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THE FUTUREOF DIVERSITYIN THE NEWS
The future of diversity in the news
A REPORT to THE FORD FOUNDATION from theAMERICAN SOCIETY OF NEWS EDITORS
2011-2012
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News diversity is an even bigger challenge now than it was nearly a half-century ago,
when its landscape in the United States was mostly black and white, when ink-on-
paper held a more dominant role in the delivery of news and when the newspaper
industry was in its nancial heyday.
In the ensuing four-plus decades, legacy newspapers newsrooms have become decidedly
more diverse in both their make-up and their output. Yet, many of the same coverage, ac-
curacy and credibility issues that sparked the initial concerns remain among communities of
color. More and more minority journalists are leaving the news businesssome by chance,
others by choice. Organizations fear that progress on many fronts is in full retreat. Yesterdays
goals, unfortunately, were never reached, and tomorrows are even higher.
We must resume the march forward.
The vocabulary and the indices of news diversity must progress. Minority stafng, train-
ing, retention and advancement remain essential. What is most important in the future, how-
ever, is the impact they have on news contentthe principal driver of audience, engagement
and the interactive experience of news consumption.
In addition, news diversity must be seen to support a business model. That model needs
to reect the ability of relevant content to reach target audiences willing to pay for more effec-
Executive Summary
E X E C U T I V E
S U M M A R Y
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tive and essential news and information and a more essential experience.
The urgency of the moment favors those who already value diversity over those yet to be
convinced. For those who see diversity as a core value, it will require the identication of new
resources to fund special efforts, while at the same time making diversitys basics a cost of
doing business. Knowledge of diverse communities, including their many nuances, will need
to be a core competency in the newsroom, around the business-side tables and in the board-
room as well.
There are programs that work to address diversity challenges old and newprograms
to knock down silos and make diversity something we talk about and something we do, too.
There are ways to develop news managers and leaders of color; and to identify talent early
and nurture it well. There are programs that constantly seek to improve the depth and sophis-
tication of news of diverse communities. There are programs on entrepreneurship, as well ashow to approach the new media. There even are monitors of diversity in online news.
The Old Guard will need to cede some ground. Daily newspaper newsrooms reect diver-
sity in the news industry less so than they did 30, 40or even ve or 10years ago. Nearly all
of the larger daily newsrooms (which accounted for most of the diversity in the industry) are
downsizing.
The growth shows up in smaller digital operations and in niche product start-ups, many
of which are aimed expressly at minority communities or even niches within the niches. And
E X E C U T I V E
S U M M A R Y
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diversity is being dened and identied in a plethora of non-ethnic ways.
As part of its new role, the legacy daily news industry will do well to turn more to
others for lessons in diversity success:
to the U.S. military, for whom necessity has proven to be a mother of innovation
for human resources managers;
to cable television networks, which have found ways to reach diverse audiences
with creative programming;
to management trainers, who have linked impediments to diversity to more
fundamental workplace traits.
Younger journalists of color are more entrepreneurial than their predecessors. They
exhibit more independence. They are less likely to covet long-term careers with legacy giants.
They inhabit the online and social media world. Blacks and Latinos have emerged as the most
frequent users of mobile media for news and information.And diversity has taken on a more generic identity, even seen as a way to drive the cov-
eted process of innovation. It can improve the news, the welfare of the community and the
business bottom line.
News diversity is a 21st-century imperative.
Milton ColemanASNE PRESIDENT, 2010-11,
THE WASHINGTON POST
E X E C U T I V E
S U M M A R Y
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C O N T E N T S
Introduction 7
A look back at diversity in the newsroom 12
Projects for diversity: A look at success 16
Where we are with diversity 29
Voices from the new media generation 34
Where diversity discussions might be headed 36
Diversity drives innovation. Innovation drives dollars 38
New business models at work 40
The media, minorities and mobile 46
Recruiting for diversity 48
The future of diversity in the news 51
V I D E O S
MILTON COLEMAN 6
ALY COLN 6
MEI-MEI CHAN 52
DORI MAYNARD 52
MIKE ORESKES 52
DORIS TRUONG 52
C H A R T S
Employment at daily papers 15
Mobile device usage by ethnicity 47
Strategies for mobile audiences 47
Chart notes from the conference 53
Diversitys future in the news media
C R E D I T S
Written by ALY COLN
Designed by SARA QUINN
Photos by KENNY IRBY,MICHAEL LUTZKY, JIM STEM,
AND ISTOCK
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If you are viewing this as a
PDF le on your computer,
you may view videos from
the key players in the project.
Click on the images
to the right to hear from
former ASNE President
MILTON COLEMAN and the
author of this report, ALY
COLN.
(The videos may take
a moment to load,
please be patient.)
Video messages from
Milton Coleman and Aly Coln
MILTON COLEMAN (CLICK ON IMAGE)
ALY COLN (CLICK ON IMAGE)
6
RONNIE AGNEW,Mississippi Public Broadcasting;Co-Chair, ASNE DiversityCommittee
BOBBI BOWMAN, ASNE
DANA CANEDY,The New York Times
MEI-MEI CHAN,The News Press, Ft. Myers, FL
MAE CHENG, amNewYork, NY
MILTON COLEMAN,President, ASNE
ALY COLN, ASNEDESIREE DANCY,The New York Times
JEANNE FOX-ALSTON,NAA Foundation
JOANNA HERNANDEZ,Unity: Journalists of Color
KENNY IRBY,The Poynter Institute
KAREN MAGNUSON,Co-Chair, ASNE DiversityCommittee
DORI MAYNARD,The Maynard Institute
ARLENE MORGAN,Columbia University GraduateSchool of Journalism
MICHAEL ORESKES,The Associated Press
MICHELE SALCEDO,National Association ofHispanic Journalists
VIRGIL SMITH,Gannett Company
ERNEST SOTOMAYOR,Columbia University GraduateSchool of Journalism
WALT SWANSTON, ASNE
HOLLIS TOWNS, AssociatedPress Managing Editors
DORIS TRUONG,Asian American JournalistsAssociation
LEADERSHIP IN DIVERSITY COORDINATING COMMITTEE
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The future of diversity in the newsmay manifest itself increasingly in new and varied ways: A website. A blog.
A tweet. A Facebook update. Mobile phone access. And in outlets and media
emerging and not yet known.
These opportunities presented themselves during diversity conferences held
under the auspices of the American Society of News Editors in 2011. They rep-
resent new options for pursuing an old goal that the news media began pursu-
ing more intently toward the end of the 20th century to diversify their staffs,
and by extension, their coverage.
The promise these new tools offer is a shift in approach to the diversity discussion, as well
as how it takes place and what it involves. This shift may open more paths for those who
seek novel opportunities for journalists of color and for those who desire creative options for
connecting with diverse communities.
What it signies about how the future of diversity in the news may be framed became ap-
parent during a conversation between Milton Coleman and Aly Coln in July, 2011. The
conversation occurred at a place with its own diversity elements and suggested by Coleman,
a senior editor at The Washington Post, a past president of ASNE, and the current president
MILTON COLEMAN, ASNE
PRESIDENT, 2010-11,
THE WASHINGTON POST
ALY COLN, REPORT AUTHOR
INDEPENDENT JOURNALIST,
ASNE CONSULTANT
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of the Inter American Press Association (IAPA). We met at the Mio restaurant, which spe-
cializes in diverse Latin American urban cuisine in Washington. D.C. and is managed by a
Puerto Rican.
During that lunch meeting, we talked about what Coleman wanted from the group of
journalists he had assembled to put on two diversity conferences. Funding for the conferenc-
es and other work associated with them came from the McCormick Foundation, the PhilipL. Graham Fund, Gannett Foundation and The New York Times. Our discussion that day
focused on how we wanted to shape the report being nanced by the Ford Foundation that
would draw upon these conferences and industry interviews and research.
We agreed we needed to document the outcome of ASNEs goal to increase minority
representation in daily newspapers, an effort that began in 1978. We also wanted to high-
light diversity programs that worked. And we reected on what had changed with regard
to diversity in the news media, why it changed and the impact. Diversity, as we knew it, isover, Coleman said.
