Diversity Diaries: Arlene Notoro Morgan

By Arlene Notoro Morgan
Associate dean, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism

11.14.01

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I was doing a session on diversity for a corporate retreat and explaining why both content and hiring for diversity is important to an editor from a small weekly in Nebraska. The editor replied that "a lot of Orientals" were moving to his area as well as Mexicans who were working at food-processing plants.

Naturally I said, "Good stories." He replied that he couldn't do those stories because he feared he would upset his "loyal" readers. To which I replied, "Believe me, your loyal readers know they are there. It's your job to tell their stories."

He did not come back the next day. A sad but true episode about how much change scares people, including people whose job it is to report about change.

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