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Arkansas Press Association
Publisher Weekly
By Jim Pumarlo
Vol. 16 | No. 07 | Thursday, February 18, 2021 | Serving Press and State Since 1873
No simple solution to industry diversity question The newspaper industry since at least the 1970s has struggled with the issue of how to prioritize diversity and inclusion in newsrooms, yet after decades most newspapers still lag behind in having a workforce that reflects their communities.
Two Black journalists in Arkansas said this week there’s no simple solution for Arkansas newspapers that want to create a more diverse workplace environment, but that the process has to start with proactive efforts, like seeking out young journalists of color. Gisele Hudson, a Little Rock-based freelance journalist who has reported for the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Los Angeles Times, participated in a reporter’s bootcamp in the 1980s that trained young reporters for jobs in newspapers across the country. The intent of the bootcamp was to aid in the integration of newsrooms, and she was sent to Hollywood, Florida. At the time, she was the only Black reporter at that newspaper. She and Helaine Williams, Sunday Style editor at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, both encouraged newspapers to focus on similar internship opportunities and partnerships with universities to expand the recruiting pipeline for young Black journalists. “There is still a dire need to diversify newsrooms,” Hudson said. “Allowing students to come in would help, and reaching out to different journalism programs would help.” In 1979, the American Society of Newspaper Editors set a goal to by the year 2000 have the same racial percentages in newsrooms as there is in the general
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public. However, while about 40 percent of the American population is of a nonwhite racial or ethnic background, by 2018 only about 17 percent of newsroom posts were filled by people of color. At newspapers as a whole, about 88 percent of employees are white, and about 56 percent of all employees are white males, according to ASNE. Williams said she’s seen Black reporters come and go at her newspaper, though many are driven by the same motivations as their white counterparts to “get their clips and go” to larger newspapers in other parts of the country. Black reporters
who stay in Arkansas tend to find other jobs, like in public relations, or they try to focus on new ventures. “A lot of the people that I have seen that are of color and seem to be more invested in the community have been people that have tried to start their own publications,” Williams said. Several newspapers established for Black audiences haven’t succeeded in large part because of an inability to secure advertising dollars for those publications, she said. Perhaps individuals who have published newspapers in the past could Continued on Page 2