What has also become clear is that while the size of the legacy medias newsrooms
diminish, the digital side keeps growing. But unlike the growth of minority representation
that had taken place in traditional newsrooms in the past, once reaching almost 13 percent,
minorities make up less than 2 percent of the digital staff. And traditional newsrooms began
experiencing a decline in diversity that has been documented by the annual census of news-
rooms surveyed by ASNE.
While there was progress over the past three decades, the progress doesnt match the
Newspapers wont occupy
the same position of power andinuence they once did
Newsrooms are not as large
as they once were.
Newswhere it emanates
from, who produces it, and who
receives itis more
democratized
New jobs are emerging and
being handled by a smaller
newsroom
The atomization move
Milton Coleman notes signs of
changing diversity in the news
M
ichaelLutzky/WashingtonPost
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U.S. population as a whole, said Karen Magnuson, editor and vice president/news of the
Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester, N.Y., and co-director of ASNEs diversity committee.
In fact the newspaper industry is now losing ground, she added. This year, minorities
in newsrooms accounted for 12.7 percent, a decline of .47 percent. And this marks the third
year in a row of declines.
The focus on increasing minority representation in newsrooms may no longer carry thesame imperative it once did. It may require a change in the way we frame future discussions.
We need to try to change the newsroom argument, Coleman said. We need to move it
away from numbers to content.
That content can now be created and distributed in distinct ways that have emerged with
new technological tools, increasing the number of outlets accessible to individuals and orga-
nizations. These new communication tools make it possible for minorities and non-minor-
ities, for legacy media and new media, to zero in on diverse communities and inform themabout news and information that matters to them.
When you consider that the U.S. Census shows that minorities made up almost half of
this countrys births in 2009, and minorities will become the majority population within the
next four decades, the business imperative for diversity becomes even more appealing.
We need to nd the diverse audiences that will make money, said Coleman, who worked
with others dedicated to diversifying the news to bring together professionals from news,
diversity and social media to talk about where wed been and where we needed to go.
Two conferences took place this year under Colemans leadership, focusing on New
This year minorities in
newsrooms accounted for
12.79 percent, a decline of
.47 percent. And this marks
the third year in a row of
declines.
KAREN MAGNUSON, Editor,Vice President of the Rochester
Democrat and Chronicle, and
co-chair of ASNEs Diversity
committee
Diversity, as we knew it, is over.MILTON COLEMAN
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Models for Growing Audiences, Talent and Revenue.Walt Swanston, the former direc-
tor of diversity at NPR and an ASNE consultant on diversity, and Mei-Mei Chan, president
and publisher ofThe News-Press Media Group in southwest Florida, helped direct and co-
ordinate a group of journalism volunteers representing a variety of news organizations and
social media representatives.
A June conference in Orlando, Fla held in conjunction with the National Associationof Hispanic Journalists conference, explored where diversity in the news media stood, what
needed to be done to cover todays diverse communities and what new models might be
considered.
Diversity is not a consideration but an expectation, said Hollis Towns, executive editor
and vice president of news at, The Asbury Park Press in New Jersey.
We need to keep diversity top of mind, especially when the publisher calls and asks to
meet numbers. Someone took a chance on me, Towns said, making it possible for him tosucceed. Diversity is the business of what we do.
In September, a conference in New York Citysought to reframe the diversity dis-
cussion. It dealt with the organizational, business and technological benets for those who
want more thats different, rather than more of the same.
Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., publisher ofThe New York Times and chairman of The New
York Times Company, welcomed participants to the Times conference center. We must see
our audiences and know them. But how do we reach them? he said. The timing is right.
TONJA BROWN, CNN senior
editor for strategic integra-
tion talks with SWEET-JOY
HACHUELA at the SeptemberASNE Leadership in Diversity
Session at The New York
Times.
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These days we have the ability to know more about them than ever before. We use Facebook
to know who they are, location-based apps like Foursquare to know where they are and
Twitter to know what they are saying. We must embrace diversity.
Magnuson made her own appeal. When it comes to the industrys survival, it becomes an
issue of accuracy and credibility, rst and foremost, but we need to make urgent progress in
serving minority communities with better and more targeted journalism, she said.As the discussion of diversity took on new ideas and different frameworks, one thing
stood out. What happens next on advancing the concept of diversity in the news media can-
not be dependent on legacy institutions alone. They nd themselves struggling to redesign,
reorient and revive themselves.
Instead, diversitys future must now embrace:
Those individuals who believe diversity matters to their success Those individuals who see opportunities in the technological frontier where new
tools allow communication to take place with diverse communities
Those individuals who want to connect with diverse communities where they are
And those individuals who seek ways to provide news in a manner that diverse
audiences want to receive it.
Diversitys future in the news media must be built upon its past successes, its present ef-
forts and its future innovation.
We must see our audiences and know them.But how do we reach them?ARTHUR SULZBERGER, JR.
While the size of legacy
medias newsrooms
diminishes, the digital side
keeps growing. Less than
two percent of the digital
staff, however, includes
people from different races.
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A look back at diversity in the newsroom
To appreciate what the future holds regarding diversity, it may help to see what ignited
the issue in the 20th century. Racial issues, conicts and riots erupted in the U.S. during the
1960s and brought a spotlight to the news medias role in its coverage of them.
The Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, better known as
the Kerner Commission report, delved into the news medias coverage of the 1967 summer
riots.
While the Kerner Commission concluded that the news media tried to provide a bal-
anced, factual account of the 1967 disorders, it also asserted that it failed to report ad-
equately on the causes and consequences of civil disorders and on the underlying problems
of race relations.
Among its recommendations, the commission urged that reporters familiar with urban
and racial issues be assigned to the black communities. It also suggested more recruitment
of blacks into newsroom ranks.
A decade later, ASNE began an annual census of newspaper minority employment. It did
so to offer a reliable baseline against which future progress can be judged, wrote Jay T.
Harris, then assistant dean of Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. He
introduced a summary of the report in the spring of 1978.
The study reported that in the 10 years since the Kerner Commission report the percent-
Key reports on newsroom
diversity done in 1968 and
1978 show signicant trends
over time, with a current
downward turn in employ-
ment over recent years.
Photos above give a glimpse
of the past, in the newsrooms
of The New York Times and
the front page of the Topeka
State Journal. Photos from
the Library of Congress.
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age of daily newspapers with a minority journalist had only risen to 32 percent from 20 per-
cent. It also noted that minority journalists accounted for only 3.95 percent of the staff, com-
pared with minorities totaling 17 percent of the population. Minorities are underutilized
and underrepresented in newspaper management, the study said, totaling only 1 percent.
The report also noted some other key ndings: The best minority employment records occurred at newspapers that set objectives
and strove strongly to meet them
Minority coverage excelled when integrated with total community coverage
The lack of jobs among minorities in cities turned out to be the biggest non-
reported story about minorities of the decade
The ASNE committee issuing the report cited guidelines for newspapers seeking how torecruit, train and retain minority employees. The committee urged newspapers to keep the
pressure on, develop personal relationships and make sure minority candidates have an op-
portunity to succeed. It pushed for the creation of appropriate standards, and for training on
basic requirements and sharing expertise.
The passion for change involving diversity became especially apparent when the com-
mittee worked with the staff associated with the staff of the Summer Program for Minority
Journalists at the Institute for Journalism Education, which began as the Michele Clark
Summer Program for Minority Journalists at the Graduate School of Journalism of Colum-
1967 The Kerner Commis-
ion Report advocated that
reporters familiar with urban
and racial issues be assigned
to the black communities. It
also suggested more recuit-
ment of blacks into its ranks.
1978 The ASNE annual
census of newspaper
minority employment pushed
for the creation of appropri-
ate standards and training.
Early reports on diversity made
strong recommendations
Racial issues, conicts and riots during the1960s brought a spotlight to the news mediasrole in its coverage of them.
