Where is the diversity among sports editors?

http://www.poynter.org/how-tos/career-development/ask-the-recruiter/111575/diversity-among-sports-editors/

by Joe Grimm
Published Dec. 30, 2010 12:01 am
Updated Dec. 30, 2010 7:26 am
Most of this year’s college football bowl games will be played this week, and it’s time for a little observation about coaching staffs, newsroom staffs and diversity.

Not many years ago, newspapers occasionally would write about the lack of minority coaches for college teams. Sometimes a newspaper would run half a page of individual pictures to make the point, which was that there seemed to be inequity in having sports that carried a large number of minority players coached almost entirely by non-minorities.

There have been fewer stories like that in recent years. Maybe that’s because the situation has changed.

In October, Black Coaches & Administrators recognized a football game between Eastern Michigan University and the University of Virginia because it was believed to be the first time both teams in a Division I National College Athletic Association football game had coaches and athletic directors who were black.

Furthermore the group noted that 15 of 120 coaches in the Football Bowl Subdivision, the NCAA’s highest level of competition, were black.

So, things can change.

Change also came this year for Garry D. Howard, who has moved from assistant managing editor/sports at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel to editor-in-chief at The Sporting News.

In a Journal-isms column appearing on the Maynard Institute website in November, Richard Prince called Howard, “the last remaining African-American editing the sports section of a mainstream daily newspaper.”

So now there are none? How is that, given the numbers of minority people interested in and involved in sports journalism?

Rather than challenge college football programs on their diversity, it now seems the news media should try to emulate them.

 

Maybe because the minorities are seeing the sinking ship and deciding on different careers?

 

That's Poynter, banging the diversity drum when it's a fact that simple economic realities have changed the equation. Baron makes an excellent point . . . young people of all derivations are looking for something they can hopefully ride for thirty years. Good luck doing that, here, at this stage.

 

Was the situation better before the decline in newspapers' fortunes?

Those throwing "diversity stones" are often throwing them from glass houses.

 

While Joe Grimm has done a better job than most in recruiting minorities, the numbers are awful. A look at press row at any sporting event shows that the industry still has a problem.
And don't give me the song and dance about not finding qualified applicants. That's BS.

 

The next time I see someone establish a clear link between diversity and revenue/readership gains will be the first time I see someone establish a clear link between diversity and revenue/readership gains.

 

I worked for one, who was outstanding.

He's smart enough to be pretty far away from newspapers these days and has been for quite some time.

 

So diversity = Tweeting.

 

Newspapers are full of contradictions. One of my favorites is when an editorial section gets their hackles up about the environmental issues such as forest clear cutting.

 

So it's fair to say based on this statement that mostly white men newsroom leaders are the cause for the sharp declines in revenue and readership? Or is there not a clear link to that?

 

There isn't a clear link to that, no. I don't know how or why my statement would imply that, because my statement was that getting more diverse isn't helping the business side of the product. It's a nice thing for do-gooder editors to point out that they've done when they go to their conventions, but it really doesn't mean shit one way or the other to the industry.

 

The majority of the sports editors are men. So what? The majority of the entertainment editors are women.

In fact, in most newsrooms there are at least as many female managers as male, it's just not the case in sports.

At my first job (major daily) the managing editor, news editor, Sunday editor, night editor, entertainment editor and opinion editors were all women. The Executive Editor, Sports Editor and Cityside editor were men.