Gannett reports progress on diversity
USA Today came out with an article extolling its parent Gannet’s newsroom diversity, reports MediaPost.
Across more than 200 newsrooms nationwide, says MediaPost, Gannett, based in McLean, VA, has increased Black staffers from 7.7% to 8.2%, Asian from 3.5% to 3.9%s, Hispanic Latino from 7.3% to 7.9%, and is holding steady with Native Americans (9.5%) and native Hawaiian-Pacific Islanders (0.2%). In addition, women now comprise 44.1% of the workforce, up from 43.25%.
But the article acknowledges that, “in terms of leadership in the Gannett content division, gaps are wider. This underscores the continuing need to focus on retaining and recruiting the next generation of diverse newsroom leaders.”
Gannett does not yet claim to have totally diverse newsrooms. But it hopes to “have our newsroom teams match the racial and ethnic makeup of the communities we serve” by 2025, it states.
The company’s statistics do show that newsrooms are 62% white, but that’s down from 69.3% in 2020. In the U.S. area covered, whites make up 56.8% of the population.
More here.
