Pacific Daily News: Growing its own talent

10.12.06

Printer-friendly page

The newsroom staff of the Pacific Daily News, including Executive Editor Rindraty Celes Limtiaco (center right) and Publisher Lee Webber (center behind the news rack).

The western Pacific island of Guam is home to the indigenous Chamorros and a melting pot of ethnicities. While diversity has been an opportunity for the Pacific Daily News, frontpage recruiting has been a logistical challenge for the newspaper more than 6,000 miles from the U.S. mainland.

The newspaper has faced the challenges with high school and college internship programs and a "grow our own" program. The Pacific Daily News, winner in the under-75,000 circulation category in the McGruder Awards for Diversity Leadership, was honored for its exemplary home-grown recruiting efforts.

"The Pacific Daily News has done a remarkable job of diversifying its newsroom to reflect the community it serves," said Charlotte Hall, editor of the Orlando Sentinel and a 2003 McGruder award winner. "Against the odds, it has grown its own journalists from the island through a comprehensive program starting with high school internships. The result is a paper that understands and better serves its richly complex community."

The newspaper's "grow our own" program is a one-year internship for university seniors or those considering journalism as a second career. Newsroom staffers serve as trainers and mentors.

"For a small newsroom, these programs have been fairly intense and time consuming, but very rewarding," wrote Rindraty Celes Limtiaco, executive editor. A lifestyle editor, an assistant lifestyle editor and a design editor were products of the program.