In America, newsrooms have failed to achieve diversity.

“Diversity is not a separate agenda” the editor of the St. Louis Post Dispatch and veteran journalist, Gilbert Bailon says. “Diversity is what built America,” CNN’s Soledad O’Brien, adds.

Diversity in newsrooms is not a new issue. Back in the 1968, the Kerner Commission put the issue on America’s radar. Then in the 1970s, the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) set is goal of achieving racial parity in newsrooms by the year 2000 or sooner because they believe that “diverse newsrooms better cover America’s communities.” However, little progress has been made in that direction and the ASNE had to extend their deadline to 2025.

Looking at the TV sector and newspaper which still employs a majority of journalists, there is still a very small proportion of the newsroom staff that is ethnically or racially diverse says Robert Mong, editor of the Dallas Morning News. The reason behind this situation: “part of it is discipline,” he adds.

A survey conducted by the ASNE in 2011 shows that only 5,300 of the 41,600 journalists working in newsrooms are minorities. After the economic recession struck the US, the news industry lost over 9,700 jobs, most of them African Americans. Not only have diverse journalists suffered the impact the failing economy, non-minority journalists who have an interest in covering diversity-related issues have also been replaced in America’s newsrooms by more tech-savvy reporters.

Both small and big media outlets have felt the impact of having a less diverse newsroom. Carlos Sanchez, editor of a small Texas-based publication, the Waco Tribune Herald says his paper has gone from hiring 4 minorities to only 1 in a few years. An unfortunate situation since the paper may now be unable to reflect the growing diversity in Waco, which has a population that is only 60.7 percent White.

Dallas, with an approximately 49 percent minority population, faces a similar problem. The Dallas Morning News, the city’s leading paper, is trying to overcome that hurdle by employing minorities who thanks to their sensitivity to racial and ethnic issues are capable of coming up with subjects relevant to the community, Mong says.

Once a pacesetter in newsroom diversity because it employed three minorities as assistant managing editors in the 1990s, the Morning News witnessed a peak period in diversity in 2004 when 20 percent of its employees were minorities. A year later, this number dropped by almost 6 percent.

Just like people of color are hardly present in media reports or newsrooms, so are women, especially minority females. They have gradually been accepted into the previously-male dominated journalism profession, but still remain hugely underrepresented. The University of Georgia estimates that females make up over 64 percent of journalism school graduates, however, this number does not necessarily translate into jobs. Statistics released by the ASNE in  2010 show that only 15,200 female journalists were employed in newsrooms 2010, 16.3 percent of whom are minorities, a drop from 2008’s 17.16 percent.

To solve the problem of lacking diversity in the media, Mong proposes the creation of ethnic publications, such as Al Dia, to provide more suitable content for its diverse community members. Ethnic media like this one traditionally cover the activities of ethnic groups which are ignored by the mainstream media. In their quest to promote their ethnicity, these media themselves may not be promoting diversity. Jonathan Rodgers, former CEO and President of TV One, a cable network targeting African-Americans says, “We are not seeking to be diverse; we want to be as Black as possible.”

Despite the advantages ethnic media bring to communities, running them is not easy . Shirley Sneve and Susan Braine, who work for Native American outlets, say running the ethnic media is challenging particularly as concerns recruiting skilled and qualified reporters of those origins. Also, there is problem of a growing population of second and third generation ethnically diverse people who are more likely to rely on mainstream media for the news.

Many journalist are fast to point to the economy as the main reason why newsroom diversity has suffered, but Bailon, who is past ASNE president, says this is only a component and not an excuse.

Jeanne Fox-Alston, vice president of the Newspaper Association of America, says “diversity is a strategy for growth” and so many of their members have been struggling financially, they have not been focusing on growth. A few organizations such as the News-Press Media Group in Florida have however remained champions and supporters of diversity and their publisher and president, Mei-Mei Chan says this commitment “hasn’t and won’t change.”

Since there are fewer resources and jobs in this economy, Bailon says “diversity has been a victim.” Mong says even in a better economy, media companies have not allocated enough money to increase their diversity. “There are things we could do better that we simply haven’t had the money to do or when we had the money we didn’t spend it. Not just papers but the industry in general” he says.

This separation of diversity from the daily operation of the media and business of doing news is what Bailon sees as the reason for the continued absence of diversity in America’s newsrooms. Since diversity is considered a separate agenda, the media tend to cover only highly dramatized events. He cites St. Louis where his paper is based as a community comprised of very educated and socially placed Asians who hardly make it to the pages of the paper except for specific occasions. St Louis is, however, predominantly African-American.

“The problem is ourselves,” Mong says. He says the Morning News’ quest for a quick hire sometimes overrides their desire to always have a minority among finalists vying for positions at the Dallas Morning News.

He proposes that the media should fix this problem by attracting local minority and non-minority students interested in covering diversity related issues at high school and college levels through internships into the journalism career.

ASNE, NAA and the Associated Press Managing Editors (APME) are a few of the larger professional bodies that have adopted a similar approach to improve on the numbers of minorities working for the media. They and other organizations like Unity: Journalists of Color organize annual seminars, round tables, youth-talent programs and leadership training events for diverse individuals.

The leadership training comes in handy because it is estimated that only 11 percent of supervisory positions are held by minorities. In television, the results of the 3^rd annual Television Newsroom Management Diversity Census of 2010 conducted by the National Association of Black Journalists showed that people of color comprise only 12.6 percent of newsroom managers.

Yet, Sanchez sees the presence of more diverse executives in leadership positions as the key to making any changes the media needs for survival. “The key to changing any culture is to make it to the top,” he says.

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