| Freedom Forum, newspaper editors announce diversity fellowships: Partnership aims to expand career pathways for journalists of color
Published: October 19, 2000
Last Updated: October 19, 2000
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SAN ANTONIO — An initiative to increase both the number and percentage
of journalists of color working at daily newspapers with circulations of
less than 75,000 was announced today by The Freedom Forum, the American
Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) and the Associated Press Managing Editors
(APME) at the APME annual convention here.
Through this partnership, The Freedom Forum will fund up to 50 two-year
fellowships of $20,000 each to supplement salaries for journalists of color
who bring their talents to newspapers in this circulation range and who
participate in fellowship activities beyond their newsroom roles. Newspapers
seeking to participate must demonstrate that hiring a Fellow will increase
staff racial diversity in both percentage and number of newsroom professionals.
Fellowships may not be used to maintain the status quo in staffing.
“Increasing diversity in the nation’s daily newspaper newsrooms is
a top priority for The Freedom Forum,” said Charles L. Overby, chairman
and chief executive officer of The Freedom Forum. “So we’re delighted
to join with APME and ASNE in this innovative effort toward that goal.
We realize that this program may be seen as radical, but what has been
tried so far has not worked. We are willing to step boldly into uncharted
territory to reach our goal.”
In April 2000, The Freedom Forum announced that it would commit $1million
to this three-way partnership to identify and support more effective ways
of recruiting journalists of color for the newspaper industry. The
program is designed to help place journalists of color at small to mid-size
newspapers because the lack of diversity among newsroom staff is typically
more acute there than at larger papers. Small and mid-size papers make
up more than 90 percent of U.S. newspapers and serve as a crucial training
ground for novice journalists to build the skills and experience that can
enhance their prospects for success.
The initiative was developed by a joint steering committee of the three
groups, which also will select the Fellows and participating newspapers.
Recruitment for the program will begin this fall and continue until all
50 Fellows have been selected and placed.
“This initiative should solve two big problems — increasing the number
of minority journalists and placing more minority journalists at smaller
newspapers,” said Jerry Ceppos, president of APME and vice president/news
at Knight Ridder. “Everyone should benefit — the journalists, the newspapers
and the communities involved.”
ASNE’s annual census, released in April, showed that about 12 percent
of journalists at U.S. daily newspapers are people of color, in contrast
to the 28 percent minority population at large. The Freedom Forum’s recent
“Newsroom Diversity” report pinpointed some specific obstacles to achieving
parity between newsroom staff and the larger society by 2025, a goal set
by ASNE, including:
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Poor retention rates among journalists of color. Since 1994,
journalists of color have left the newspaper business at almost twice the
rate of white journalists. Over that same period, U.S. daily papers have
hired an average of about 550 new journalists of color each year, but about
400 have left the newspaper business annually.
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An inadequate “pipeline” for journalists of color. To meet the goal
of achieving parity, about 625 additional journalists of color must join
the newspaper workforce every year until 2025 — above and beyond the current
annual average of 550. But college journalism programs are producing
only small percentages of graduates of color in print journalism, far from
what is needed to meet the demand.
To help overcome these obstacles, this initiative provides financial incentives
for journalists of color to choose newspaper work and to take jobs at smaller
papers. The program requires both Fellows and their newspapers to
give explicit attention to Fellows’ career advancement. For example, papers
must provide both a mentor and a partner colleague for the Fellow; provide
the opportunity for the Fellow and a key editor to attend one professional
meeting a year together; and ensure that quarterly career discussions take
place between the Fellow and a key editor. In addition, The Freedom
Forum will pay membership dues for two years for Fellows to join one of
the four associations for journalists of color. The foundation also
will make a career coach available to Fellows and their editors.
“This is a very concrete and immediate effort to address the so-called
‘pipeline issue’ inhibiting newsroom diversity,” said Rich Oppel, president
of ASNE and editor of the Austin (Texas) American-Statesman. “We intend
to get more people of color into the newsrooms of smaller newspapers as
soon as possible. This is good news for the communities that will
be affected, and good news for society.”
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