Three Parity Project Partners Recognized by ASNE for Diversity

Three Parity Project partner newspapers are among the daily English-language publications given high rankings by the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) as it presents its first-ever Diversity Pacesetter Awards.

ASNE's Pacesetter Awards, given out this week during the organization's convention in Washington, D.C., are based on several criteria, including the percentage of journalists of color that newspapers report having employed in their annual ASNE census reports.

Other critiera include the percentage increase in staffing of journalists of color. These results are based on ASNE newsroom census data that was released in April of 2006, so they do not account for personnel moves that some newspapers have made since that time.

According to ASNE, the E.W. Scripps-owned Corpus Christi Caller-Times ranks third among daily newspapers with a circulation between 50,001 to 75,000 when it comes to the percentage of journalists of color on its staff.

ASNE figures show that journalists of color make up about 33% of the paper's newsroom workforce, with 30% of the Caller-Times' editorial staffers being Latino.

NAHJ's Parity Project was initially launched at the Corpus Christi Caller-Times in September 2004.

The top newspaper in this category is the El Paso Times , where former NAHJ President Don Flores is the executive vice president and editor. According to ASNE, 67% of the El Paso Times' newsroom employment is made up of people of color.

When judging percentage of journalists of color on staff for daily newspapers with circulations of 250,000 and above, the MediaNews Group, Inc.-owned San Jose Mercury News ranks second, with 32.7% of its staff being journalists of color as of the release of ASNE's census figures in April 2006. Since then, the Mercury News has made personnel moves which have resulted in either layoffs or departures of Latino journalists.

Similar moves have been instituted by other larger metropolitan daily circulation newspapers throughout the journalism industry.

Latinos currently make up about 10% of the Mercury News' editorial staff. Ownership of the Mercury News changed hands during 2006 as the paper started the year as a Knight Ridder property and ended it as part of MediaNews Group, Inc.

NAHJ's Parity Project was launched at the Mercury News in January 2007.

The top newspaper in this category is The Miami Herald , which also changed ownership from Knight Ridder to the The McClatchy Company during 2006. ASNE reports that people of color account for 35.5% of the Herald's newsroom employment staff.

ASNE also took note of newspapers that had an increase in minority staffing, ranking the Scripps-owned Rocky Mountain News in Denver third among daily newspapers with a circulation of 250,000 or more.

Newsroom census data collected by ASNE show that the percentage of minority staffing at the Rocky Mountain News increased from 14.1% in 2005 to 16.4% in 2006.

The Rocky Mountain News was the first partner in NAHJ's Parity Project, initially joining in April 2003. Less than two years later, the number of Latino journalists at that paper nearly doubled. The Scripps Academy for Hispanic Journalism is based at the Rocky Mountain News.

According to ASNE, the top newspaper in this category is The Dallas Morning News , which reports an increase in its minority staffing from 14.8% in 2005 to 18.6% in 2006.

Also noteworthy is ASNE's ranking of the Laredo Morning Times in Texas as having the top percentage of minorities for dailies with a circulation of 10,001 to 25,000, with 73.9% of its newsroom staff being people of color. The editor of that paper is former NAHJ board member Diana Fuentes.

ASNE President David A. Zeeck, who is executive editor of The News Tribune in Tacoma, Wash., is quoted in the March 27, 2007 edition of The ASNE Reporter convention newspaper as saying, “We thought that outstanding papers should be recognized, in the belief that others would want to achieve the same recognition, and we thought others could learn from the best.”

Zeeck also served during 2006 as a member of ASNE's Diversity Committee.

Overall ASNE diversity survey numbers remain disappointing when it comes to the hiring and retention of journalists of color in English-language daily U.S. newspaper newsrooms.

To learn more about ASNE's Pacesetter Awards, visit its Web site at: http://www.asne.org