Editors welcome minority recruitment help
By Cheryl Arvidson
The Freedom Forum Online
10.20.00
Printer-friendly page
 |
| Rich Oppel, left, with Charles Overby, Jerry Ceppos.
|
SAN ANTONIO, Texas — The Freedom Forum, the Associated Press
Managing Editors and the American Society of Newspaper Editors today announced
a joint project to increase the
number of minority journalists at small newspapers through a special fellowship
that provides a salary supplement and ongoing mentoring.
The announcement, which took place at APME's annual gathering, marks a
fleshing-out of a $1 million
initiative by The Freedom Forum that was revealed last April during the
ASNE convention in Washington, D.C. At that time, the three partners committed
to finding ways to use the money to identify and support more effective ways of
recruiting journalists of color in the newspaper industry, particularly in
small and mid-sized newspapers. (See Q&A on how program works.
Under the new program, The Freedom Forum will fund as many as 50
two-year fellowships of $20,000 each to supplement salaries for journalists of
color who agree to work for newspapers with less than 75,000 circulation and
take part in other fellowship activities to heighten their professional
development. The 75,000-circulation figure is deemed critical because the
roughly 9 of 10 daily newspapers that fall into that size range often have the
most difficulty recruiting minority reporters.
Rich Oppel, editor of the Austin (Texas) American-Statesman and president of ASNE, said the
program "should attach a rocket booster to the fuselage of our industry" and
significantly increase the number of minority journalists in newspapers across
the country.
Jerry Ceppos, president of APME and vice president/news at Knight
Ridder, called the program a "strengthened, targeted, precise initiative that
should go a long way" toward helping the smaller newspapers find and retain
journalists of color.
Charles L. Overby, chairman and CEO
of The Freedom Forum, said he is convinced most editors want to hire more
minorities but they face hurdles, from finding money to compete with larger
news organizations in salary levels, to the bureaucratic difficulties involved
in identifying and hiring minorities. He told an audience of newspaper editors
that The Freedom Forum would help with the salary issue and some of the
administrative work involved "if you just do the hiring."
"For most editors, this may be the answer to a prayer," said
Ceppos.
The prospect of adding 50 more journalists of color to the hiring
level, which now averages around 550 minorities a year, may not sound like
much, Overby said, but in terms of its impact on the overall complexion of the
newsroom, "it's huge."
Later, at a news conference, Ceppos, Oppel and Overby talked about the
frustration that has marked newspaper efforts to increase minority hiring since
diversity was made a key focus of the industry in the late 1970s. The papers
initially did well in terms of increased hiring, and the industry as a whole
has increased its minority employment component, they said.
But recently, the numbers have tapered off while the nation's minority
population has continued to increase. As a result, not only did newspapers not
meet their goal of parity with the national population by 2000, they are in
danger of falling farther and farther behind the national statistics without
some dramatic improvement. ASNE figures released earlier this year show
newspaper minority employment at around 12% compared with a 28% minority
population nationwide.
Overby noted that The Freedom Forum has hired four full-time
recruiters who do nothing but seek to identify promising minority individuals
for newspaper careers. That and the other initiatives to increase minority
hiring means "the most massive effort in the history of newspapers is being
launched this year," he said.
Newsroom diversity is important for business reasons, accuracy and
access to good stories, the three partners agreed.
"It's just good business to have your newsrooms reflect your readers,"
Overby said.
"It's about accuracy, too," said Oppel. "I can't produce a newspaper
that's correct if I don't reflect the community" on the staff.
However, Overby said many small papers had been stymied in their
efforts to add minority staffers because of disruption in "the food chain" of
hiring. Where previously, a promising minority staff member might go to work
for a small newspaper to get his or her training, then gradually work up to a
mid-sized paper and eventually to a large publication, now some minority
journalists are being hired directly out of college by larger newspapers. That
puts small papers "really in a bind" because they can't compete with the larger
entities salarywise.
"The food chain has collapsed," Overby said.
 |
| Chris Cobler |
Chris Cobler, editor of the Greeley (Colo.) Tribune, immediately expressed interest in the
program and predicted stiff competition among small and mid-sized newspapers
for the minority fellows. Cobler's paper, with a daily circulation of 25,000,
now has six minorities on a staff of 35 — one of whom just quit to go to a
larger publication — in a community with a roughly 25% minority population.
"We just can't keep really good minority journalists for very long,"
said Cobler. "It's a great program," he said of the initiative.
He agreed with Overby about the collapse in the food chain. "We used
to be able to get minorities out of college and train them. But now, I can't
compete against the metros (metropolitan papers) going after that same person.
This extra money could make a big difference in my ability to hire," Cobler
said.
Overby said he realized that the salary stipend for minority
journalists could create some hostility in newsrooms among non-minority
staffers whose salaries would not be as large. But he said he was willing to
take that risk.
"We have to change the calculus of minority hiring. Nothing dramatic
has happened in more than a decade, so I would rather try something a little
controversial that has mixed results than try nothing that has no results," he
said.
Under the program, both the potential fellows and the newspaper
participants must give significant attention to career advancement for the
reporter. The papers are required to provide a mentor and partner colleague for
the fellow, and give the fellow and a key editor a chance to attend one
professional meeting a year together. Also, The Freedom Forum will pay
membership dues for two years to allow the minority fellows to join one of the
four national associations for journalists of color to network with other
African-American, Native American, Asian-American or Hispanic journalists.
Further, the fellows will be required to make periodic reports on
their progress and meet at least quarterly with editors to discuss relevant
issues.
Ceppos, Oppel and Overby said those requirements should go a long way
to address issues of isolation, which minority journalists might encounter in
smaller communities.
"We think there are many ways to, if not eliminate the issue of
isolation, at least buffer or soften it," Oppel said.
The program also should assist in the retention of the minority
journalist, the partners said. Failure of newspapers to keep their minority
staffers in journalism jobs has been one of the main reasons that minority
hiring has improved only marginally in recent years because almost as many
reporters have left jobs as have been brought in.
Overby said if the program is successful after its first two years, it
could become an ongoing initiative of The Freedom Forum.
The three groups will cooperate in selecting the fellows and the
participating newspapers. Recruitment for the program will begin this fall,
officials said.
Related
ASNE/APME Fellows
Question and answer on ASNE/APME Fellows program.
11.16.04
Video tells a story for newsroom recruiting
Information on Freedom Forum/ASNE journalism recruitng video, 'What's the Story?'
03.07.01
Freedom Forum creates new recruitment tool for newspaper newsrooms
'What's the Story?' video designed for high school juniors, seniors.
10.11.00
Don't just hire journalists of color, listen to them, panel says
APME discussion examines newsrooms' failure to understand cultures of minority journalists.
10.20.00
