Achieving Diverse Workforces Should be Key Consideration in Industry Cutbacks

July 5, 2007

UNITY President's Message Karen Lincoln Michel

Everywhere in the news business these days runs a current of uncertainty.

The Fourth Estate, built in part on the public’s right to get answers to tough questions, grapples with its own perplexing predicament of how to reignite financial growth amid monumental change.

Difficult executive decisions have addressed that tough question by cutting jobs, pursuing mergers and offering buyouts. As a journalist of color who believes strength lies in diversity, I am concerned that the positions held by staff members of color in the news business are disproportionately affected in the jobs being eliminated. This is occurring as our society becomes increasingly diverse.

The online magazine Media Life reported in June that the number of newspaper jobs cut since April has reached 800. And more are on the way.

In the coming weeks, UNITY: Journalists of Color and its four alliance partners – the Asian American Journalists Association, the National Association of Black Journalists, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and the Native American Journalists Association – will be collaborating on ways that industry executives can keep diversity among its key considerations when decisions of cutbacks are made.

One measure I am advocating is for media companies to release statistics on the racial breakdown of employees whose jobs are cut through layoffs or buyouts. This isn’t meant as a blame game or excuse for pointing fingers; rather, it is to get an accurate count of the situation so that the entire industry can work together to rectify it.

The losses of these jobs are felt deeply, not just by the workers whose livelihood has been diminished or the family members who will be forced to make sacrifices. The losses are also felt in terms of the expertise the displaced journalists bring to the newsroom in understanding and reporting on communities of color.

Each time we hear of the diminishing ranks of journalists of color, it sends shock waves throughout the minority journalism world about the future of the news business and diversity’s place in it.

AAJA President Jeanne Mariani-Belding, editorial page and opinion editor of The Honolulu Advertiser – one of many newspapers poised for cuts – says the job losses are reflected in a declining membership in her association. Is that the future the industry wants to see?

We’re in this together.

I believe the answers to the tough questions facing our industry will be found in diversity – in expanding into diverse markets, reflecting those markets and communities in our coverage, and hiring and retaining a diverse workforce.

Our message is urgent. Achieving diversity in the news industry’s workforce must remain an unwavering goal, even in these unprecedented times of change.

Karen Lincoln Michel
President
UNITY: Journalists of Color, Inc.

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