NABJ President Greg Lee calls out the journalism industry

Wow. These last two posts are truly disturbing.

 

Not surprised it went over your head.

 

It didn't go over my head. Things said in jest are often manifestations of true feelings.

 

Do Kobe, MJ, and Wilt agree with you?

 

Don't know. Wilt is dead. Kobe and MJ have been busy.

 

Honchos have done such a fine job of turning profits, it's a real puzzler that they can't manage diversity either.

Then again, sweating diversity now in these crisis times is fiddlin' while Rome burns.

I think that newspapers most need to serve the needs and desires of their current and potential customers -- like any business -- more than staffing with delegates of the communities they cover. Unless that grows the advertising revenue via circulation or the subscriptions/sales, it's not job No. 1.

 

If diversity is something that maximizes profit (let's assume for the sake of argument that it is) should newspapers pay more for diversity? In a true market, if someone has a unique skill set that brings more profit to a firm, that someone is paid more for it. So if it is true that A. Diversity = profit and B. The potential pool of minority journalists getting into journalism is small, isn't the only conclusion to pay more for a 1st year African American journalist then you would pay for a first year white journalist? Would anyone have a problem with that? If so, what other way(s) would you attract minority candidates?

 

That notion is certainly controversial, but from a strictly economic perspective, the answer is YES, absolutely organizations should pay more for diversity.

And even if you find the notion that diversity maximizes profit dubious (as I do), you could argue that the perception of diversity brings all sorts of intangible and tangible benefits (including lawsuit-avoidance) that are beneficial for an organization.

From a strictly market standpoint, given their relative scarcity, a qualified minority candidate IS more valuable than a qualified white candidate. So it's not totally unreasonable that salaries reflect that.

 

I agree.

 

Can any news organization afford the elusive, coveted albino sports journalist? Rarest of them all, therefore worth a king's ransom!

 

Here's a CJR discussion of the media's coverage of race, class and social mobility: http://www.cjr.org/cover_story/fair_share.php?page=all.

 

The problem isn't that there aren't enough qualified African-Americans to be journalists, in sports or any other category. The problem is that those people can probably be better paid and have better career prospects in other fields.