Top Management Leadership Voices
Dwight Cunningham, Executive Managing Editor, Scholastic Inc. I don’t believe the industry cares a whit about retention if the employee has any sense of Afro-centricity. And, no, that doesn’t mean that we as black journalists have agendas to proffer; it’s just that our newsroom leaders unabashedly believe "we do" because of our FIT in their respective newsrooms. Let me also say that many black journalists with less than 6-7 years experience will probably be a major part of an industry exodus. Some of them I know. Some have already left the business, fed up with the duplicity that they have experienced from top editors. I don’t want to sound too high-minded here, but I have seen some young black journalists with serious reporting/writing problems that should have been "corrected" within 2-3 years of their reporting career; but somebody at some paper didn’t spend the time to help them. ... They can’t do "the big story" because nobody showed them the ins and outs. At the New York Daily News, for example, I sat for four months as the ranking African-American editor on the metro desk ... yet I had no reporters as direct reports, no daily responsibilities. When it came time for me to offer my resignation, I was told by my supervisor, "Well, I guess there’s no need in talking about retaining you here." I could only smile. I have slalomed between magazines and newspapers. I love newspapers even more than magazines. But I realized that newspapers didn’t love me back. After years of touching every base -- from news clerk, to beginning reporter, to journeyman reporter, copy editor, assigning editor, city editor, assistant news editor, news editor -- I learned the craft and had some great teachers and mentors along the way. But I once found out that I was paid less than a subordinate, and after asking my superiors about that, they literally laughed at me. That was The Miami Herald, circa 1984. For me the struggle is no more. The industry does not deserve us. That is the message I want to communicate to whomever. We entered the business, perhaps a mite altruistic but certainly talented. We got dissed. We have a "lost generation" of senior black journalists who are fizzling out. Phillip Dixon, Deputy Managing Editor, The Philadelphia Inquirer There is a difference. You can find some insight in a recent Wall Street Journal article about Georgia Power Company. The article said high-ranking executives, presumably white, were stunned to learn that African American employees would be offended by ropes tied in nooses left hanging in the workplace. Ah, you say, but that’s a power company in the South - America’s newsrooms are much more enlightened. I don’t think so, and I think we see the proof when journalists of color, especially senior reporters and editors, walk out of our newsrooms and away from our profession. They leave frustrated and worn down by trying and failing to connect with managers and peers, who, for all the talk of embracing diversity, still haven’t taken seriously the idea that they and their newspapers would be better off if they took some time to learn the ways of black folks and Latino folks... and any folks who are other than white folks. They leave frustrated and worn down by still having to "pitch" stories the newspaper should be pouncing on. They leave frustrated and worn down by having to explain to the world outside the newsroom why people of color still show up more frequently in images and in words as "problems to be solved" than as people of many dimensions. ... And too often when they leave, these journalists of color leave behind managers stunned that someone who - in their view was doing so well - would walk away from this profession. John Dotson, Publisher, Akron Beacon Journal With all the budget cutting underway in the newspaper business today, retaining African Americans is tougher than ever. It is an old saw, but true, that because so many blacks are among the last hired, they become the first fired. In a Guild newspaper, seniority rules, and I expect that other non-union newspapers apply the same standard. Also, because African Americans have less longevity in general at their newspaper, they have less reason to stay when things get tough. That circular phenomenon makes blacks more vulnerable when times turn bad. Clearly, many newsrooms still are alien places for blacks. They aren’t as welcomed as their white colleagues; they aren’t seen automatically as much a part of the team. It takes a special person to get through the initiation. Anthony W. McCarthy, Associate Publisher, The Baltimore Times Newspapers (Publishers of The Baltimore Times, The Annapolis Times, The Prince George’s County Times and The Shore Times) The problem, as I see it, is too many of these journalists do the right thing, go to top notch schools, intern and get experience at the best publications, and take the grunt beats to get offered positions in urban newsrooms pigeon-holed into covering "black issues." ... Too few skilled black journalists are breaking through to covering finance, business, higher education and public policy. Recently, I spoke with a talented African American