Good practices in newsroom diversity

10.24.02

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"To truly foster diversity, you have to hold it high as a standard always — whether hiring, mentoring, developing company policy or developing news."

Janis Besler Heaphy, president and publisher of The Sacramento (Calif.) Bee, wrote those words in nominating her executive editor, Rick Rodriguez, for the first Robert G. McGruder Awards for Diversity Leadership.

His nomination and those of 26 other editors and newspapers illustrate how small and large newspapers across the country make diversity a priority.

A commitment begins when diversity is part of a newspaper’s mission.

At the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News, this mission is printed each day on page two: "Two stories are central to our mission: the impact of technology and the changing demographic landscape of America. These two stories create powerful connections between our community and others, doth domestic and international."

A commitment continues when the newspaper takes a leadership role on diversity in its community.

• At the Poughkeepsie (N.Y.) Journal, an annual “Diversity in the Workplace Awards” pays tribute to local companies and organizations that are innovative in their efforts to produce a workforce that reflects the diversity of the community.
• At the Yakima (Wash.) Herald-Republic, a “One World, One Valley Award” honors everyday people who give of themselves to build cultural bridges in the community.

Between mission and community leadership, there are day-to-day newsroom practices that help staffs ensure that diverse voices are part of newspapers every day.

Diversity committees are at the center of many newsrooms’ diversity practices.

• At The Ledger in Lakeland, Fla., nine employees meet monthly to “evaluate the newspaper’s coverage and discuss issues … all in the name of diversity.” This group — the newspaper’s diversity committee — has created a source list of minorities in the community, coordinated participation in the ASNE/APME Timeouts for Diversity, discussed the newspaper’s use of certain terms and added information on who speaks foreign languages and uses sign language to the in-house phone list to better serve customers. The committee also sponsors a monthly Diversity Award, in which members serve as judges “trying to determine which entries are truly advances in what we consider diversity.”
• At the Press & Sun-Bulletin in Binghamton, N.Y., the diversity committee encouraged the newspaper to produce an annual diversity tab, “Who are We?” The newspaper reached out to schools and children to produce the 2002 tab, which focused on changing families.

Good practices in diversity extend from these committees. We compiled this list from nominations for the Robert G. McGruder Awards for Diversity Leadership and contest judges. To find out more about a practice and how you might try an idea in your newsroom, contact the newspaper’s editor.

The practices are divided into DIVERSITY IN CONTENT and DIVERSITY IN STAFFING.

DIVERSITY IN CONTENT

Reaching diverse voices

FLORIDA TODAY in Melbourne formed a 16-member Multicultural Community Advisory Board to “enable leaders of diverse community groups to help the newsroom shape effective strategies for covering diverse communities and issues.” The board has influenced newspaper content by offering opinions on coverage strategies, evaluating the quality, relevance and responsiveness of editorial-page content, helping the newsroom analyze census data and providing feedback on the diversity within the community.

At USA TODAY, the Money section’s diversity committee created a diversity library on a desk in the newsroom that contains minority-business periodicals and minority source books. The group also created a resource site on the newspaper’s Intranet, which contains links to minority Web sites and organizations.

The Detroit News posted its minority sourcebook — created to make it easy for reporters to find diverse sources with expertise in various fields — on its Intranet site. In a column, the newspaper’s public editor solicited additional minority sources from the public.

The Greeley (Colo.) Tribune created and publicized a newsroom telephone extension for Spanish speakers. It also translated engagement, wedding, anniversary and obituary forms into Spanish and distributed them in neighborhoods with especially large Hispanic populations.

The Lincoln (Neb.) Journal Star called on a resource at another newspaper — the publisher of Viet Mercury, a San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News product — to train its staff in how to better cover its emerging Vietnamese-American community.

The Times of Shreveport, La., asked all editors to attend an event in a minority community or one put on by a minority group when strategizing ways to improve the inclusion of people of color in everyday coverage.