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bia University and which would later become the Maynard Institute. Robert Maynard, a
director with the program spoke frankly to committee members. The committee members
reported that Maynard has also suggested that if the news business does not further deseg-
regate newsrooms on its own initiative, there are those determined to use the full force of
law to attempt to bring it about.
When it released the study, ASNE set several goals for minority employment, includingurging the industry to aim for newsrooms that mirrored minorities percentage of the popu-
lation as a whole.
The ASNE annual census became an annual snapshot of minority employment in news-
papers. It captured successes and setbacks. The percentage of minorities inched up incre-
mentally, from 3.95 percent in 1978, to 4.22 percent in 1979 to 4.89 percent in 1980, to 5.27
in 1981. By 1982, the rate of growth began slowing, reaching only 5.51 percent. In 1983, it
ground to a near halt, the study reported, topping out at 5.60 percent.
The next year it began growing again, making modest gains that continued until about
2007. The urge to diversify the American newsroom manifested itself in a variety of ways.
Newspapers created diversity committees. A number of news organizations made a concert-
ed effort to seek out, recruit, train and promote minority journalists.
Groups including the National Association of Black Journalists, the National Association
of Hispanic Journalists, the Asian American Journalists Associations, and the Native Ameri-
At a peak in both 2006 and
2007, the percentage ofminorities employed in U.S.
newsrooms was estimated
at 7,400.
The ASNE workplace census
began in 1978
More than 6,000 journalists gathered inAtlanta in 1994 for the rst Unity convention.
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Minority employment at daily newspapers
Projections based on responses to annual employment census (numbers rounded)
SOURCE: ASNE
can Journalists Association sought to help their members receive training and invited news
organizations to their annual conventions. In the mid-1990s, NABJ, NAHJ, AAJA and NAJAbanded together to hold the rst of their periodic Unity Conventions.
The minority associations began projects that sought to increase opportunities for their
membership to move into leadership positions and partner with news organizations to
improve diversity. AAJAs executive leadership program and NAHJs Parity Project were
just two examples. The Maynard Institute, the Freedom Forums Diversity Institute, ASNEs
Diversity Leadership Institutes and the Poynter Institute were among those offering oppor-
tunities to educate and train journalists and news organizations about diversity.
TOTALNEWSROOMWORKFORCE
MINORITYNEWSROOMWORKFORCE
YEAR 78 80 82 84 86 88 90 92 94 96 98 00 02 04 06 08 10
1,700
1978
1990
4,500
5,300
2011
41,6007,400
2007
7,400
2006
53,60056,900
43,000
55,000
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Projects for diversity and how they work
The latter part of the 20th century and the early part of the 21st century saw a number of
organizations engaging in projects aimed at improving diversity in the news media. Here is asampling of them, as articulated by those most familiar with how they worked.
Mei-Mei Chan, President and Publisher, The News-Press Media Group, Fort Myers, FL
I brought together nearly 60 individuals across departments in a strategic plan-
ning process last summer. This included line employees up to department heads.
Some had never worked with or even spoken to folks in other departments. Most had
not been involved in strategic development. The objectives and outcomes included:
Gaining diverse perspectives to help develop our strategic plans.
Educating staff about our organization in its broad scope.
Breaking down silos and building new relationships.
Energizing staff with a strategic vision and a call to innovation.
More substantive results because of our inclusive process, helping inform a
more robust strategic roadmap
MEI-MEI CHAN, THE NEWS-PRESS MEDIA GROUP
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Joanna Hernandez, President, Unity, Journalists of Color
New U: News Entrepreneurs Working Through UNITY is a competitive program
for journalists of color who want to become news entrepreneurs. Founded in 2010
with a grant from The Ford Foundation, New U has helped increase the number ofinnovative thinkers and product developers who are of color, providing them with a
forum in which to develop and express innovative ideas.
In addition to offering a unique formula based in training and one-on-one mentor-
ing, New U includes a competition for start-up funding to assist media entrepreneurs
in realizing their ideas. It is a project with tremendous energy, driven by committed
volunteer mentors and speakers and motivated competitive applicants.
Earlier this year, The Ford Foundation renewed its commitment to the program
with a grant to run the program for an additional two years. This enables selected
journalists of color to participate in a 2.5-day boot camp and includes a competition
for start-up funding to assist news entrepreneurs in realizing their ideas.
The winning entrepreneurs are awarded seed money to help fund their business
ideas; four news entrepreneurs were awarded $5,000 each in 2010; the start-up fund
for the class of 2011 is $10,000 each.
New U is implemented out of the UNITY: Journalists of Colors headquarters in
collaboration with UNITYs alliance partners.
JOANNA HERNANDEZ,PRESIDENT OF UNITY
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Rhonda LeValdo-Gayton, President, Native American Journalist Association.
The Native American Journalists Association (NAJA) hosted a program called
New Media in Indian Country last spring 2011 at the University of Oklahoma
(where our ofces are). The program was to introduce tribes to different forms ofmedia that were being used by tribes and maybe get them to be more involved.
The program though was not only for Natives it was open to everyone, and I think
a lot of our guests were quite surprised to learn that tribes are using technology to
help keep their culture alive.
For example, the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma worked with Apple to have the
Cherokee Language be an option on the iPad, iPhone, and computers so that their
tribal members could type and text in Cherokee.
This not only engages the user to keep using their language, but also keeps the lan-
guage alive in our younger generation, who likes to text and be on computers.
Another example was a tribe who was using the Internet to broadcast their own
newscast about their tribe. It not only gave their own tribal members news about
their tribe, but also, outsiders who wanted to watch as well.
The whole program was broadcast via livestream to those outside of Oklahoma
who wanted to view the workshop. We are hoping we can do this again in the spring,
I think it showed many people that tribal members are engaging in technology.
RHONDA LEVALDO-GAYTON,
NATIVE AMERICAN
JOURNALIST ASSOCIATION
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Marian Liu, Community Manager at Storify.com
There are two programs that I was involved in that I think worked out. First
Voices that I directedits a multimedia program for minorities where we train them
in all the different disciplines. The other one was one I worked with Knight Ridderona leadership forum for employees under 30, to share their ideas with the execu-
tives. I think the most important is not only to count diversity in race, but gender and
ageand to make sure its reected in their coverage and in the voice the employees
have the organization. These two programs were successful because they strove to
represent and to reect.
Its a difcult path these days. I have a lot of friends who have left the business.
The usual statistic I hear is that minority journalists leave after 5 years after seeing
there is little chance of advancement. I think that the number of years is even less
these days. Now, media often cut the ones with less seniority rst - and this often-
times means the minority journalists, so numbers are real low. Looking into the next
wave of journalismin the entrepreneur arena, the minority numbers still look very
bleak. I think organizations, like ASNE, need to hold old media as well as new media
accountable for hiring and growing minority journalists.
MARIAN LIU,
STORIFY.COM
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Dori Maynard, president, Maynard Institute
Our organization has a four-decade history of training journalists of color to work
in and lead news organizations across the country. Currently, our training offerings
include digital training and management/leadership training. Even in this treacher-ous climate, our graduates are continuing to lead and innovate in the industry. Some
of those who have been laid off credit us with giving them the skills to start anew as
entrepreneurs.
We attribute our success to the focused and immersive nature of our programs
that allow us to fully ground our participants in the skill sets we are teaching. The
residential programs also give our participants the opportunity to bond with each
other, creating a life-long support network. Many have reported that these networks
have helped them through the rough patches we all endure in our careers. This bond-
ing does not stop with their fellow participants. Maynard Alums also forge strong ties
with the faculty and grads from previous and successive years.
Arlene Notoro Morgan, Associate Dean of Prizes and Programs,Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, Columbia University
For 10 years, beginning in 1999, the Ford Foundation sponsored the Columbia
DORI MAYNARD,
THE MAYNARD INSTITUTE
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School of Journalisms Lets Do It Better! Workshop on Journalism, Race and Eth-
nicity at Columbia. That led to the creation in 2007 of a text book/DVD/ and website
project called The Authentic Voice: The Best Reporting on Race and Ethnicity that
is now widely used in journalism programs in college and high school.
