Last Updated: May 20, 1999
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Short takes
This is an excerpt from an article Virgil L. Smith wrote for NAMME
News, the newsletter of the National Association of Minority Media Executives.
Gannett gave me the opportunity to lead the Asheville (N.C.) Citizen-Times
in February 1996. My first racial encounter was on the second day of the
job.
A top-notch reporter for the Citizen-Times came up to me and said "placing
an African-American publisher in charge of the Citizen-Times was like putting
a slave in charge of the plantation." Welcome to the New South!
The reporter and I resolved the issue of my ethnicity and the plantation.
We have developed a good professional relationship based on respect; he
continues to be an excellent reporter. I give him credit for laying his
cards on the table.
The employees’ biggest challenge, however, was not the ethnicity of
their publisher, but the cultural differences between Multimedia and Gannett
— as the change in ownership was only a few months old.
Employees and readers were told that we would make every effort to hire
a diverse workforce that reflected the make-up of the community. There
was concern among non-minority employees that we would hire unqualified
applicants and the quality of the newspaper would decline.
To help employees through this change, we held diversity training sessions.
We held an open dialogue about the aspects of change and the positive benefits
of having a diverse workforce that offered newspaper coverage that mirrored
the community.
The training has paid off handsomely. Our employees listed diversity
as one of their smallest concerns during a recent employee-attitude survey.
In the community, the reception was warm, although many chose to wait
and see. As the newspaper redefined itself by including everyone in its
coverage and adding women and minority columnists, the critical letters
began to roll in.
"Mr. Smith," one reader wrote, "why don’t you change the name of the
Citizen-Times to the Ebony Times?" Another wrote that the newspaper has
"deteriorated because there is a preponderance of black columnists."
Most readers, however, expressed satisfaction with the improvements
and our efforts at providing balance and addressing community issues.
The expectation is as it should be — produce a better newspaper and
be a good corporate citizen. Readers care less about the ethnicity or gender
of the publisher and more about the daily quality and integrity of the
news coverage, customer service and commitment to the community.
Smith is publisher of the Asheville (N.C.) Citizen-Times.