Mainstreaming coverage

A newspaper reflects its complete community when the voices of minority experts, professionals and real people are included in all aspects of coverage — not only in coverage of minority communities. Some newspapers call this practice “mainstreaming.”

The Californian in Salinas explained the practice to readers this way: “We ask our journalists to make sure people of color are included in stories, especially considering how many minorities offer experience and expertise in fields such as education, health care and public service.”

At FLORIDA TODAY in Melbourne, diversity in the mainstream of news coverage is a tenet outlined in the newspaper’s mission. A newsroom diversity committee reviews examples from all sections of the newspaper monthly to determine how well the newspaper is meeting its mission. The results help determine future training and other diversity initiatives.

At The Detroit News, examples of how people of color are included in the mainstream of coverage are posted regularly on a centrally located bulletin board, and members of a mainstreaming committee conduct discussions for new staffers on the reasons behind the newspaper’s mainstreaming and diversity approaches.

The Poughkeepsie (N.Y.) Journal seeks a diverse range of experts as columnists in all sections. Its editorial page has eight wire columnists who are people of color, and the newspaper seeks out diverse viewpoints in local opinion pieces.

Specialty content

The York (Pa.) Daily Record responded to the 25th Annual Conference on Black History in Pennsylvania by publishing 25 profiles of black achievers. The profiles were shared with a local TV station, included in video on the newspaper’s Web site and distributed to Newspaper in Education teachers. The newspaper’s managing editor wrote a book on the county’s black history, and excerpts were published in the newspaper and on its Web site.

The Poughkeepsie (N.Y.) Journal publishes a monthly “Cultural Calendar” in its Life section that focuses on current and historic events of interest to diverse communities.

The Record-Journal in Meriden, Conn., sponsored a community roundtable on issues of race in response to a controversial Connecticut Supreme Court ruling in a desegregation case. It also published a transcript of the roundtable.

Lee Newspapers employ a reporter who covers Native American issues, based at the Lincoln (Neb.) Journal Star. The Bellingham (Wash.) Herald and the Great Falls (Mont.) Tribune created beats in which Native Americans and reservations are the focus. Editors at Bellingham and Great Falls newspapers visited reservations in their areas, attended tribal programs and spent time talking about journalism careers with Native American students. The Herald editorial board meets twice a year with tribal leaders.

Some newspapers recognize that parts of their communities prefer content in a language other than English. La Estrella is produced independently and distributed twice weekly to supplement coverage by the Star-Telegram in Fort Worth, Texas. The San Jose Mercury News produces Viet Mercury, a weekly publication in Vietnamese, and Nuevo Mundo, a Spanish-language weekly. The Californian in Salinas produces El Sol, a Spanish-language weekly.

DIVERSITY IN STAFFING

Recruiting

The Star-Telegram in Fort Worth, Texas, is working to “foster a work environment that values diverse opinions and input.” Hiring decisions are made by a nine-member committee, which includes four women and two people of color.

FLORIDA TODAY in Melbourne created a retention and recruitment strategy that includes diversity and named a manager to supervise its efforts.

The York (Pa.) Daily Record uses a technique it calls going “one up” to bring a promising prospect on staff until a position opens. The person either is added to the staff in an extra position or takes on a long-term internship until a permanent position becomes available. The newspaper uses savings from vacancies throughout the year to pay the salary of the extra employee.

The Star-Banner in Ocala, Fla., and a number of other nominated newspapers participate in the Freedom Forum’s Diversity Institute, which trains diverse mid-career people in journalism. A participant in the inaugural Diversity Institute class now is a reporter covering an area of Ocala where she previously was a circulation district sales manager.

The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tenn., in collaboration with Memphis City Schools and the University of Memphis, created The Teen Appeal, a citywide high school newspaper written by students for students. For incoming Teen Appeal staff, the newspaper sponsors an annual weeklong journalism camp, which has trained 400 students. Thirty-four former staff members are majoring in journalism at schools across the country, and seven former staffers have worked at the Commercial Appeal as interns.

