Executive Summary

Survey Results
The Premise
Audits
Selecting Sources
Best Practices: Coverage (Ideas at a glance)
Best Practices: Internal
Changing Coverage
Changing Newsrooms
Pursuing Diversity and Accuracy
Voices in the Newsroom
Appendix A: A Letter to Editors
Time-Out 2000

About this report

The Premise

We've been confronted often enough by people who ask, 'How come you don't cover MY community?'
-- Eloise DeHaan, special projects editor, The (Allentown, Penn.) Morning Call

As a newspaper, we are creating a historical record - a reflection of life as it was at a certain time.
-- Eileen Lehnert, managing editor, Jackson (Mich.) Citizen Patriot

As a newsroom, we've realized there's life beyond the roads we travel to get to and from the newspaper and to and from public meetings. There are people who live in pockets of the community we rarely touch base with or check up on. Frankly, for the most part, we forget they exist, getting caught up in the day-to-day news events that fill up our time. It's important to think outside of our everyday experiences to really soak up the community in our story assignments and reporting.
-- Deanna Bottar, deputy metro editor, (Utica, N.Y.) Observer-Dispatch

As a global wire service, Reuters serves a wide variety of 'communities' all over the world. That can be a difficult job, given our global reach, but we are committed to covering the news in a way that accurately reflects the world we live in.
-- Andrea Shalal-Esa, diversity coordinator, Reuters America (offices in Washington, D.C., and New York)

I think it's self-evident. We're not a niche publication; we're inclusive. We can't expect people to invest their time, money and trust in us if we don't portray their reality.
-- Betsy Lumbye, managing editor, The Fresno (Calif.) Bee

Few want to read about issues and news that have no relevance to their lives. If we do not cover all corners of our communities, those corners eventually will have no interest in us. The remaining readers, while finding the coverage relevant, may, over time, find that the limited scope is truly not an accurate portrayal.
-- Greg Clark, managing editor, (Redding, Calif.) Record Searchlight

What we do every day is about accuracy and reflecting the total community we cover. It's the fundamental of good, honest, responsible journalism.
-- Sharon Rosenhause, managing editor/news, San Francisco Examiner

It's a no-brainer. If you continually ignore a segment of your community you are not giving a complete and accurate picture
-- Otis Sanford, deputy managing editor, The (Memphis, Tenn.) Commercial Appeal

Staffers here agreed with that statement, citing things like: the need to focus on what is most important to the whole community, not merely the most vocal elements; the staff needs to be more culturally and ethnically diverse in order to appeal to a broader readership; accurate reporting should reflect the community it serves. Only one staffer said no.
-- Rebecca Collier, managing editor, The (Fishers, Ind.) Daily Ledger

People need to see themselves in the newspaper or they won't feel like their needs and concerns are being addressed. Thus, they won't feel the newspaper does a thorough job of covering the community. That spells disaster for our future, which will include increased diversity.
-- Dennis M. Lyons, Executive Editor, The (Lansdale, Pa.) Reporter

Residents intrinsically connect with their hometown newspaper. They expect it to accurately identify the news of the day and their particular interests. When the newspaper doesn't reflect the diversity of their communities and interests, readers feel betrayed.
-- Bill Church, managing editor, (Richmond, Ind.) Palladium-Item

We live in a very diverse city where the only population growth is among immigrant groups. It's also a city in which race seems to be part of almost every story and when we mess up, we hear about it.
-- Debi Licklider, new initiatives editor, The Philadelphia Daily News

When the backgrounds of the members of the staff of the newspaper reflect the backgrounds of the people in the community, the daily input has a better chance of reflecting community life. It comes through in story ideas, reactions to news events, etc.
-- James B. Gittens, editorial editor, The (Wilkes-Barre, Pa.) Citizens' Voice

... A few staffers argued that stressing diversity can skew specific stories. Some say there should be more fault lines (religion, sexual orientation, etc.). But most agree with broadening the definition of diversity to include more than race and ethnicity.
-- Bob Woessner, training editor, (Green Bay, Wis.) Press-Gazette

