From The Philadelphia Tribune, July 17

Study: City newsrooms lack diversity
Journalism jobs held by minorities drop in last year

By GREG JOHNSON
Tribune Staff Writer

Newsroom diversity at most daily newspapers in the United States this year is below its peak levels of recent years, according to a June report from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

The report, which studied newspaper employment at 1,410 dailies from 1990 through 2004, found that journalism jobs held by “non-whites” has dropped from its high-water mark of over 18 percent in 2004 in most newsrooms, large and small.

Among the 200 largest newspapers, the study found that 73 percent employ fewer people of color in their newsrooms than they did from 1990 to 2004. At all papers polled, only 18 percent were at their peak, while 44 percent slipped. The remaining 37 percent reported that they had all-white newsrooms.

The ratings system used by the Knight Foundation for their diversity scale determines whether or not each newspaper reaches the American Society of Newspaper Editors’ goal of parity between the newsroom and communities. If, theoretically, a newspaper’s circulation area was comprised of 35 percent minority populations, then in order for that paper to receive a perfect score, 35 percent of their newsroom staff must be made up of minorities.

In defining a newsroom staff, the ASNE includes supervisors, reporters, editors, copy/layout editors, and photographers.

Although Philadelphia’s two largest dailies operate under the same umbrella, Philadelphia Newspapers, Inc., they each fared differently in the study. The Philadelphia Inquirer received a “77” newsroom diversity index rating, with 17.2 percent of its newsroom staff consisting of “non-whites” and 22.3 percent of its circulation area made up of people of color.

The Inquirer reached its peak in 2004 with a “90” diversity index rating; 18.5 percent of its newsroom staff was “non-white” and 20.5 percent of its circulation area was “non-white.”

The numbers for the Philadelphia Daily News were not as favorable. The paper received a “47” newsroom diversity index rating in both 2004 and 2005. This year, 25.0 percent of the Daily News’ newsroom staff is comprised of minorities, while 53.2 percent of its circulation area consists of minorities. In 2004, the numbers were 24.3 and 51.8 respectively.

Daily News editor Michael Days said he believes the “53.2” percentage is inaccurate.

“Our circulation area is Philadelphia, Bucks County, Montgomery County, Burlington County, Camden County,” he said. “It’s hard for me to believe that the percentage of people of color is that high overall.

“I think that we have a diverse staff. I’m always looking to make it more diverse given the population of Philadelphia. Could we do better? Absolutely,” he said.

Days’ predecessor, Zachary Stalberg, said he doesn’t believe the city’s media outlets are diverse, in general. “I believe it became significantly more diverse over time, but I still don’t believe that it’s representative of the community,” he said.

When asked for a reason for the lack of diversity, Stalberg said, “A lot of it has to do with the economics of the news business in 2005. I think there are some reasonably good intentions in print media and electronic media and so forth. People today realize the value of diversity in a way that they didn’t even 10 years ago.

“However,” he said, “what is getting in the way of real significant progress is the fact that every news organization I know of is being pinched in terms of what it can spend, and that’s probably true of everything from the biggest news organization to the neighborhood news organizations, the community papers and so forth.”

Inquirer executive editor Amanda Bennett said she too doesn’t believe the Philadelphia media is diverse, “but no less than any other media in the country.”

Bennett also pointed to the economic pressure of the newspaper industry as a cause for the lack of diversity in the Philadelphia print media. “One of the ways you achieve diversity is by hiring different kinds of people, and when hiring slows down, it’s harder to achieve change,” she said.

Regarding the Inquirer itself, Bennett said the paper is more diverse than it used to be, but not as diverse as it should be.

“Numerically, we come close to reflecting our overall market, and that’s our goal,” she said. “We’re not far off, but we’re not as good as we should be.”

So how is it possible to diversify if the economics of the newspaper business hinder the ability to hire new staff?

“It’s easier to move the needle on diversity in an environment with significant hiring, but the goal becomes even more important when you are not bringing many new people in the door,” said Joseph Natoli, PNI’s publisher and chairman. “The newspaper business has relatively low turnover among journalists these days, so most of a company’s efforts with respect to coverage will come from the existing staff, in any event.

“That means we need to work even harder to retain and develop our minority journalists, ensure that their voices are heard and their perspectives valued, that the content of our newspapers and Web sites reflects the diversity of our communities, etc.,” he said.

Philadelphia Weekly staff writer Kia Gregory, who is the paper’s only minority reporter, said that in regard to some of the alternative weeklies, smaller papers and magazines in the city, she doesn’t see diversity.

“There’s not a lot of minorities on staff, there’s not a lot of women on staff at some papers,” she said. “It’s kind of unfortunate, because Philadelphia is such a diverse city. Half of the population here is non-white so you would think the media would be reflective of that, and it’s not.”

At the Philadelphia City Paper, managing editor Brian Hickey was unsure how to qualify “diversity.” He said that while there are stories that cover all neighborhoods, he is not sure if all issues that are of importance to all ethic communities are covered.

“You have (papers) that cover communities very closely, and then you have other papers that kind of stand out more and, I think, kind of parachute in and do stories from time to time, but not consistently,” he said.

The City Paper currently has no minorities on its editorial staff, but over the course of the past year, two of the paper’s three staff-writer positions were filled by African Americans.

Larry Platt, editor of Philadelphia Magazine, said he believes the city’s media has made great strides in trying to become ethnically diverse, but not enough emphasis is put on diversity of ideas.

“Too often diversity becomes a numbers game,” he said. “I think we need to concentrate more on diversity of thought, making sure that we convey as wide a range of ideas as possible. And on that score, I’m not sure that the Philadelphia media – or media in general – measures up to where it should be ideally.”

There are very few minorities at Philadelphia Magazine, but Platt said the lack of journalists of color on staff has not negatively affected the publication.

“I would argue that the way to gauge whether your editorial makeup is adversely affecting you or not is whether there is diversity of opinions and diversity of thought and diversity of perspectives in your publication,” he said. “And I think we do provide a diversity of perspectives.”

Denise Clay, former president of the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists, said she also believes diversity of opinion is lacking in the media, but said it’s detrimental to a media outlet if both diversity of opinion and diversity of ethnicity are not present.

“You can tell when (minorities) are not there,” she said. “You can tell when there are no people of color because … it affects coverage. It affects what gets written about, what stories get told, how the stories that do impact communities of color are told.”

In September 2002, a grass-roots organization consisting of more than 100 African-American churches, community, civic, civil rights, and businesses, called the Coalition for Fair News Coverage, began a boycott of the Daily News, charging it with “racially insensitive and ethnically-divisive news coverage.” Led by A. Bruce Crawley, chairman of the Philadelphia area African-American Chamber of Commerce, the group donned “Don’t Buy The Daily News” T-shirts and called for the resignation of Stalberg and then-managing editor Ellen Foley.

Crawley said there has been significant improvement in the Philadelphia media since those days, the most substantial being Days’ promotion to the Daily News’ top post.

“We didn’t necessarily expect that there would be an African American as the top editor at the Daily News, and we were pleased to see that Michael Days got the position,” he said. “We have begun to see what appears to be a move towards having more balanced coverage at that paper.”

Not all of the problems that plagued the Daily News have been resolved, Crawley said. But, to see the paper cover in-depth stories on, for example, whether or not there is a true commitment to diverse procurement in city government, and to see the lack of negative cover stories and cover photos of African Americans gives him a sense that things are moving in a better direction, he said.