Diversity Guidelines that Work

In working with dozens of journalists who’ve contributed to the Let’s Do It Better! Workshop over the years, I’ve observed that persistence is the common thread that made the difference in publishing their pieces. These journalists, including such luminaries as Tom Brokaw and Ted Koppel, persevered in telling stories that challenged the status quo, and they certainly persevered in fighting newsroom fears about producing work that touched on sensitivities involving discrimination, stereotypes and white flight.

Another key element essential to success involves leadership, not only by the reporters in the field, but by the news managers who supported the work. Managers like Sharon Rosenhause of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel; Dan Rosenheim, former news director who led a two-year series on “About Race” for KRON-TV in San Francisco; Rick Rodriquez, editor of The Sacramento Bee; Tom Bettag, former executive producer of ABC’s Nightline; Wanda Lloyd, editor of the Montgomery Advertiser; and Joe Grimm, hiring and recruiting editor of the Detroit Free Press, are role models that any industry would envy.

Yet, despite such successes in the industry, many news managers are still sitting on the sidelines regarding the struggle for equality in content production and in the newsroom.

We offer these guidelines listed to your left under “Related Links,” collected over the nine years of the Let’s Do It Better! program’s existence, as a path to solutions that are systemic, reaching across the barriers that divide our organizations and our communities.

These guidelines are taken from “Growing Your Own,” “Growing Your Culture,” and “Growing Your Content,” a best practices compilation which I’ve edited as a project for the Associated Press Managing Editors in 2002. They highlight ideas that editors have used to develop diversity standards in their news pages and newsroom hiring and development efforts.

Joe Grimm’s essay in the "Growing Your Own" section is the best advice on recruiting and retention in the business. Grimm’s website, http://www.freep.com/jobspage, offers practical, creative suggestions for both job seekers and employers.

The "Growing Your Content" section presents several checklists on editing and reporting through diverse lenses thanks to the contributions of Sherrie Mazingo, the Cowles professor of journalism at the University of Minnesota, and Alex MacLeod, former managing editor of the Seattle Times. The checklists are based on work undertaken at The Poynter Institute in cooperation with the Society of Professional Journalists.

In “Growing Your Culture,” Sharon Rosenhause speaks with authority on how to build a diversity committee as a requirement for changing newsroom culture. Randy Brandt, former editor of the Racine Journal in Wisconsin collaborated with me to produce a step-by-step guide on creating a strategic pluralism plan that covers everything from recruiting to marketing.

In addition, you may link to the website http://www.theauthenticvoice.org, the home of the text book/DVD/website project, The Authentic Voice: The Best Reporting on Race and Ethnicity (Columbia University Press, July 2006), a compilation of award-winning work from the Let's Do It Better! Workshop. The website presents some of our honored stories, discussion questions, and a chapter-by-chapter teaching guide for the book.

I hope these hands-on experiences help you attain your own diversity goals and I welcome you to share your own ideas to help spread the social responsibility of journalism to serve the whole of society. Just drop me an email and I will add your ideas to the list.

Arlene Morgan
Associate Dean, Prizes and Programs

Email: am494@columbia.edu