First, the workshop enabled Columbias School of Journalism to convene an
important annual event to recognize good work and to use that work to teach otherjournalists how to adapt the projects to the racial and ethnic coverage needs of their
own newsrooms. The workshop also helped top editors and news directors to get over
their fear of conducting conversations about the coverage of race and ethnic issues.
I have used the book and the workshop template in journalism schools and orga-
nizations in China, Spain, New Zealand, including with the Maori, and for custom-
ized workshops targeting international journalists who have come to the school from
Germany, Denmark, and Italy, as well as in my own classroom.
The New Zealand Journalism Association now runs a competition similar to Lets
Do It Better.
I think the investment Ford made in sponsoring these workshops and the book re-
sulted in a long-term payoff that I have not seen with many other journalism training
initiatives. I still hear periodically from editors and reporters who would like me to
resume the workshops because they were of such high value. We are now fund rais-
ing to create a Center on Race and Ethnicity that would include an academic chair, a
fellowship program for professionals and the resumption of Lets Do It Better.
ARLENE NOTORO MORGAN,COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
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The value added here is the book because it allows journalism educators to bring
these stories and the interviews with some top journalists in the eld into the class-
room; many of which have no other way to talk about the coverage of race and ethnic
issues that these students will have to tackle in a changing society, not only here but
globally. This misunderstandings, biases and prejudices about race are global issues,
not just American ones.
Virgil Smith, Vice President/Talent Acquisition and Diversity, Gannett
Gannetts Talent Development Program (TDP) is a model diversity program with
the goal to recruit and retain the highest performing individuals and grow them as
future leaders of the company. Our goal is to ensure Gannetts workforce will reect
our communities.
The TDP strategy is to recruit the highest potential college graduates, place them
in a job at Gannett and have them complete a 10-week orientation- style-training
program. Following the completion of the program, the successful participants are
awarded a full-time position at a Gannett newspaper, television station, digital opera-
tion, or USA TODAY. Currently there are 72 graduates in the program. The program,
which is in its sixth year of existence, has a retention rate of 68%. The ethnic and
gender composition is 36% minority; 64% non-minority; 83% female and 17% male.
The employees work as journalists, sales account executives, marketing specialists,
VIRGIL SMITH, GANNETT
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24
JEANNE FOX-ALSTONVICE PRESIDENT/NAA FOUNDATIONNEWSPAPER ASSOCIATIONOF AMERICA
Jeanne Fox-Alston, Vice President/NAA Foundation, Newspaper Association of America
Oftentimes, discussion of diversity in the news media focuses on the newsroom. But programs
offered by the Newspaper Association of America Foundation encourage diverse leadership
among those responsible for revenue, audience development and strategyaka the business
sideas well as the newsroom. Indeed, just about every executive or senior manager of colorin the newspaper industry including corporate executives, publishers, advertising and circula-
tion directors, executive editors and more have participated in leadership development pro-
grams offered by NAA and NAAF over the years.
Our current signature program is PowerMind. Over six months, the PowerMind fellows all
managers of color participate in monthly webinars and small group discussions in addition to
talking with their advisers (senior industry executives) and completing assignments.
Further, halfway through the program, the fellows all attend mediaXchange, NAAs annual
convention. For three days, they hear and participate in discussions of current industry issues and
trends while sitting in on sessions on new revenue models, digital strategies, customer engage-
ment and more.
But one of the best things about PowerMind is what they learn from each other. While shar-
ing insights on how to improve specic leadership skills, business-side managers gain a better
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understanding of newsroom culture while those in the newsroom learn about business plans and
return on investment.
When the 2011 PowerMind class graduated last summer, they all talked about increased con-
dence, more clarity about their career goals and how to achieve them, and new and more produc-
tive relationships with colleagues throughout their companies.
One editor, asked about successes because of her participation in PowerMind, shared that shehad supervised a news project that resulted in more than $62,000 in new money. She added,
Thanks to the many tips offered by PowerMind, I teamed up with colleagues in the marketing and
advertising departments to sell ads and sponsorships for the publication of news products in print
and online tied to a single event: the 50th anniversary of the Bay of Pigs invasion. More prots are
anticipated by the end of the year.
These days, nding ways to protably meet the news and information needs of a multicultural
and multigenerational society is a complex task. But as that success story shows, programs like
PowerMind help to break down the silos at news organizations so that the combined expertise of
everyone can be tapped.
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Keith Reed, Senior Editor ESPN The Magazine; Treasurer, National Assoc. of Black Journalists
In 2010, NABJ instituted its Executive Suite program, aimed at preparing African-
American journalists for leadership roles in news organizations. The program runs
during the NABJ convention and is run in partnership with the Executive Leadership
Council, a nonprot organization whose mission is developing African-American corpo-rate leaders. Participants attend classes which have focused on maximizing technology
to engage readers, budgeting, personnel management and successfully navigating their
way into executive roles.
The sessions have been led by leaders including as Mark Whitaker, executive vice
president and managing editor, CNN Worldwide, Jonathan Rodgers, former president,
TV One, and Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., chairman, The New York Times Co. The principleunderlying Executive Suite is that diversity in media companies is a bottom-line busi-
ness imperative and is most efciently achieved when there are diverse executives who
make it a company priority. NABJ, then, must continue its leadership role in developing
a pipeline of African-American journalists ready for executive roles.
26
KEITH REED,SENIOR EDITOR,
ESPN THE MAGAZINE
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As a primary distributor of information, media organizations shape public policy, eco-
nomic trends and every other signicant facet of American life. A homogeneous news me-
dia in an increasingly diverse society, then, is doing a disservice. Recent instances of the
news medias coverage of itself to illustrate the point: industry journal TV Week recently
released its annual list of the most powerful people in television news, which included no
nonwhites.
Likewise, Forbes annual 30 Under 30 list of important media gures included only
one nonwhite person. If the media believes that only whites inside its own ranks who
are noteworthy, how can it be fair or accurate in reporting and shaping a diverse pub-
lics opinions on critical issues? Media companies now and into the future will be more
entrepreneurial organizations in which new content and technologies will be tested and
launched at a rapid pace. Those companies must make sure that a pipeline of diverse tal-ent is working on every initiative from the executive level down.
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Doris N. Truong, President, Asian American Journalists Association
The Asian American Journalists Association started its Executive Leadership Pro-
gram in 1995 to address a lack of our members in newsroom management positions.
ELP helps Asian Americans address cultural issues that might be holding them backin U.S. newsrooms, which have tended to be dominated by Caucasian men who had
a certain expectation of how their managers should look and behave. ELP has nearly
400 graduates, and a large majority of them report that after the program training,
they have earned promotions or moved on to jobs that are more professionally
fullling.
We still have a lot of work ahead of us. Only four publishers of American newspa-
pers are Asian American; two of them are ELP graduates. Only a handful of general
managers at news stations are Asian American. And we dont have data on who is in
charge in digital newsrooms.
We all know that news is more accurate when people who make the decisions
are aware of the many nuances of diversity, which increasingly goes well beyond
ethnicity.
DORIS N. TRUONG, ASIANAMERICAN JOURNALISTS
ASSOCIATION
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By 2010, continued economic turmoil, the deterioration of the traditional news business
model and an uncertain future for newspapers led to belt-tightening and continual rounds of
layoffs. Eventually, the minority employment percentage began to fall.
Magnuson, speaking at the September, 2011 New York City conference on Leadership in
Diversity discussed how that downturn had affected the annual newsroom census.
While there was progress over the past three decades, the progress doesnt match theU.S. population as a whole. In fact, the newspaper industry is now losing ground, Magnu-
son said. This year minorities in newsrooms accounted for 12.7 percent, a decline of .47
percent. And this marks the third year in a row of decline.
There are no gures that report percentages of minorities working for online-only news
websites as adequately as those the annual ASNE census has used to report daily newspaper
newsroom diversity for nearly three decades.
