floor
- Coverage lessons from past immigration crackdowns: A timely event considering the Trump administration’s evolving nationwide immigration crackdown. This panel can help journalists, especially local reporters in large cities, prepare for what could come next. 11 a.m., Williford C Room on the third floor
Thank you for reading! We hope you enjoyed our reporting from the 41st NAHJ Conference & Expo in Chicago! Check out our ongoing coverage here: https://latinoreporter.org/
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!
