The National Council of La Raza’s (NCLR) Office of Media Relations maximizes accurate and responsible news coverage of issues of concern to the U.S. Latino community, thereby strengthening the institution’s capacity-building assistance to Hispanic community-based organizations and its research, policy analysis, and advocacy efforts.

Over the last decade, NCLR’s visibility and prominence have grown significantly as a result of OMR’s work. The NCLR Annual Conference receives important press coverage from regional and national outlets, such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal, and is an integral part of the U.S. Latino calendar of events. OMR also promotes and disseminates NCLR’s publications, such as research and policy papers, training materials, statistical analyses, fact sheets, and issue briefs to the media and the public. In addition, OMR hosts numerous press conferences and public events throughout the year to raise awareness of issues that are important to Hispanics and to promote NCLR’s advocacy and programmatic agendas.

In addition to responding to significant inquiries from the media, OMR provides support for other public information activity, including public service announcements in the Spanish-speaking community. NCLR has an extensive media database, reflecting contacts throughout the country and abroad in mainstream and specialized outlets (TV, print, radio, and news services) in English and Spanish. One of OMR’s principal media tactics is the use of e-blasts to communicate information. E-blasts can reach up to 2,500 recipients, depending on the target audience.

Another component of OMR is the Quality Control team, which reviews and edits all content for public dissemination, including the NCLR website. NCLR’s credibility with funders, policymakers, the media, mainstream organizations, the general public, and its nationwide network of Affiliates depends to a considerable extent on the quality of the written materials that the organization produces. Therefore, the editing team works to present NCLR’s messages clearly and professionally in a way that reflects the organization’s principles, standards, and style—in other words, materials are accurate, grammatically correct, clearly written, and attractively presented.