That stems from several factors. The number of online-only news sites participating in the
ASNE survey represents less than fty, compared to several hundred newspapers included
each year. Size plays a role, too, with many of the online-only news sites having fewer than
15 employees. Also, part-timers and freelancers often provide the content to such news sites,
and ASNE hasnt counted them in their surveys. In addition, some larger online organiza-
tions that provide newssuch as AOL-Patch and Yahoodeclined to give out numbers.
In an effort to expand its survey, ASNE has decided to include those of mixed race as part
of their census. That will establish a new baseline.
It may speak to the chal-
lenges faced by onine newsorganizations when it comes
to minority participation. Or it
may simply mean they dont
see diversity as a priority.
Minority jobs among online news
sites are more difcult to track
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Where we are with diversity
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Whatever the numbers and percentages maybe in the legacy media, or the online me-
dia, Coleman noted that the news media as a whole no longer has the presumed credibility
it may have had at one time with communities of color. No clear business model exists to
support those who specialize in certain types of news, he added. And he pointed out that the
newspapers no longer enjoy the same easy access to people that they once did.
Whats clear is that relevant content is important, Coleman stressed, which means thatdiversity will play an important part of any successful media outlet.
To understand what role diversity can play in the news medias future, the discussion of
that role needs to be reframed, suggested Howie Schaffer, a vice president at Cook Ross
Inc, a rm that specializes in diversity issues.
Schaffer told conference participants that diversity conversations have focused on:
The U.S., race, gender and cultural assimilation
Reparative, us vs. them, equal opportunity, afrmative action, political correctness
Event-based and training-oriented approaches
The diversity discussion needs to be reinvented, he said, to deal with:
Globalism, cultural exibility
Unconscious perceptions and behaviors
Future-oriented, system-based, cultural change
We have culturally competent people working in culturally incompetent organizations,
Schaffer said. They think that if they just hire enough people it will work out. But it doesnt.
Schaffer pointed out that industry research shows that employee performance is declin-
Organizations think that if they just hireenough people it will work out. But it doesnt.HOWIE SCHAFFER, VP AT COOK ROSS, A FIRM THAT SPECIALIZES IN DIVERSITY ISSUES
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ing, with high levels of extra effort declining by 64 percent since 2005; that the disengaged
were 31 percent less likely to quit in 2009 compared to with 2006; that 25 percent of high
potential employees plan to quit in the next 12 months; and employee commitment is up
for grabs, with about three-fourths neither fully committed or uncommitted.
Making people feel included could change that. But the road to inclusion requires people,
and organizations, to move from being blind about their biases to cultural competency, headded. Bringing in diverse people isnt enough. Schaffer used the example of pouring choco-
late syrup milk into a glass of white milk. The chocolate descends to the bottom of the glass.
You need to stir it to get inclusion, he said.
Any lasting change requires moving from awareness to becoming operational to transfor-
mation, Schaffer said. Without knowing the unconscious bias that exists, it becomes difcult
to deal with it. Its easy to miss something youre not looking for, he said.
Recognizing a bias not only enables news people to address it, but also to use it, even
exploit it. The Root, a website owned by the Washington Post Company, focuses on black
news, politics and culture. Founded by the Harvard University professor Henry Louis
Gates, Jr. in 2008, The Root wants its audience to know it provides news and commen-
tary from an African-American perspective.
Why a black website? The Internet is segregated already, said Joel Dreyfuss, The Roots
managing editor. What we see ourselves doing is lling in the gaps, in news coverage.
Root assumes people are getting info from other sources, and we bring the black per-
spective, he said.
MULTI-DIRECTIONAL
CONVERSATION
It becomes important to
recognize the diversity
discussion is not a linear
conversation. Today it
includes many different
groups with discussion
going on between them, as
well as the one that might
take place between just
blacks and whites.
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Dreyfuss noted that most of the diversity discussion in the news media involves hiring,
not coverage. Thats the fundamental issue for African-Americans who want to know whats
happening in their community, he added. For us, were interested in the intellectual life of
Black community, Dreyfuss said.
Launched at the time of the 2008 presidential election, The Root beneted from the
attention generated byBarack Obama. It learned that a strong voice about the newshelped the website become increasingly popular.
We take news and give it an opinionated twist, Dreyfuss said. We take a lot of time to
nd the Root angle on a story. For example, the Arab Spring prompted us to focus on a
Black man who lived in Egypt and how Black people were regarded.
This conscious approach to creating a Black conversation catapulted The Root to become
the No. 1 online destination for a Black audience, Dreyfuss said. The Root draws almost two
million unique visitors a month, he noted, with non-Blacks accounting for between 20 to 30
percent of its users.
While some see opportunities for diversity by narrowcasting, others wonder what it will
take to imbue their own organizations with diversity initiatives that work. In addition, to rec-
ognizing the dimensions of diversity, speaking truth to the diversity, or lack of it, must take
place as well, Schaffer, a VP at the diversity consulting rm of Cook Ross, Inc., said.
We need conversations for accountability, he said, We need true accountability that ts
your organization. Ultimately, its about trust.
The major difference now compared with 20 years ago is the environment in which such
Root assumes people are getting info from oth-er sources, and we bring the black perspective.JOEL DREYFUSS, MANAGING EDITOR OF THE ROOT
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conversations take place. Previously, news organizations seemed solid. They had a history to
overcome and a future to create. They seemed stable. But how do conversations about diver-
sity take place today when no organizational stability appears to exist?
While some may call it an environment of scarcity, others see it not as an issue of resourc-
es but of core values. So whats in it for the organization to overcome organizational bias?
The Assistant Secretary to the U.S. Navy for Manpower and Reserve Affairs, Juan M. Gar-cia III told conference participants that one way the U.S. Navy addresses organizational bias
is by letting its commanders know that if they cannot lead as diverse a crew as possible, they
wont be promoted. His advice for creating a more diverse organization involves casting a
net thats as wide as possible.
We did so, without lowering the bar, Garcia said.
How does that compare with whats happening in the civilian world?
Commonalities include enlightened self-interest, Schaffer said. But individuals con-
tinue to hold on to individual self-interest. People in scarcity will operate differently than in
abundance. Scarcity breeds self-interest and paranoia.
Organizational budgets are an articulation of their values, he added, and if diversity fails
to occupy a place on the budget, its not a priority. Diversity requires a longer strategy, and
longer strategies are often eschewed in time of scarcity, he said.
Recognize the risk, Schaffer said. Theres risk. But there is reward. Small gamble, small
result. Big gamble, large result. Doing the same thing and expecting different results is the
denition of insanity.
Start thinking what you can do.Dont be looking at others.MEI-MEI CHAN, PRESIDENT AND PUBLISHER, THE NEWS-PRESS MEDIA GROUP
MEI-MEI CHAN,
THE NEWS-PRESS MEDIA
GROUP
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Regarding news
Emi Kolawole: I tweet while Im
talking. This is the fastest way
to communicate.
Robert Hernandez: Brand is
dead.Now we all have the pow-
er to have our own brand. But
what matters now is relevancy.
If the information is relevant, I
dont care where it comes from.
Kolawole: Gawker is my
favorite site. It aggregates andentertains.
With regard to creating new
products, if youre interested in
creating a new print product,
youre barking up the wrong
tree. If you want to create a new
The Millennial Mindset:
Voices from the new media generation
An excerpt of a panel discussion
featuring comments from
Millennials on consumer news,
news relevance, career paths and
newsroom culture.
ROBERT HERNANDEZ,
USC ANNENBERG SCHOOL
EMI KOLAWOLE, PRODUCER,
POSTPOLITICS.COM
website, you need to be careful.
My goal is to get a new commu-
nity to talk about itself.
Hernandez: Its web culture to
teach yourself things. But its
not true that (young people)
know everything. They know
technology. But not how to use
it for storytelling. Young people
know about the problems with
the journalism world, but they
do it because they feel they can
have an impact. Im an aca-
demic who wants to guide the
young people. Its an excitingtime. When older people started
in the industry, the pay was
bad. Its still that way today. But
thats not why people do go into
media roles.
