IMPROVE MINORITY REPRESENTATION, PANEL SAYS

Larger newspapers targeted for not having minority levels in their newsrooms that mirror their communities: 'If I can do it, my God, then you can do it, too!'

Keith Moyer

But that was it.

Just how well the nation's editors have done at building staffs balanced with people of all colors was a distinct point of departure for the members of the panel that made up the wide-ranging "Race: The Conversation You're Not Hearing in Your Newsrooms" session.

Panel member Andrea Ford, a reporter for the Los Angeles Times, was disgusted at what she sees as no progress in the area of newsroom diversity.

Her comments early in the presentation seemed to set its tone. "I'd like to think these discussions are productive, but they really aren't," Ford said. "On this issue we talk and talk and talk!"

Ford's comments came on the heels of a freshly released ASNE's annual report on newsroom diversity, which showed that the nation's newsrooms' ethnic mix had increased by less than .2 percent between 1995 and 1996.

The report showed newsrooms with an overall 11.02 percent minority representation, up just a tad from the previous year's 10.91.

Ford said she sensed a true lack of commitment at her newspaper, despite talk and policy to the contrary. "I go in my newsroom and I look around and I'm distressed," she told a full house.

Other panel members took a more upbeat approach.

Len Downie, the Washington Post's executive editor, said his newspaper has plenty of room for improvement, but is determined to show constant gains in diversity. He said the Post now has a deputy managing editor "with clout" to oversee diversity efforts. The paper is also holding discussion forums to keep the dialogue going, "some of which have been painful."

"Conversation is important," Downie said. "This is otherwise a hidden conversation ... with black reporters gathering at lunch hour or white reporters seeing each other for drinks after work and talking over things ... and never having them solved unless you bring the discussion out in the open."

Panelist Robin Stone, an editor for the New York Times and president of the New York Association of Black Journalists, said that while a top-level commitment to recruit minorities is important, retention of journalists of color already on staff is more critical.

"It starts with numbers, getting and making sure there are enough people in the pipeline to move up ...," she said. "That goes back to giving people a stake not only in projects and special reports and the day-to-day of the newsroom, but also giving them a stake in the progress of the organization itself."

The session was not without panelists taking shots at one another.

Linda Cunningham, executive editor of the medium-sized Rockford (Ill.) Register Star, while stressing the need for newsrooms to "explain, talk and listen" to staffers about the importance of diversity, chided Downie and editors of other large newspapers who say they struggle to create staffs that mirror their communities.

"I work in a small newsroom ... I do not understand why big papers like Los Angeles and Washington and New York whine about not being able to diversify their staffs," Cunningham said to a large round of applause from the audience. "You've got resources that I would take a tenth of. If I can do it (keep minority staff levels at or above those within the community), my God, then you can do it, too!"

Cunningham talked about having sensitivity for "the 58-year-old white sportswriter who has always worked in a white department ... there is going to be conflict ... and when you throw that same sportswriter in to dealing with gay and lesbian reporters or a black reporter that he is not comfortable dealing with..."

On that point, editors agreed that despite newsroom diversity gains, some departments, especially sports, lag badly behind. "There are conflicts in ... sports departments," said panelist Rick Rodriguez, managing editor of the Sacramento (Calif.) Bee. "That is one of the true areas where there is resistance to change. When we installed a black woman as the second in charge of sports it created a mini-revolution. There were people who were quite distressed. I think you have to go ahead and just do it. I think that is what true leadership on this issue demands." 

Moyer is executive editor of the Fresno (Calif.) Bee.