Last Updated: May 20, 1999
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A note from
the president
Most editors concluded long ago that racial diversity in our newsrooms
is essential both for good journalism and good business. Our credibility
requires an inclusiveness that readers of all colors will trust. We know
part of the answer to lagging circulations lies in attracting new readers
from the fastest growing segment of our population, the non-white. Reflecting
the diversity of our markets is a core survival issue.
That’s why the ASNE board is attempting to re-energize editors and establish
a new goal beyond 2000. It believes a new goal, if the ASNE membership
and the industry are to "buy in," requires wide discussion and intelligent
deliberation. At the April convention, the board drafted a proposal (see
page 21), which got a lot of national media attention, and now we seek
thoughtful response.
We’ve worked at diversifying newsrooms for 20 years and made progress.
In fact, at 11.5 percent journalists of color this year, the industry is
approaching our 1978 aspiration of 15 percent by 2000. Still, these results
are appalling when measured against our stated goal of parity with the
minority population of the country, now at 26 percent. They also are embarrassing
when radio and television are at 20 percent minority employment, nearly
twice our level. In fact, despite prodigious efforts by ASNE and others,
minority employment in the nation’s newsrooms has gone up a total of only
1.21 percentage points in the last five years while minority population
is growing .5 percentage points a year.
So why the failure? Why are we not coming close to our Year 2000 Goal?
One reason for failure, some of us believe, is that the current goal
is asking both too much or too little. In Manhattan, Kan., my town, our
minority population is just over 10 percent. To achieve parity with the
26 percent national level seems unrealistic. Attracting and retaining minority
recruits, who mostly come from urban centers, to central Kansas — even
to a university city like ours — is challenging. Meanwhile, if major newspapers
in urban centers set the 26 percent national average as their goal, that’s
only half or less of the minority population in their communities.
Forty-two percent of U.S. dailies, mostly smaller papers, have not a
single minority employee in their newsroom. This is important because first
jobs in our business traditionally have come on small dailies, and their
failure to hire minorities shuts many minority prospects out of the process.
In the context of these facts, the board concluded ASNE’s position should
be to encourage and assist all newspapers, even the smallest, to employ
minority journalists. It also proposed calling on all papers to achieve
parity with their local communities as soon as possible. Several of the
officers, including me, believe local parity is the real key. We do not
think there are communities today without minorities, and we believe if
all the newspapers of America match their local communities, we will be
home free.
The board also determined that, as with the Year 2000 Goal, a numerical
date-certain target should be included, and that it should be ambitious
but credible given the history of the past 20 years. An unrealistic goal
would be a disincentive. The board proposed, as a benchmark on the way
to national parity, 20 percent minorities nationwide by 2010. Given last
year’s gain of only a tenth of one percent, this target raises our sights
considerably in the commitment to diversity.
While the board broadened our statement to oppose discrimination of
all kinds — gender, sexual orientation, physical disability or other defining
characteristics — ASNE’s annual census of newsrooms would continue to measure
only minority employment.
With a view to getting wide feedback on the policy statement, the board
now asks for comments from both inside and outside ASNE. We hope to adopt
a final version at our October meeting. Once a decision is made, our Diversity
Committee plans regional diversity dialogues to develop plans for reaching
the new goal. Channeling new talent into newspapers and retention of minority
journalists will likely be on the priority list.
Whatever the outcome of this goal-setting process, a renewed commitment
and a great deal of work lie ahead. In particular, I see small newspapers
like my own having a special obligation because we are the traditional
point of entry to the profession. I also believe large urban papers may
have to re-think their policies, as The Washington Post and other metros
have recently, when they began to hire minority journalists for their first
permanent jobs.
Let us hear from you. ASNE’s diversity director, Veronica Jennings,
is our point person. Her e-mail at ASNE is vjenn@asne.org,
fax 703/453-1133.
Seaton, ASNE president, is editor-in-chief of The Manhattan (Kan.)
Mercury.
