Newspapers tried to reflect the communities they served
By Ken Tingley
As sports editor and later as editor of my newspaper, I belonged to journalism organizations with diversity initiatives.
By the 1990s, newspapers had finally turned a critical eye at their own hiring practices. The goal was for newspaper staffing to reflect the communities it covered. It was simple. If 10 percent of your community was made up of African-Americans, then 10 percent of your newsroom should be African-American as well.
That made sense, but it was a rarity.
Journalism organizations did diversity surveys and tracked the number of minorities in the newspaper business. The numbers gradually improved, but rarely reflected the makeup of their own communities.
Many big-city newspaper editors complained it was difficult finding qualified minority candidates.
The Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE) later came up with a plan to give minority journalism students a chance. Ten to 15 students were invited to attend the annual convention each year and put out a newsletter. It was a chance to earn some training, get a free trip to a national convention and get connected with sports editors from newspapers all around the country.
Diversity was never a priority for me.
The communities we covered were predominantly white. It was easy to make the argument my staff already reflected the community I served.
At the time, I was more concerned finding qualified female sportswriters. The Post-Star covered boys and girls high school sports equally, but when I took over as sports editor we did not have a female sportswriter. It wasn’t long before we changed that with the hiring of Melissa Hebert.
Unfortunately, female candidates were a rarity. When we did hire a woman, she was often poached by larger newspapers also trying to diversify their staffs. It was frustrating. After I left sports, Greg Brownell continued the search for female candidates, but also took up the cause for minority hires as well.
Greg was more successful in recruiting minority candidates than I was. Over the years, Greg hired several African-American reporters. The number of women in the sports department also increased. That was largely because of Greg’s commitment.
I worried if the young professionals would face racism in some of the rural communities around the region. At least one candidate turned down a job because she worried about the lack of diversity in the region.
With the Supreme Court’s elimination of affirmative action this past week, I looked back on the diversity programs newspapers implemented over the past three decades. It reminded me of how unique newspapers as an industry were at the time. I suspect few other businesses placed such a emphasis on reflecting the community it served.
The opportunities we provided to young minority candidates were important, but I hope it also sent a message to our own communities to be open minded.
I suspect we were trying to walk the walk.
I’d like to think it gave our communities a chance to glimpse into the grander world beyond the North Country.
I’d like to think it had an impact and made our community better, more accepting and
open to change.
When I took over as editor of The Post-Star in 1999, we had just one female news reporter and no female editors. We needed to change that and we did. We worked hard to find good candidates while nurturing their careers.
Even with that type of commitment, we never realized a 50-50 ratio in our newsroom. Female journalists were also in demand at larger newspapers - or maybe they were just better - and many of them took advantage of those opportunities.
Our newspaper never had a written politics to hire minorities or women, but it was logical that if we wanted to cover our communities fairly and accurately, we needed their voices.
Eliminating affirmative action in colleges won’t end the desire for diversity at academic institutions, at least not at the good ones.
It will still be a priority.
We shouldn’t need rules to make it happen, but unfortunately it is still needed in many places.
Diversity should continue to be a priority despite what the Supreme Court says.
Preorder Vol. 2
Something or Other Publishing is now taking preorders for my second volume of columns.
Preorders ($19.95) are important to authors like me. They provide the publisher with an idea of how many books to print and help with the future marketing of the book. You also get some extras if you order now:
- Buy one copy of the book now and get the ebook version of Vol. 1 and Vol. 2.
- Buy three copies (great presents) and get a print copy of Vol. 1, an ebook version of Vol. 2 and another three ebooks from the Something or Other Publishing catalog.
So many of you have been so kind about the first volume of columns and I believe you will find the second book just as good.
Over the years reading the PS it was fun to see new bylines, young people reporting, often with fresh eyes on local news. There is and has been a “way things are done in Warren County” and those younger and more diverse reporters picked up on some of that. It was frustrating when those reporters left for other opportunity but it was also fun to see their names pop up now and again at larger papers. There is a bit of hometown pride in that. Yes, we are a 95+% white area, so bringing young women into the newsroom was a big step toward diversity, equality.
People, especially kids, need to see diversity in their lives and in prominent positions in order to develop a fuller view of the larger world they live in. Here in Warren County we suffer a lack of women in elected leadership. Glens Falls has been making strides in recent years, and (maybe surprisingly to many) so has Thurman, but for the most part an elected woman in are a rarity. There are only 4 women of 20 county supervisors. In the last year 3 women have resigned and another has chosen not to seek re-election. Queensbury made some strides toward greater equality for a short time but that has stalled. As a Queensbury former chair of the Qby Dem committee I heard from many women who were frustrated by the hostility faced by women who ran for office, even to those who were elected.
People get their backs up when someone uses the M word (misogyny) and they’ll tell you stuff like “I support women” - the old “some of my best friends are women” bit. But results do not lie. In the history of Queensbury only a handful of women have been elected to town or county leadership - even counting clerk positions that we think of as “women’s jobs.”
If we want women to serve we must change the playing field. We don’t call it the “old boy” network for nothing.
Volume 2 pre-ordered this morning - looking forward to it!