I agree with the statement because minority residents are part of our community also and if we're not representing them in our news pages, that omission is the same as not covering a city in our circulation (area).
-- Edwina Blackwell Clark, assistant managing editor for administration, Dayton (Ohio) Daily News

Although our discussions -- we held about seven in all in order to reach everyone in our newsroom -- featured a broad range of comments, one constant was that this premise is fundamental to understanding the meaning of accuracy. The tougher question, though, was what steps do we take to achieve this level of accuracy?
-- Jim Slusher, assistant managing editor for training and staff development, The (Arlington Heights, Ill.) Daily Herald

People in the community know what is going on in their part of the community. If our newspaper does not report on the things they do or the way they lead their lives, they will know that. And they will tell their friends and neighbors that we are inaccurate. And they would be right. Incomplete is inaccurate.
-- Dennis Sodomka, executive editor, The Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle

The Dallas Morning News readership is predominantly white, but the city of Dallas is predominantly minority and growing. Tapping into those communities is about survival for us.
-- Leona Allen, night city editor, Dallas Morning News

This content-focused approach has breathed life into the diversity discussion. Our newspaper has been actively tackling the difficult issue of maintaining credibility during this era of heightened cynicism toward the American press. Our community continues to experience many of the sweeping demographic changes taking place across the country. For us to reflect those sweeping cultural and socioeconomic changes in our coverage, it has become imperative that we focus on diversity in the same way we focus on maintaining credibility. To do otherwise would be another big step toward further disenfranchising an already fed up public.
-- Stan Wischnowski, acting managing editor, (Rochester, N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle

If you don't reflect the diversity, it's like not telling an entire story, leaving out the middle or the end. It's like leaving out characters in a novel who are essential to the plot. It's a hole.
-- Rebecca Nappi, interactive editor, The (Spokane, Wash.) Spokesman-Review

Our credibility is shrinking. There are a lot of reasons for that, and one of those seems to be related to inaccurately reflecting communities we know little about.
-- Jim Walser, senior editor/staff development, The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer

In a multicultural society, newspapers must reflect their communities if they want to continue to grow and remain relevant and credible. No paper can ignore groups of people and their lives simply because they do not fit a certain demographic.
-- Daisey Harris, assistant to the editor, The Boston Globe

One of our most immediate and fundamental goals as newspapers is to reflect our community. We are the immediate historians of our communities and without fully reflecting our area's diversity we are leaving an inaccurate portrait.
-- Rich Jackson, assistant managing editor, The Wausau (Wis.) Daily Herald

I like the statement because it rightly treats the issue of diversity as a core value of journalism. It is not on the sideboard; it is part of the main course. It shows a significant step to taking diversity to the front-line journalists, where it must take root if we are to succeed.
-- Carolyn Kingcade, senior editor for readership, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Accuracy depends on context, and that is built upon reports that are fully reflective of the community's diversity.
-- Nancy Conner, reader advocate/training coordinator, St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press

If we are not reporting consistently on all aspects of our community, we are not providing an accurate picture of it.
-- Jeanne M. DePaul, feature sections editor, Lewiston (Idaho) Morning Tribune

The key word is inclusiveness and reflecting our community. Essentially, that's our job -- accurately reflecting community life. There's more than one type of person in a community. Leave any out and you've skewed the picture.
-- Noel Nash, managing editor, (Florence, Ala.) Times Daily

We have the most diverse readership in America - 69 percent minority. It would be foolish - actually impossible - for us not to be inclusive in our reporting.
-- Jim Kelly, assistant managing editor, The Honolulu Advertiser

It's frightening that we miss whole segments of the county in our daily coverage. We make little effort to cover disenfranchised groups, and when we do, it is only a peripheral look.
-- Carolina Garcia, managing editor, San Antonio Express-News

It is both a moral and economic imperative. We need to represent life in all our communities to the best of our ability, because particularly communities of color have been under-represented in most newspapers, and because as our population becomes diverse, attracting readers from all communities is essential to our survival.
-- Peter Bhatia, executive editor, The (Portland) Oregonian

