By ANGEL JENNINGS
The UNITY News

Barack Obama did it. Jennifer Lopez did it.  And now NAMME is doing it.

The National Association of Multicultural Media Executives, or NAMME, has changed its name to better embrace its cultural heritage and history.

For almost two decades, the first ‘M’ in the acronym stood for minority. But at NAMME’s annual diversity awards dinner in April, the organization announced to 180 media executives that it would replace the minority with another ‘M’ word: multicultural.

“It’s not about being a minority anymore,” said NAMME chairman Neil Foote. “We are the emerging majority in many cities.”

Just as an adolescent sheds a childhood nickname for a more mature moniker when adulthood is reached, NAMME discarded its old title as it celebrated its 18th birthday.

And the organization follows in the footsteps of many high-profile individuals, including presidential candidate Barack Obama, D-Ill., who was known as Barry until he entered college, and Lopez, who transformed from a “Jenny from the block” and dated actors to Jennifer Lopez, who married a fellow Latino and began singing in Spanish.

For NAMME, the acronym remains the same but the name change represents a new beginning and a new attitude, Foote said.

To freshen up the organization, NAMME began using a new logo and on Wednesday premiered a condensed version of its four-day leadership development workshop planned for the UNITY ’08 convention. Twenty-five media executives attended a day-long session to improve their leadership skills and create individual action plans to bring back to their respective workplaces.

In addition, NAMME plans an interactive Web site to offer online seminars and mentoring programs for executives.

Foote said that the response from organization members has been positive, especially about the new name.

The organization is trying to remain viable and reposition itself as the media industry undergoes a transition, Foote said. Even NAMME is feeling the rippling affects of dwindling advertising revenue and the emergence of the Internet as a powerhouse.

At its height in 2003, the organization boosted more than 400 executive-ranking members from newspapers, magazines and television and radio stations. In the past two years, however, membership has declined by 25 percent.

The economic downturn has made it harder for members to pay annual fees, Foote said. NAMME also has been hurt by the layoffs and buyouts since high-ranking, costly executives are often the first to take the earlier retirement or get the boot.

“What we are going through now is the most drastic change we have ever seen,” said Foote, a former reporter who has been in media for 26 years. “We can’t think like it’s 1998.”

topic: Industry Issues
tags: change, name, NAMME

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