Kolawole: I had a double
major, theater studies and
international relations. What
excites me right now is that Ive
gotten all this experience and
excited about where I could go,
and the endless possibilities. I
work at The Washington Post.
Some of the best ideas come
out of random conversations.
We have random pods (work
groups). We have young pro-
ducers sitting at different desks
and talking to each other. Its an
incredibly organic experience.
Hernandez: More young
people are willing to go to astartup, or start their own
(business). My success is when
I go rogue. You have to know
your place, but also that (most)
othersin the room dont know
how to use Twitter, html, Face-
book, etc.
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On career paths
Kolawole: Career paths?
Theres a path? Where is it? I
think that the career ladder is
nonexistent. Its a really inter-
esting garden maze. You need
to smell the owers. Youd be
surprised where you end up.
I want to expand my educa-
tional horizons. Pour myself into
everything I do. I started in poli-
tics. Now Im doing innovation.
Hernandez: (Its) empowering.And scary as well. Because
theres no career path. Were
like someone with a machete,
slashing our way through.
People are trying to gure out
how to do what we do. What we
want to do is this and survive.
Kolawole: The Post is good at
setting up mentors. (My mentor)
is fantastic at the Post. Shes
opened doors for lot of commu-
nication. At the Post, they invest
in you. Its not that the model is
not suffering as much its not as
open to ideas. At the Post, Ive
never been dismissed outright
because of my professional
status.
Hernandez: For me, I am
the product of Unity mentor-
ship program in 1999. I made
everyone a mentor, whether
they knew it or not. Web cultureis to put it out there. I dont care
if you dont give me credit. I
share above and share below.
The point is to gure it out in
teaching. Go nd out. Thats the
beauty of it.
Kolawole: My friends are pri-
marily New York Times readers,
more Sunday readers. News is
a salon experience. I Facebook
the (stories) I want to share.
Then we have a conversation.
Feed and ow of commentary.
My Facebook feed is a mix of
different data. Brands speakwith a louder voice.
Hernandez: My Facebook is
about my kid for my mom. Twit-
ter is for news. When I see a lot
of people citing the same thing,
it gets my attention. Theres
not one place to go to. Tumblrs
are the new rage. We innovatemore in storytelling, but not in-
novative in advertising. Youre
not going to be everything for
everybody. You should not be
the Daily Show. Do what you
do best and link to the rest,
said Jeff Jarvis.
On diversity
Hernandez: It was me and a
Korean who knew Spanish at
The Seattle Times.
Kolawole: I do care (about
diversity.) The idea of holding
diversity close to your heart is
the way my parents did and
their parents did. But I focus on
how I can do my work better.
Im not thinking about furthering
diversity. But I know that people
before me worked hard so Icould do what Im doing.
Hernandez: (Diversity) is a part
of you, but it doesnt dene you.
Weve heard this conversation
for so long we got it. Were out
there doing it.
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Where diversity discussions might be headed
When we look at a statistical portrait of the diversity of the U.S., what would we see?
In the last U.S. Census, there were 308 million people, of which one-third were minori-
ties. Hispanics amounted to 16 percent, becoming the largest minority group, totaling 50.5
million. African-Americans followed, with 13.9 percent, or 38.9 million. Asians accounted
for about 5 percent, or 14.7 million and American Indians/Alaska Natives came to 0.09 per-
cent, or 2.9 million. Native Hawaiians and Pacic Islanders were the smallest of the major
race groups with 500,000 people.
The growth ethnic/racial groups continue outstripping the white population and are pro-
jected to do so in the future. At the ASNEs conference in New York, Towns urged the news
industry not to hesitate in its pursuit of diversity initiatives. We cannot keep dithering,he warned. We cannot fail. It should not merely be a part of a singular business model but
rather reect the essence of our core values. He added, Lets fulll the promise beginning
today.
Sulzberger urged the news media to address the increasingly diverse population by look-
ing inward. Without a diversied workforce, he said, the industry will lack other elements
that matter.
How to stay true to our mission and audiences?By better connecting with them via thechannels that matter to them. ARTHUR SULZBERGER, JR.
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The platform for journalism
will continue to change.
Yet communities of color
still need and want journal-
ism that holds governments,
institutions and peopleaccountable and provides
insight and understanding on
issues that reect the totality
of their lives.
MILTON COLEMAN
Why havent we also diversied our workforces so they represent the audiences they
speak to every day? Without a diverse group of journalists crafting the news that people
want to read, there would be no audience; no monthly uniques to measure, no subscribers or
followers on Twitter, he said. We just stay true to our mission of delivering the news and
information that matters to our audiences by better reecting their communities and con-
necting with them via the channels that matter to them.
Coleman remembers what it was like when the push for minorities in journalism began.
That memory, and the recognition that diversity in the news media needed to be reframed,
moved him toward the 2011 initiative that he led through two conferences. In an article he
wrote for Nieman Reports that focused on fresh strategies and news goals, he reected on
what he saw taking place.
The dominance of newspapers is fading or gone. They are less essential to broader clus-
ters of readers, replaced by the trimmed down, sped up digital news, he wrote. Yet com-
munities of color still need and want journalism that holds governments, institutions and
people accountable and provides insight and understanding on issues that reect the totality
of their lives. Thats what we hope the entrepreneurial talent and mindset of the children
and grandchildren of the post-Kerner era will produce.
In short, Coleman said, We need to nd the diverse audiences that will make money.
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FRANS JOHANSSON, author of
groundbreaking bestseller,
The Medici Effect: What
Elephants & Epidemics Can
Teach Us About Innovation,
spoke at the conference.
Diversity drives innovation.
And innovation drives dollars.
Frans Johansson delivered that message at the New York City conference. Johansson,
author of The Medici Effect: Breakthrough Insights at the Intersection of Ideas, Concepts
and Cultures, believes that when you change the rules, differentiation takes place.
We must break new ground, Johansson said. Diversity drives innovation. Diversity of
cultures, gender, race, functions, disciplinesanything that gives you different takes on op-
portunities.
Better ideas, and more of them, take place at the intersections, he stressed. Diversity does
that. When you create diverse teams, surrounding yourself with people who are different
from you, it becomes easier to come up with creative ideas, Johansson said.
Since you create new ideas based on what you know, there is a need to leverage existingdiversity.
The world we live in is getting more diverse, he noted. But Im making a different argu-
ment: if you bring different people together you come up with better ideas. The world is con-
nected. You need someone make those connections. And that somebody should be you.
Johansson used the Medici family of Florence and its contributions to the Italian Renais-
sance as an example of how creativity came out of the sponsorship of different types of art
and humanism.
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THE FUTUREOF DIVERSITYIN THE NEWSWe are attracted to people similar
to ourselves. So we need to makecombinations occur. FRANS JOHANSSON, AUTHOR
He sees the Medici Effect as a way to advance diversity through three facts:
Fact 1:All new ideas are combinations of existing ideas. Johans-
son noted that not all ideas are created equal. Consider the bikini and
the burqa, he said, noting that a Muslim woman designed the burquini, a styl-
ish, full-body bathing suit for Muslim women.
Fact 2:People that change the world try for new ideas.Johansson
said we are horrible at predicting what will work. So we have to keep on trying.
The story were told is how ideas are brilliant and successful. But Wikipedia fol-
lowed Nupedia, which was created to reach out to experts and put their knowl-
edge online. Nupedia got only 20 posts. So Wikipedias founder decided to open
it up to everyone.
Fact 3:Diverse teams can unleash an explosion of new ideas. This,
Johansson noted, is a mathematical argument. Rock musicians connecting with
classical music result in new ideas in rock music.
JOEL DREYFUSS listens to
Johansson during the wrap
up session at Septembers
conference.
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New Business Models at Work Excerpts of a panel discussion:
1. Map the landscape
2. Test drive your idea
3. Wire frame the project
4. Pick a business structure
5. Develop a plan
6. Craft an elevator pitch
(gure out Whats your Ask)
7. Build a Website
8. Gather content
9. Launch with fanfare
10. Tell your Story
Jan Schaffer, executive director, J-Lab, The Institute for Interactive Journalism
Stories about how Latinos were being frisked by police, how African-American men were
being jailed, stories gotten from the communities themselves. The Seattle Times Net-J Proj-
ect, which had no marketing, had readers thanking The Seattle Times for letting them con-
nect with niche communities. This improves their brand and it encourages more advertising.
