Ethnic media web project, “Sea Beez,” launches

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Sea Beez project

On Wednesday evening, a new ethnic media web project held its launch party at The Seattle Times.

The project is led by AAJA member Julie Pham, who is managing editor of the family-owned Northwest Vietnamese News.

Sea Beez has its seed funding from the City of Seattle Department of Neighborhoods and represents the newest “hive” for New America Media, the nation’s first and largest collaboration of 2,000 ethnic media organizations reaching 51 million adults. The NOLA Beez launched in January. The other hubs are LA Beez and San Jose Beez. LA Beez is part of a New America Media’s Digital Divide initiative, funded by the Ford Foundation.

Our AAJA Seattle chapter, the Seattle Association of Black Journalists and Chen Communications all co-sponsored the party.

About 80 people attended the event.  They included ethnic media executives:

  • Assunta Ng, founder and publisher of the NW Asian Weekly and Seattle Chinese Post
  • Gustavo Montoya, president and CEO of El Mundo, a Spanish-language weekly newspaper
  • Olga Kazakova, a journalist with Russian World Newspaper
  • Andrew Taylor, president of Japan Pacific Publications, which publishes The Soy Source Seattle, a Japanese biweekly newspaper
  • Mohamud Yussuf, publisher of Runta, the largest East African language newspaper in Seattle.
  • Grace Zhang, Seattle bureau chief for The China Press.
  • Sandy Close, executive director of New America Media.

    • The evening began with networking and attendees admiring The Seattle Times’ Pulitzer Prize winning stories. Thanks to AAJA student member Peter Sessum for shooting photos.

    Attendees read about previous Seattle Times Pulitzer Prizes

    The evening gave AAJA student members, like Andrew Doughman, a chance to practice networking and connect with editors looking for freelance contributors.

    UW journalism student Andrew Doughman is networking

    During the presentations, Julie explained the overall goals of the Sea Beez project.

      Sea Beez project director Julie Pham

      Sandy Close told the audience that all of the “hives” have a Queen Bee, looking at Julie with a smile. Great work to all involved!

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