Guest: Mitra Kalita, co-founder and CEO, URL Media

“From a mission perspective, we did not want Black and Brown audiences to be only charitable endeavors. We see our people as a very important, vital, necessary market.” – Mitra Kalita, URL Media

You know you were meant to be a journalist when, as a pre-teen, you created a newspaper to protest your parents’ decision to move your family from Puerto Rico to New Jersey! That is exactly how Mitra Kalita, co-founder and CEO of URL Media, got her start in journalism.

On this episode of News Take, News Media Alliance President & CEO David Chavern and Kalita have a heartfelt discussion about her journey from being a busy CNN Digital executive to starting her own newsletter, Epicenter-NYC, and media company, URL  Media, in Jackson Heights, New York City amidst a pandemic and racial justice movement. During this light-hearted and honest talk, Kalita shares how she and her business partner were able to achieve instant scale, launching the URL Media network with seven million users, and how they’ve embraced a for-profit business model at a time when many similar groups were launching as nonprofits. In addition, she shares advice for improving diversity in content as well as in the newsroom, including ensuring changes to improve DE&I are lasting and become a part of the organization culture.

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Speaker bio

Mitra Kalita is a veteran journalist, media executive, commentator and author of two books. She is the co-founder/ CEO of URL Media, a network of Black and Brown community news outlets that share content and revenue. URL Media works with mainstream newsrooms to syndicate content and partner on diversity initiatives in content, staffing and culture. She is co-founder and publisher of Epicenter-NYC, a newsletter designed to help New Yorkers get through the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as the newsletters The Unmuted and The Escape Home.

Previously, Mitra was Senior Vice President at CNN Digital, overseeing the national news, breaking news, programming, opinion and features teams. She also worked in leadership roles at the Los Angeles Times and Quartz. She sits on a number of journalism industry boards, most notably, the board of the News Media Alliance.

Related links

URL Media

Epicenter-NYC

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The post News Take Episode 104: Encouraging and Sustaining Diversity in News Media appeared first on News/Media Alliance.

News Media Alliance President & CEO, David Chavern, stated, “Vernon Jordan made incredible strides in the fight for racial justice and equality in this country, leaving a legacy for us to carry forward. He will continue to be an inspiration to us all as we work to further his achievements in our work to improve diversity and inclusion in the news media industry.”

In addition to his roles as a respected advisor to numerous U.S. presidents, lawyer, businessman, and activist, Jordan also served on the Board of Directors of Dow Jones, publisher of The Wall Street Journal. According to the WSJ obituary, in 1961, Jordan also won a discrimination case against the University of Georgia, resulting in the court ordering the university to admit Charlayne Hunter, who went on to become a successful journalist (as Charlayne Hunter-Gault) at The New York Times and NPR.

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Photo credit: Sharon Farmer/sfphotoworks

On Sunday, September 13, David Chavern, News Media Alliance president and CEO, joined the Journal-isms Roundtable on Zoom and Facebook Live as a guest speaker. Forty-five journalists and leaders in the news industry were on Zoom for the discussion on furthering diversity and inclusion in the news industry, with 263 more on Facebook Live. Joining Chavern was Maribel Perez Wadsworth, publisher of USA Today and president of News for Gannett Co., and Wesley Lowery, correspondent for 60 Minutes’ “60 in 6” on Quibi. He is a former Washington Post reporter best known for reporting on police use of force against citizens. Journal-isms founder and journalist Richard Prince and veteran journalists Paul Delaney, Betty Anne Williams and the late Walt Swanston-NuevaEspana have hosted the Roundtables for more than 20 years. Links to recordings of past roundtables are available on the Journal-isms website and Facebook page.

Watch the full Roundtable recording below, or click here.

The post Journal-isms Roundtable: Maximizing Diversity in the News Media During Our Racial Reckoning appeared first on News/Media Alliance.