US: Inquirer, and newsrooms, need diversity

Posted by Jean Yves Chainon on January 18, 2007 at 2:20 PM

The Philadelphia Inquirer publisher, Brian Tierney, reinstated a diversity committee in the paper, in response to complaints that a disproportionate number of minority journalists had been laid off during the Inquirer’s recent staff cuts.

"It depends upon the economics," said Tierney. "We did them because of the business situation, not for any other reasons."

Tierney, and editor William K. Marimow, couldn’t give any guarantees as to rescinding the layoffs.

10 reporters, of the 25 who were cut, were African American, and about 30% of the 71 editorial staff cuts were from minorities. An especially high figure since the newsroom was already “a poor reflection of the community it covers,” prior to the cuts, said the group of 27 complaining staffers.

The staff is complaining that a less diverse newsroom will hinder the newspaper: reporters will have a harder time reaching out to minority communities, the importance of specific community issues could risk being either undermined or blown up, and the paper risks publishing more “cultural and ethnic slights,” said the group of staffers.

"It's important journalistically, it's important to our business, and it's important because it's just right," Marimow said during an interview on the importance of a newsroom’s cultural diversity.

Source: philly.com