Author: Victor Chen
Published: April 02, 1998
Last Updated: January 31, 2000
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Members mixed on new diversity goals

By Victor Chen
ASNE Reporter

ASNE members had mixed reactions to the board of directors' proposal to extend the timetable in hiring ethnic minorities and to broaden the definition of diversity to include gays and lesbians, women and the disabled.
Many recognized the need to establish new guidelines that reflect the nation's evolving diversity, but some asked if the new pledge merely covers up a failed initiative.
"I think the diversity goal has become for ASNE something like Vietnam," said Laurence G. O'Donnell, a former managing editor of The Wall Street Journal and a member of ASNE's Diversity Committee. "They realize they won't be able to reach that goal and now they are looking for ways to get around it."
The proposal, which will be submitted to the board for a vote in October, calls for newspapers to increase representation of journalists of color to 20 percent by 2010 and to reach parity within local communities as quickly as possible. That's a change for ASNE, which had pledged in 1978 to achieve racial diversity in the newsroom equal to national minority representation--now 26 percent--by the year 2000.
While the 1978 goal focused on racial diversity, the new proposal also includes efforts to attract women, gays and lesbians and the disabled.
Some members said the inclusion of these new groups is the right thing to do. "The world has changed a lot since 1978," said Gregory L. Moore, managing editor of The Boston Globe.
Others questioned whether the broader definition would detract from the emphasis on racial diversity.
"There's always the danger that you try to focus the attention on too many areas and give short shrift to some group," said Bennie Ivory, executive editor and vice president of The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Ky. "Race and ethnicity continue to be a significant problem in the country and in the industry--just look around at this convention."
O'Donnell urged members to "stick to their guns and keep racial diversity a priority issue."
Caesar Andrews, editor of Gannett News Service, said that no newspaper, regardless of the community it covers, should be complacent about newsroom diversity. "It should be expected that newspapers of all sizes will make progress on this issue."
Some editors, however, argued that smaller newspapers should not be held to the same quantitative standard as larger ones.
"You can be as aggressive as you can be in recruiting, but if the applicant wants to live in a larger market, it's going to come down to that," said Mark Bowden, managing editor of The Gazette in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Despite missing the Year 2000 goal, some editors said ASNE should be credited for its diversity efforts. "I think ASNE is partly responsible for any growth in the numbers of people of color in our newsrooms," said Craig Klugman, editor of The Journal Gazette of Fort Wayne, Ind. "It's put the issue on the table."
Andrews agreed. "I tend to see a little more good than bad," he said. "Falling short of the Year 2000 goal is disappointing but almost predictable. There was so much ground to cover."

Carolyn Salazar and Ed Fletcher contributed to this story.

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