Ahead of its 60th anniversary, American Women in Radio and Television
(AWRT) is changing its name to Alliance for Women in Media (AWM) to
better reflect the industry it serves.
"As we were seeing our
membership change and expectations of our membership change, our name
really needed to reflect that," says Sylvia Strobel, 2010 chair of
AWRT's National Board of Directors and the Foundation of AWRT.
Established
in 1951, the organization's membership was historically comprised of
women working in traditional radio and TV, in local markets and on a
national level. There are 30 chapters now, and men--whom Strobel says
generally join to network and support women in business and in their
lives--currently account for about 10% of membership.
"It's now
broad-based," Strobel says of the group. "It's cable increasingly; we're
now seeing an influx of folks from new media, the Internet and
bloggers, and we're even frankly starting to see folks from the
newspaper industry as they're moving into the digital environment. We're
all creating and distributing content. We want to represent all of the
women who work in the media industry."
Strobel, who is also a partner
in the law firm Lehmann Strobel, was scheduled to unveil the name
change over the weekend at the organization's annual business meeting.
The change was approved by an overwhelming majority vote of the
membership earlier this year. The new name and logos will be rolled out
over the next several months.
