Industry Executives’ Hiring Record Under Scrutiny
Poised and professional, a white woman and a white man, an Asian woman and a woman with a Latin surname take their turns before television cameras to deliver the late night news.
It’s a picture of diversity in the most literal sense.
Behind the picture, however, are doubts about racial and ethnic diversity in the news industry. National journalism organizations report the percentage of minorities in news organizations nationwide stays much lower than that in society at large.
The industry, they say, must do better.
Journalists of color make up 11.6 percent of the staff at U.S. daily newspapers, according to an April report by the Arlington, Va.-based Freedom Forum. By contrast, people of color make up 28 percent of the total U.S. population, the same study said, citing a 1999 U.S. Census Bureau estimate.
Another group, the Radio-Television News Directors Association, reported in June that minorities make up 21 percent of the work force in television, and 10 percent of the work force in radio.
Jerry McCormick, a special sections copy editor for the San Diego Union-Tribune, has observed the situation here and in the other cities he’s called home: Cleveland, Colorado Springs, Colo., and Columbia, S.C.
“They all need work,” said Smith, president of the newly formed San Diego chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists.
Laura Castaneda, San Diego chapter president of the California Chicano News Media Association, took a similar view last week while reflecting on a career that has taken her from Chicago to Tucson, Ariz., then to San Diego. The free-lance reporter for KPBS-TV and Channel 4 went even further, questioning how seriously local stations are committed to hiring a diverse staff.
Three local television news directors said their on-air and off-air staffs should reflect the community’s diversity. A staff that comes from varied backgrounds can help a news organization understand issues and connect with the public, they said.
Karin Winner, editor of the Union-Tribune, expressed similar thoughts. “We are very committed to diversifying our work force, ” she said.
Hiring a diverse staff is “a no-brainer requirement,” said Mike Stutz, news director for Channel 10.
“It’s stupid not to,” said Jim Sanders, vice president-news at NBC 7-39.
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TV News Viewers Notice Staff Diversity
Geoff Roth, news director at KSWB-TV, acknowledged stations get complaints when viewers perceive a lack of diversity among the newscasters.
“If you’re living in a town with a huge Asian-American population and there’s nobody on your staff that represents that community, I think that in fact you do hear about that,” he said. ” There have been issues of stations letting people go, and communities within that city being upset about it, because they felt that person understood their community and had connections to that community.”
So news executives find themselves trying to solve the puzzle of how to recruit a diverse staff.
Some people make it sound more difficult than it is, Sanders said.
Roth said his organization finds candidates through talent agents, trade magazines or specialized groups like the Asian American Journalists Association or the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. Several news managers cited the specialized organizations, saying they recruit at their conventions. -
Recruiting Minority Convention Speakers
That is how McCormick hooked up with the Union-Tribune.
McCormick said a Union-Tribune representative took notice of him at the National Association of Black Journalists convention. He had been giving a talk about his experiences as the only black editor on the copy desk, he said, and noticed someone eyeing him keenly. The encounter turned into a trip to San Diego, then a job, which he has held for nearly a year.
Now, McCormick said, the Union-Tribune and NBC 7-39 are at work on a recruiting video to show at the same convention set for August in Phoenix. The effort, he said, may get journalists considering a job in Los Angeles to head south.
The Poynter Institute, a St. Petersburg, Fla., journalism school that publishes extensively on the topic of diversity, offered other suggestions in a 1996 paper titled “Recruiting People of Color.” Among other things, author Valerie Hyman suggested news managers consider hiring people from outside journalism, and contact “unconventional sources like the NAACP, ministers groups and the Korean Grocers Association” when they have openings. Another suggestion: Create a “farm system” for promising recruits at smaller news organizations. -
Harvesting Staff From Small Markets
California Chicano News Media Association’s Castaneda also brought up a farm team concept, where local newsroom managers would keep in touch with smaller markets like Bakersfield, Calif., and Yuma or Tucson in Arizona. She also spoke of her organization’s intensive summer program to teach teens journalism skills.
She said if she was running the show, she would “put my money where my mouth is” and recruit people of color more aggressively. While the Union-Tribune deserves praise for its hiring efforts, she said, local radio and television stations “still haven’t gotten it.”
Castaneda also noted that every journalist with a Hispanic surname is not necessarily bicultural or bilingual.
News directors were reluctant to talk about the subject of competition for talented, minority candidates.
“There are a lot of stations that are looking to increase the diversity in their newsroom,” KSWB’s Roth acknowledged, “so the competition for a good person that has a more diverse background can get tough.” -
Large Markets Have Recruiting Edge
Asked for an example, Roth related a story about trying to recruit a skilled reporter, who happened to be Asian American, to his old station in Salt Lake City. She got a better offer in a bigger market, Roth said.
Looking back, he said it was not quite clear whether race played any role in the employers’ scramble to recruit her.
One advantage Roth said he has now is locale: He is recruiting people to San Diego.
“Amazingly enough , and I’m being facetious here , there’s a lot more people who want to work in San Diego than Jacksonville,” said Channel 10’s Stutz, referring to his last job in Florida. Stutz said he receives plenty of job applications from a diverse group of journalists.