The Star-Telegram in Fort Worth, Texas, has partnered with a high school that had not had a newspaper in more than three years. Staffers help students write and edit stories, take photos and design the paper.

FLORIDA TODAY has a High School Journalism Excellence program, an awards contest and reception, workshops for students and coaching for struggling school-newspaper staffs.

The Times in Shreveport, La., regularly invites high school and college students of color into its newsroom, and Times employees serve on the board of the Young Journalists Mentoring Program, which helps develop high school journalists.

The Sacramento (Calif.) Bee awards journalism scholarships to minority students. One early scholarship recipient now is an editor at the newspaper.

The Bellingham (Wash.) Herald teamed up with Western Washington University’s journalism department to create a class devoted to producing a 12-page broadsheet section (see at right) profiling the Latino community. Students spent a quarter learning about feature writing, and the Herald staffers who worked with them learned more about the Latino community they were researching.

The Ledger in Lakeland, Fla., in partnership with The New York Times and New York Times Regional Newspapers, offers a two-year program for a copy editor of color. College graduates and those with experience are considered, and the opportunity for permanent employment exists after two years.

The Press & Sun-Bulletin in Binghamton, N.Y., participates in the ASNE/APME Fellows program, designed to lure journalists of color to newspapers under 75,000 circulation.

Internships

The Journal Star in Lincoln, Neb., and a number of other nominated newspapers tap Chips Quinn Scholars as interns and has recruited three graduates of the scholarship program for full-time work.

The Blethen Family Internships for Minority Journalists offer entry-level positions through three intern programs at Seattle Times Co. newspapers in Washington state and Maine.

The Landmark Scholars program provides minority college sophomores with a scholarship and two summer internships. After graduation, scholars are offered a one-year internship at a Landmark newspaper and the possibility of continuing employment.

The Record-Journal in Meriden, Conn., recruits at local high schools and colleges and links the opportunity of full-time employment at the newspaper to its minority internships and scholarships. Five current staffers joined the newspaper as a result of the internship program.

The Star-Banner in Ocala, Fla., has developed a strong relationship with its local community college, offering workshops and critique sessions for students. The newspaper has a standing paid internship for a student of color from the school.

Staff development and retention

The Seattle Times offers a fellows program, which provides mid-career, inter-departmental development opportunities, principally for minority employees.

The Star-Telegram in Fort Worth, Texas, launched a company strategy to identify strengths and talents, “making us better able to provide opportunities for minority journalists in the newsroom to use and develop their skills.”

The Record-Journal in Meriden, Conn., offers flexible work arrangements for employees pursuing formal education related to journalism. Two journalists of color have taken advantage of flextime to attend college and do graduate work.

The Roanoke (Va.) Times' Diversity Committee created “Diversity Alert,” in which newsroom employees can relay a concern or a compliment about diversity issues.

The Times in Shreveport, La., includes a discussion of diversity in all employee training sessions. It also created a Newsroom Leadership Development program, a yearlong series of classes for emerging newsroom leaders, and ensured that there was diversity among participants.

The Press & Sun-Bulletin in Binghamton, N.Y., hosted in-house workshops to raise the staff’s awareness of issues in the African-American community.

The Yakima (Wash.) Herald-Republic offers in-house Spanish-language classes to all employees, and the Greeley (Colo.) Tribune arranged with a local community college to offer free Spanish classes for employees.

Individual editors — including Richard Kipling, editor of the Orange County edition of the Los Angeles Times; Merv Aubespin, retired associate editor of The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Ky.; and Mark Russell, assistant managing editor/metro of The Plain Dealer in Cleveland — take a leadership role in serving as mentors to young journalists of color.

Related

2 editors win first Diversity Leadership awards
Award honoring the late Bob McGruder goes to Don Flores, El Paso Times, and Jim Strauss, Great Falls Tribune.  10.24.02