Here are our 10 tip new entrepreneurs interested in new models:
Tonja Brown, senior director, strategic integration, CNN
No matter who you are, you want to see your interests in the news. You need to pay atten-
tion to what it is your audience is paying attention to when they arent paying attention to
you. Its how you attract the audience that will make your brand more valuable.
Dont allow challenges to get you stuck. Getting stuck is one of the major challenges. Lati-
40
JAN SCHAEFFER, J-LAB,THE INSTITUTE FORINTERACTIVE JOURNALISM
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nos being fragmented. That challenge causes people to stop there. So you need to be agile. In
the movie, No Country for Old Men, I like the clip where the guy makes the character Call
it. Is it ever easy to call it? But should that stop you?
Need is also a need for people behind the scenes who know the community and the
structure. We focus on whos behind the microphone, but also would benet from knowing
executives, too.
Paul Cheung, project director, OurChinatown, New York,
and Interactive and Graphics Editor, The Associated Press Headquarters, New York
We applied for McCormick Foundation grant for Our Chinatown. 30,000 Chinese in New
York City area. We saw a niche between Chinese newspapers and mainstream media.
How do we develop a platform for the phone since minorities use mobile to get informa-
tion? So we are having news reporters using mobile phones to gather, report and upload in-
formation and send it to a mobile audience. We send out brief reports, or digests in Chinese.
We wanted to make it easy. We use Wordpress. Most of our users are not app users. So we
wanted to make it simple and easy. The concept will run from April to December. No adver-
tising. We average 7,000 unique visitors a month. Were covering just Chinatown right now.
Imagine if we expand to Brooklyn and Queens.
We got involved right away with community. Town meetings. Asked what they wanted.
Later we want to do it in Chinese and Spanish. Content is free. But were looking at an e-
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commerce platform. We want to build a Chinese version of Craigs list for Chinese Americans.
Our focus is 100 percent online and were looking toward mobile. Were targeting new wave
of immigrants as well who are familiar with technology.
Maritza Puello, executive editor, NY1 Noticias
We made sure we brought on people who represented the fragmented population of La-
tinos. We looked at how whats happening in community affects the Latino community.
Education is a great example. We want something more exclusive to the Latino population.
Hyper-local. Priority is what effects New Yorkers, then how it affects Latinos, others. Were
advocating for our viewers.
We need people who t with start-up models, who can produce things in an unstable
work environment in addition to their news credentials. Need people who are pioneers
and ready to load the wagon and say lets go.
Glenn Burkins, editor and publisher, Qcitymetro.com
We have a Black-oriented news website in Charlotte, NC. Started Qcitymetro.com. Being
African American, I know African Americans care about certain things more than others.
Like church.
We heard about a trial of black minister with regard to money. Heard the mainstream me-
GLENN BURKINS, editor and
publisher of Qcitymetro.com
talks with SARAH LUMBARD,
senior director at National
Public Radio.
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dia was covering opening and closing. I decided to cover it gavel to gavel. The response was
incredible. We did morning upload laying it out, something before lunch, then at 3-4 p.m.,
and then at end of the day. People were pegged to our updates.
Charlotte Observer missed out on 37 percent of the population of Charlotte. Our Busi-
ness plan: I approached banks and health care companies about sponsorship. We want to go
beyond banner ads.Financial partnerships are the next step. Talking to a young man, who has spent his
career editing alternative newspapers, and I have spent it in serious news. But I hope he can
bring an edgier approach. I think niche markets are the way of the future. I think the day is
gone when we look to anyone as the one source. Go to different places for different reasons.
Like restaurants, we have favorites but we dont go there every day.
Joel Dreyfuss, managing editor, theRoot.com
We do sponsored content, which is for journalists a delicate balance. Were near 2 million
unique visitors per month. Breakdown between blacks and non-Blacks. Non-Blacks number
20-30 percent. But we cant sell that to advertisers who want a niche market so only inter-
ested in Blacks.
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Tips offered by panelists
Dreyfuss: Once a day, run a story you dont
think your readership will be interested in.
Schaffer: Treat your community as your
partner. Be intellectually curious. Journal-
istic ethics are changing. New issues and
new spaces to make judgments. New ethical
challenges.
Puello: Use your newsroom staff to encour-age connections with the community. Young
journalists focus on technology, moving
stories quickly, lling the website. Encour-
age them to form relationships. With young
people its like shampoo, lather, rinse and
repeat.
Brown:Value different opinions. Find dis-
senters, people who will poke holes in things
you do. Dont lean back but lean forward withpeople who disagree with you. The cultur-
ally curious was a term I coined to identify
people who are interested in other cultures,
races, etc. Include those people in process.
This is a long haul. Takes time for a payoff for
the multicultural project to catch on.
Burkins: You need to focus on revenue
from day one, as well as content. You have to
do both. Were seeing double-digit increases
month-to-month, but revenue is not
keeping up.
Cheung: Dont be afraid to fail. Test and try.
With more than 130,000
unique visitors in the last 12
months, Qcitymetro.com was
started in 2008.
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Schaffer: Collaboration is the new competi-
tion. Its a thought I think people have, and it
worries me.
Brown: The mainstream doesnt under-
stand the value of multiculturalism. It
doesnt understand such a separation be-
tween regular culture and multicultural. Its
already multicultural. What gets me excited
in the morning is the challenge of working in
our business, talking to people who are ery
and demanding change.
Burkins: Money keeps me up at night.
What gets me up are the readers.
Dreyfuss: Competition keeps me up at
night. New competitors every day. What Im
excited about is what we do is not what any-body else is doing. We look for media part-
nerships, new things to explore and grow.
Puello: I sleep as much as I can. Sister The-
resa said get a good night sleep. How to do
more with less worries me, but it also makes
you leaner, meaner and keeps you re-invent-
ing with only a nickel and dime.
Cheung:What concerns me is that the
American community is one-sided in its
coverage. What excites me are those who are
trying to create new products.
What keeps the panelists awake at night
Our Chinatown is a
hyper-local project for the
New York City Chinatown
community created by the
Asian American Journalists
Associations Executive
Leadership Program.
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The Media, Minorities and Mobile
Mobile communication devices offer news organizations another way to reach diverse
audiences. A variety of studies already indicate that minoritiesespecially Latinos and
Blacksuse their mobile phones more often than whites to get information. The Mobile Ac-
cess 2010 Pew report noted that 64 percent of African-Americans and 63 percent of Latinos
access the Internet through wireless devices. It also reported that 87 percent of blacks and
Hispanics own a cell phone compared with 80 percent of whites.
Minorities consistently come out ahead in every mobile engagement, saidAaron
Smith, a research specialist who has written for the Pew Internet and American Life Project.
Some of that may be related to economics: mobile phones cost less than laptops or desk-
top computers. But another factor involves the frequency with which minorities want tokeep in touch with members of their community. News organizations that want to reach di-
verse audiences could seek ways to distribute news through mobile phones aimed at minor-
ity communities.
Smartphone penetration is
higher among mobile users
who are part of ethnic and
racial minorities in the U.S.
than White mobile users
THE NIELSEN COMPANY
With 16 hours of connected
time a day, the mobile phone
represents the technology
with the broadest reach pos-
sible in the world today.
MASTERING THE MOBILE
MEDIUM BY HADEN
KIRKPATRICK SOURCE
Research shows tremendous
change in news habits.
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Minorities consistently come out ahead inevery mobile engagement AARON SMITH, RESEARCH SPECIALIST
18 Percent of blacks and
16% of English-speaking
Hispanics are cell-only
wireless users, compared
with 10% of Whites.
