The National Association of Black Journalists said Sunday that it is withdrawing from UNITY, a group of minority journalism organizations, because of concerns about its business model. NABJ officials have pushed in recent years to change how UNITY operates and how it shares proceeds from its convention, which is held every four years. The group said in a statement that "NABJ board members concluded that as a business model, UNITY no longer is the most financially prudent for NABJ and its membership."

The move comes as a blow to one of the largest alliances of minority journalists. UNITY was founded in 1994 to bring together the Asian American Journalists Association, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, the Native American Journalists Association and the National Association of Black Journalists.

Each group maintains its own annual conference. But every four years, they come together for a shared UNITY convention. The last UNITY convention was in 2008 in Chicago. The next is scheduled to be in Las Vegas in 2012. As a result of the split, NABJ is expected to hold its own convention next year.