PREMISE GOES TOO FAR

Staff members have a problem with the premise insofar as it stipulates inaccuracy. They feel it errs by being too aggressive and too broad.
-- Bill Felber, executive editor, Manhattan (Kan.) Mercury

This question generated a lot of discussion in our newsroom. We believe, for the most part, that you could be accurate without necessarily being diverse.
-- Patrick A. Yack, editor, The Florida Times-Union

EDITING THE PREMISE

Staff at The (Everett) Herald recommended restating the premise in a positive way:

Our newspapers need to be comprehensive enough to regularly portray the diversity of those communities if we are to present a fundamentally accurate report. By being inclusive, we provide support for our journalistic credibility.
-- Stan Strick, executive editor, The (Everett, Wash.) Herald

We would change the words 'fundamentally inaccurate' to 'incomplete.'
-- Bill Felber, executive editor, Manhattan (Kan.) Mercury

...a fundamentally INCOMPLETE report.
-- Eloise DeHaan, special projects editor, The (Allentown, Pa.) Morning Call

We must accurately reflect ...Only the opening line should change.
-- Rebecca Collier, managing editor, The (Fishers, Ind.) Daily Ledger

I'd add, 'and puts us in danger of further readership declines in an increasingly diverse society.'
-- Dennis M. Lyons, executive editor, The (Lansdale, Pa.) Reporter

We want to adopt a commonsense approach to reporting that will accurately reflect life in our communities. If we do not regularly portray the diversity of those communities, then we are presenting a fundamentally incomplete report. That lack of completeness undermines our journalistic credibility.
-- Diane Barney, managing editor, The (Vacaville, Calif.) Reporter

In general, the only concern over this statement was the potential for misunderstanding. Before adopting this as a mission statement of some kind, staffers felt the paper needed to be clear that in some cases 'news is news' and that factors such as race, religion, ethnicity and sex should not overshadow all else when it comes to deciding what's news in The Republic.
-- Mark Coast, journalism initiative editor, The (Phoenix) Arizona Republic

I do have one modification. I believe it is possible for good journalists to accurately cover people and issues which are not part of their background. For example, a male journalist is capable of doing an excellent job of covering a women's conference. In fact, this is a fundamental premise of neutral reporting.
-- James B. Gittens, editorial editor, (Wilkes-Barre, Pa.) Citizens' Voice

To note: 1.) Diversity will be reflected in a broad range of coverage rather than specific story or graphic. 2.) Fault lines can be broadened to include religion, sexual orientation, etc.
-- Bob Woessner, training editor, (Green Bay, Wis.) Press-Gazette

By clearly stating that it's diversity in the broadest sense, the perception here was that there was greater opportunity for buy-in. Many thought other aspects of diversity had been overlooked in past efforts because of the main emphasis on race and ethnicity. Age, sexual orientation and gender, to name just three, have emerged in recent years as facets of diversity that can't be ignored.
-- Stan Wischnowski, acting managing editor, (Rochester, N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle

The lack of accuracy through diversity also undermines the confidence readers instill in their newspaper and in the media in general. Locally, a TV station held a town meeting on school violence, inviting a panel of 70 to speak about the issue during a one-hour, live broadcast. Every face on the stage was white - men and women, young and old. There truly was a sense of outrage among minority groups who said they have little faith in the station to include their thoughts and views.
-- Deanna Bottar, deputy metro editor, (Utica, N.Y.) Observer-Dispatch

I would add a line or two about how this is the moral and ethical thing to do as well.
-- Rick Thames, editor, The Wichita (Kan.) Eagle

While we fully support the concept of diversity as a major goal of our news coverage, we believe 'accurate' is better used to describe a lack of factual errors rather than to define an attempt to reach out for more diverse voices in our community.
-- Mike Stedham, director of civic journalism, The Anniston (Ala.) Star

Sun Herald photo
Staff Writer Don Adderton explains his definition of diversity to fellow staffers during The (Biloxi-Gulfport, Miss.) Sun Herald's Time-Out brown-bag.