The American Society of Newspaper Editors delivered its annual diversity report last week. One could find optimism in its headline, “ASNE Census Shows Newsroom Diversity Grows Slightly,” if the facts weren’t so pathetic.
In 1978, ASNE challenged newspapers to reflect their communities by achieving newsroom diversity equivalent to the U.S. minority population by 2000. That deadline was missed. The next is 2025.
In 2006, with editors pressed by other issues – not the least of which is budgets – the negligible growth in minority representation in the nation’s 1,400 newsrooms (13.87 percent, up from 13.42 percent the past year) is met with a shrug.
“Though newspapers are increasing their hiring and retention of minority journalists, newsroom diversity is falling behind the nation’s rapidly changing demographics. A third of the U.S. population is now minority,” the report said.
At The Courant, the percentage of minority journalists this year and last was 11 percent, down from a high of 16.3 percent in 1999. Minorities were 27.5 percent of Greater Hartford’s population in 2003, according to Capitol Region Council of Governments.
Reading ASNE’s report, I couldn’t help but reflect on the fact that a training program that has contributed mightily to The Courant’s diversity is changing. Tribune Co.’s Minority Editorial Training Program, more commonly known as Metpro, was started by Times Mirror Co. at the Los Angeles Times in 1984 to provide opportunities to African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans and American Indians with limited journalism experience. At the same time, the goal was to supply the industry with qualified minority journalists.
Over the past 22 years, the program has helped 300 people break into journalism. After a year of intense training in Los Angeles, reporters and copy editors are sent to daily newspapers across the country for permanent jobs. In its most robust days, the program trained as many as 20 aspiring journalists in a year.
“It has been by any measure – not just in regard to minorities – an incredible program,” said Richard Kipling, metro editor at the Los Angeles Times and a director of the program in the 1990s. “You can see it in the names of graduates on the front pages of major newspapers – The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal. … Graduates are foreign correspondents and high-level news managers.”
The program, however, is downsizing. The training time will now be six months instead of a year and the number of trainees will be reduced to seven reporters and two copy editors. Two newspapers in the chain, the Chicago Tribune and the Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., will train their own candidates rather than send them to Los Angeles for a year.
Gerry Kern, vice president/editorial for Tribune, said that “because all newspapers aren’t the same and their needs aren’t the same, we are going to customize the experience.”
Efrain Hernandez Jr., who directs the reporting arm of the program, assures that Metpro will continue to produce strong journalists. “These are tough times,” Hernandez said, “but our goal moving forward is to maintain the highest standards in the news business while helping beginning journalists launch great careers.”
Still, some wonder about the program’s future.
The Courant’s state editor, Lynne DeLucia, who oversees and recruits the largest share of Courant reporters, said, “With the size of our staff and all that we do, I am concerned that [six months of] training would not equal what’s been done in Los Angeles” over a year.
I fear erosion of commitment to the program and to diversity. The Courant continues to participate in the reporting branch of the program but hasn’t brought in a copy-editing trainee in four years.
Some might argue that the need isn’t as dire as 30 years ago. In 1978, minority journalists were a mere 3.95 percent of the work force.
There is a lot to be said for a news organization that backs its commitment to diversity with jobs. And that’s what Metpro delivers. In return, the industry is enriched with newsrooms more reflective of the audience it needs to reach.
With 30 percent of the U.S. population part of a minority group, now is not the time to shrug off such an important mission.
