NABJ date change puts 2027 Black, Hispanic media conferences in jeopardy

The 2027 national gatherings of two of the nation’s largest professional journalism organizations are in limbo after a scheduling snafu that has effectively pitted both national conferences against each other. The annual events are scheduled for the same week in early August, but more than 1,100 miles apart.

The 2027 National Association of Hispanic Journalists conference is set to take place in Minneapolis from Aug. 3 through 7. That same week, the National Association of Black Journalists plans to host its conference in Houston from Aug. 4 to 8. 

NABJ had originally planned its conference to begin Aug. 18, according to the organization’s president, Errin Haines. But the group’s leadership decided about four months ago to shift the event’s dates “in the best interest of our membership and in the best fiscal interest of our organization,” Haines said, adding she was not aware of the scheduling conflict until the Latino Reporter contacted her this week.

The overlapping dates are likely to pose conflicts for members of both organizations and for the media industry at large. Many journalists, exhibitors and sponsors attend both conferences annually and may not be able to travel to participate in overlapping events in Houston and Minneapolis with virtually no turnaround time in between. 

National Vice President of Broadcast Julio-César Chávez put NAHJ’s expectations bluntly: “We expect NABJ to change their dates.”

Chávez said the organization was working toward a “positive outcome that is the best for our members and our sponsors.” 

NAHJ announced the dates for its Minneapolis conference in January 2025, months before that year’s annual gathering in Chicago.

The two organizations, which have historically hosted joint conferences, have stopped collaborating in recent years, spurred, in part, by a decision by NAHJ in 2023 to pull out of a planned 2024 joint conference.  

But in her statement, Haines said “this was not a decision made in any way as a slight to NAHJ.” 

The previous conference dates were “badly misaligned with our traditional conference window of early August,” she said. The earlier dates would allow college students, parents and other members to have greater flexibility to attend, she said.

NABJ, NAHJ and the Asian American Journalists Association typically notify each other of their conference dates years in advance to avoid scheduling conflicts, NAHJ leaders said. 

The former executive director of NABJ informed leaders of NAHJ two years ago that the group would be hosting its 2027 Houston conference from Aug. 18 to 22, according to emails obtained by the Latino Reporter.  

NAHJ decided on its 2027 dates for Minneapolis around the end of that year, Chávez said.

Haines, who was elected to her role last summer, said her group signed amended contracts changing its Houston dates in March.

Chávez said NAHJ leadership found out about the scheduling conflict in mid-June. NAHJ executive director Yaneth Guillén-Diaz reached out to NABJ’s interim director at the end of June but had been unable to reach a resolution by the start of this year’s annual conference. 

News of the overlapping dates has begun to ripple through the industry, with some media companies and recruiters expressing concern over how it may impact their outreach efforts.

One recruiter at the NAHJ conference in New Orleans, which kicked off on Wednesday, said his hiring team is very small and does not have the bandwidth to join both conferences within the same week. The Latino Reporter is not naming this recruiter because he was not authorized to speak publicly on this issue.

“Both have thousands of folks, and we need to be at both. So how do we do that?” he said. “I can’t be at two places at once.”

“It’s important for us that we are active and represented and searching for folks at both conferences,” he added.

NABJ boasts a membership of over 4,000, according to its website. Past conferences have drawn thousands of members, including a record-breaking 4,336 attendees in Chicago in 2024. 

NAHJ also has more than 4,000 members and hosted 1,701 people, including exhibitors, at its Chicago conference in 2025. 

Organization leaders said that NAHJ already booked its hotel and signed venue contracts for its Minneapolis event, and pulling out of those deals could cost the organization.

“It puts undue pressure and undue financial burden on NAHJ for us to be changing our dates at the last minute when we have had our dates finalized and signed and publicized,” Chávez said.

NAHJ and NABJ had a public split in 2023, when NAHJ pulled out of a joint conference that had been in the works for years. The two groups had planned to jointly gather in Chicago in 2024. Dissolving this conference included altering already-signed contracts. 

At the time, leadership said they pivoted away from a joint gathering to honor its 40th anniversary and to be able to focus on its members. The conference that year was held in Hollywood, Calif. 

At the time, the decision to split with NABJ sparked controversy and frustration among members of both groups. NAHJ members aired their frustrations at a board meeting in 2023, asking the board of directors why NAHJ had pulled out and demanding more transparency around conference decisions.

This is a developing story. This post will be updated.

Angela Osorio is a senior journalism major at Cal State Long Beach and the editor-in-chief of the Long Beach Current, her campus newspaper. She has interned for the Los Angeles Times and at ABC7 in Los Angeles. She hopes to one day work for a national newspaper. Reach her at angoso1638 [at] gmail [dot] com.