In total, roughly half of
African-Americans
(54 percent) and Hispanics
(53 percent) go online from
a mobile phone
PEW INTERNET & AMERICAN
LIFE PROJECT, 2010
Publishers offer mobile audiences a variety of content
Mobile device penetration by ethnicity
SOURCE: Audit Bureau of Circulations and ABC Interactive
SOURCE: The Nielsen Company
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MICHELE SALCEDO, NATIONAL
ASSOCIATION OF HISPANICJOURNALISTS
MIKE ORESKES,
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Recruiting for diversity
Recruiting young and diverse talent involves strategic planning that includes both old-
fashioned techniques and the latest social media tools.
Virgil Smith,Gannett vice president for talent aquisition and diversity, sees building
relationships with people as an effective recruitment tool. That means not only forming re-lationships with them in the company but also in the communities they are assigned to work
in, he said. He also values such social media tools as the LinkedIn recruiter package.
Chrystal Johnson of CBS News noted that it was important to identify diverse young
people and to think ahead about nances and to help them pinpoint places to cultivate re-
lationships. Michele Salcedo, president of the National Association of Hispanic Journal-
ists, emphasized the need for a commitment to do training and to follow minorities from the
student to the executive level. Michael Oreskes, senior managing editor for The Associated
Press wants those they recruit to be able to think journalistically, to want to break news.
He sees opportunities to help juniors and seniors in high school by creating news by creat-
ing news oriented to their peers and by getting reporters and editors to to guide teenagers
toward journalism.
Once you identify people, you want to keep them, Smith said.
But recruiters dont have much time to cultivate and keep young, diverse talent, said
Keith Reed, treasurer for the National Association of Black Journalists. The reality is that
this young generation will not stay with you if they dont see opportunities for advancement.
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Gannett employee, AMBER
GUYTON, multimedia specialist,
WXIA TV/WATL TV, Atlanta,
expresses her appreciation for
her organizations commitment
to diversity, along with fellow24-year-old DANIEL TRACH, key
account digital sales executive,
Enquirer Media Group, Cincinnati.
You have to show somebody from the day you bring him or her in the door that there is op-
portunity for investment. Your time frame is six monthstops.
Daniel Trach, a key account digital sales executive at the Enquirer Media Group in Cin-
cinnati warned Nobody is too small to be taken seriously in your organization.
Amber Guyton, a multimedia specialist at WXIA-TV/WATL-TV in Atlanta, noted that
her cohort of young professionals is hungry for a challenge.
Trach and Guyton offer tips for hiring young professionals
Once you identify people, you want to keepthem. VIRGIL SMITH, GANNETT VICE PRESIDENT, TALENT ACQUISITION AND DIVERSITY
1. The incubator effect.
(Do I have opportunities to grow? Is there
a clear future in the company? Is promo-
tion realistic? What can I contribute?
2. Double O Seven
(Ownership and opportunity. Can I do
things above and beyond my level?)
3. SuperEmpowers
(Are you empowering us? Asking us for
advice? Care about our opinion? Or what
we can contribute? Be a mentor. Take us
under your wing. Can I shadow people?)
4. The Art of Entry Level
(Do we have opportunity to rise? Will you
pay attention to us?)
5. Investment & Indispensability
(Letting us know were valuable assets.
Executives look good if we have success
(who likely consider the following when they are being recruited):
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too. Were cheaper labor but reason to
invest beyond our salaries. Send us to
conferences where we might not look like
we belong there.)
6. Einsteinolgy (Permission to think
big and be heard. We take a unique ap-
proach to things. A lot more has changed
in the last 15 years than has in the past
50 years. In our generation, technology is
our rst language, we didnt have to learn
it. Ability to embrace new ideas. Get their
opinion.)
7. I have a degree in communica-
tions. Now what?(Communication is
key. Dont be distant if you are in the top
ranks. You may not appreciate how valu-
able it is to us to hear from you. We have
an open cube policy. My manager gives
me feedback and I need that. Feedback is
so important.
8. Benets and Benjamins
(Im 24 years old, and have a ways to go.
If you work for money you work for mon-
ey but if you work for success you work
for more. We want to be compensated
with travel, which is huge. Virgil, Gannett,
works with us.
The reality is that this young generation willnot stay with you if they dont see opportunitiesfor advancement. KEITH REED, SENIOR EDITOR @ESPN MAGAZINE
KEITH REED,
SENIOR EDITOR,
ESPN THE MAGAZINE
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What is the future of diversity in the news?
In some ways, it will be the same as it was beforean important goal for any news organi-
zation that cares about covering diverse communities.
In other ways, it will be completely differentin approach, in the tools used and in how it
targets diverse communities.The Leadership in Diversity conferences sought to review and refocus the medias atten-
tion on the future of diversity in the news. If nothing else, we sent a message that diversity
is alive and well. How it can be applied in the new, new age. And how it applies to the fu-
ture, Coleman said.
The news media must move on from focusing on multicultural headcounts. In the future,
success for those who care about diversity involves seeking content that conveys something
of interest about, for, and to all types of communities.
It will require a more strategic approach to identifying and then serving diverse audienc-
es. New technological communication tools must be employed. More sophisticated distribu-
tion channels will be essential. Fresh outlets must emerge.
Diversity in the future will require more than it did in the past. Instead of conversation, it
will require commitment. Instead of reaching down, it will require reaching out. Instead of
being transactional, it must be transformative.
Diversity must go beyond being a goal.
It must become an act.
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ALY COLN, REPORT AUTHOR
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52If you are viewing this as a PDF le on your computer, you may view
videos from some of the key players in the project. Click on the images
to hear from these leaders in journalism diversity.
Videomessages
MEI-MEI CHAN (CLICK ON IMAGE)
DORI MAYNARD (CLICK ON IMAGE)
MIKE ORESKES (CLICK ON IMAGE)
DORIS TRUONG (CLICK ON IMAGE)
RHONDA LEVALDO-GAYTON (CLICK ON IMAGE)
VIRGIL SMITH (CLICK ON IMAGE)
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53
Chart pad notes from the conference
Diverse audiences include
Differences within groups, no monoliths
Latin American segments
Old vs. new Floridians
Black segments
Ethnicity and race Military: who joins? Why?
Mining community
Migrant workers
Mining communities
Gated communities
Sexual orientation
Those interested in other cultures
Those skeptical of change
Socio-economic diversity Religious diversity
Age diversity
Technological preference diversity
Geographic diversity
Employed vs. unemployed
Underemployed
Political perspective
Limited but still valuable technocrats
Storytelling
More collaborations and partnerships
Voice as an asset
How do you pay for it?
Opinion vs. News in communities
of color
Millennium mindset
Relevant content/understands
audience/doesnt talk down
Inform and entertain
Dont be all to all
Randomness
BrandR.I.P.?
Focus on learning environment
and crank it out
Go rogue respectfully
Mobile, mobile, mobile
Great ideas were captured during
the brainstorming sessions at the
Leadership in Diversity conferenc-
es. You will find some of the notes
on these pages.
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54
A virtual Welcome Wagon
Target newcomers, most of who are of color
Can also be a mobile app
Site can also have video, bloggers
Advertising bases and coupons
Year of understanding (The new America)
A public service project
Bring together diverse communities
Part of virtual Welcome Wagon Initiative
Millennial mix
Millennials in the newsroom put their spin
on the news of the day
They become newsroom ambassadors
Millennial network
Advertising link to millennial audience
Mobile partners, ethnic papers
Could help new residents and travelers too
Could attract advertisers
Newsmaker TV shows that can later be
podcast (for a fee)
Use community newsmakers andnewsroom staff
U.S. Navy and diversity
Cast a wide net
Go lots of places
Dont overlook any city
Honor high standards Higher echelon accountable for mentoring
Cant afford to overlook any talent
Proactive replacement policy for pipeline
Howre they doing? Assessment 2 x a year
Brainstorming new modelsMore chart pad notes from the conference, June 15 session
Health connect
Through the Smartphone
Aggregate information
Push it out over various
platforms
Advertising businessmodel
Target underserved
communities
Train ad reps to better
sell mobile apps
Arm them with too