diversity?!?

What are you saying? Minorities are the lowest common denominator?

 

No, diversity is.

 

Diversity just to fill some sort of quota, maybe. Would you say calling the same tired, old white folks for comment is the pinnacle of journalism?

 

How many newspapers still have all-white newsrooms?
A Knight Foundation Report on Newsroom Minority EmploymentThe number of all-white newsrooms remains significant, with 372 American newspapers having no people of color deciding what is news.
While these papers are not among the largest in the nation, they have a combined daily circulation of 4,113,752. That's more than USA Today, The New York Times and The Washington Post combined.
And that doesn't include any papers that employ no minorities but are among the 493 newspapers that don't respond to the ASNE survey. The non-response rate on the ASNE survey was essentially unchanged. In 2002, 479 papers did not respond (33 percent of papers surveyed). In 2003, 493 papers did not respond (35 percent).
Some of these all-white papers are in communities that are themselves nearly all white. Even in those, ASNE's goal calls for employment of at least one journalist of color.
But many of the all-white newsrooms are in communities with substantial minority populations.
Here are the all-white newsrooms in the least-white communities:
RANK, COMMUNITY MINORITY, NEWSPAPER, STATE, OWNERSHIP
1, 65.5%, The Greenwood Commonwealth, Mississippi, Emmerich
2, 59.0%, Las Cruces Sun-News, New Mexico , MediaNews
3, 46.5%,The Union-Recorder, Milledgeville, Georgia Community Newspaper Holdings
4, 44.5%, Bastrop Daily Enterprise, Louisiana Liberty
5, 44.3%, Enterprise-Journal, McComb, Mississippi Emmerich
6, 43.5%, The Daily News, Sunnyside, Washington Eagle
7, 43.1%, Ruston Daily Leader, Louisiana Fackelman
8, 43.0%, Big Spring Herald, Texas Community Newspaper Holdings
9, 42.5%, The Kodiak Daily Mirror, Alaska
10, 42.2%, Alamogordo Daily News, New Mexico MediaNews
11, 40.6%, Camden News, Arkansas Wehco Media
12, 39.6%, Valley Times-News, Lanett, Alabama
13, 36.9%, The Sun, Texas City, Texas Southern
14, 36.4%, Blytheville Courier News, Arkansas Rust
15, 35.5%, Washington Daily News, North Carolina
16, 35.0%,Aiken Standard, South Carolina Evening Post
17, 34.9%, La Grange Daily News, Georgia
18, 33.7%, The Daily Advance, Elizabeth City, North Carolina Cox
19, 33.1%, Daily News, Bogalusa, Louisiana Wick
20, 32.5%, The Union Daily Times, South Carolina

 

That list of 20 all-white news staffs sure doesn't have a lot of "destination" papers on it, does it? While the New York Times, the Boston Globe or the Dallas Morning News is hiring minority staffers, smaller papers don't stand a chance of landing AND retaining outstanding minority journalists for any duration that would make them assets in those small markets. And what's the median salary at those places? In other words, whose "fault" is all of this?

 

DING-DING-DING... We have a winner.

That ASNE exercise is equal parts futility and ridiculousness, about as relevant as the medieval monks debating how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.

What purpose does this solve? What do they hope to attain by such a stupidly misguided exercise? Persuading a "journalist of color" (to use the cliche) to work in perfectly shitty Alamagordo, NM for $17,000 a year when they can go to any one of 679 minority-only job fairs and interview with the Dallas Morning News or Los Angeles Times is an exercise performed by people who SHOULDN'T be working in positions of authority in ANY field, never mind journalism.

The stupidity. It's relentless.

 

You only named two.

 

You are right, I shouldn't have said majority. I guess the need for diversity is a bunch of bunk. Come to think about it, when there was a lot less diversity in newsrooms, the business was doing much better.

 

Dan,

I think you just hit the head on the nail, brother.

 

To be fair, our business does place a fairly high premium on accuracy and using the right words. Sarcasm's cute and all, but the argument's not quite as convincing when you can't back it up.

 

I don't know if we're really that out of touch. The fact is that many journalists don't want to give the general public what they really want to read.

And the Paris Hilton thing is a perfect example. Yes, people DO want to read about that. The circulation of People and the tabloids should indicate it. But it's amazing how many journalists will defend NOT writing about low-brow material. If a story doesn't have some "higher" purpose, they think it's not worthy of doing.

 

Here is my final thoughts
1. All things being equal, a journalist with a different background from existing staff is a preferable candidate.
2. Journalists of color aren't being held back because of their race. And may in fact be pushed higher up the ladder before they are prepared to be.
3. If the industry were as serious about diversity as it says it is, they would pay more to attract candidates with unique perspectives.
4. It's important for the industry to reach out to underserved markets and populations as the country is becoming less and less Anglo.