female journalist who works for a major daily in Maryland (hint, hint). She was infuriated that despite her awards, despite her talents and despite her obvious ability to get the job done, her editors still came to her for stories specifically about black people. They would actually ask her to intrude into the beat of one of her colleagues to give the story the proper "black" perspective. Bryan Monroe, Deputy Managing Editor, San Jose Mercury News and Co-President, Bay Area Association of Black Journalists While the Mercury News has had one of the most diverse staffs of any major paper in the country – one out every three journalists here is non-white, and two AMEs and one DME is African American – we, too saw a slight dip in the diversity of our staff in 2000 (from 32 percent to 31 percent). Much of that was due to talented people of color leaving us at a rate higher than we could replace them, leaving us for dot-coms, for magazines and for other industries. One simple fact is that the young, talented people we want to hire simply have had more options. They are usually more technically savvy than a previous crop, more plugged-in to other opportunities, and are definitely less willing to put up with the BS in most newsrooms. Even as the dot-coms begin to implode, it is clear that there are still many other professional opportunities out there more attractive than making $31,000 a year as a page designer in Lexington. And, as we have seen talented young visual journalists flee newspapers to the online world, we’ve heard comments like "Look, I can get more money, have less grief, and be part of the future, not the past.’’ This is scary. Where we may have placed a premium on the nobility of our profession – our calling – they may see it as no big deal. It was worth it for us to take less money, work in small towns, and deal with people who weren’t like us, didn’t know us, and frankly, could care less about us. All it took was one front page story about the community on the other side of tracks, one lead photo showing hope, or grace, or pain in the eyes of a black child or old woman, and all the rest of the daily drama would just melt away. What we did mattered. And, truth be told, that was worth 100 double lattes and 1,000 stock options any day. Mizell Stewart III, Managing Editor, Tallahassee (Fla.) Democrat Salaries for entry-level journalists are still fairly low compared to starting salaries for graduates in other disciplines. Many graduates emerge from college with substantial financial obligations (student loans, credit cards, etc.) A financial hit, like a major car repair, has a disproportionate effect on young journalists and can divert attention from the job at hand. Subsidy programs like the Freedom Forum grants -- as useful as they are -- and other financial incentives targeted at minority journalists do not deal with the real issues. Benefits and burdens need to be shared equally, whether it is a choice of assignments or working hours. And those who can’t or won’t do the job need to be dealt with so that talented, committed staffers have room to grow. The major difference in journalists of color, regardless of job classification, is that diversity in key decision-making roles -- assigning editor, department head, managing editor, editor, publisher -- provides journalists of color with (hopefully!) strong role models and the idea that "If (insert name here) can make it, so can I." George Benge, Executive Editor, Asheville (N.C.) Citizen Times The newspaper industry’s historic problems in recruiting, promoting and retaining people of color have improved, if at all, in agonizingly small increments. A primary reason has been, putting it gently, inconsistency in promoting and retaining qualified people of color in companies’ key senior-level, strategic-decision-making positions. Obviously, some companies have outperformed others, but our industry’s cumulative performance has fallen far short of its objectives. Also, when industrywide profits are at high tide and all corporate boats are rising together, sincere homage is always paid to the need to recruit, promote and retain people of color. But, in my opinion, during times when expenses are up, revenues are down and profit margins are shifting, Wall Street and shareholders tend to make demands based on ROI, not diversity. The result can too often be a functional pulling back from unbridled commitment to recruitment, promotion and retention of people of color. Long-term damage can be done to even the most well-intended recruitment and retention programs by retrenchments enacted to meet short-term profit objectives. In my experience, retention of journalists of color in jobs at all levels has been much more problematic than retention of their white counterparts. A reason could be that, regardless of which position they occupy, journalists of color face unique challenges based on race and culture that most of their white colleagues never even aware of. I believe that retention issues expand exponentially as job level, responsibility and compensation go up. Some journalists of color believe that the operative up-the-ladder policy in some companies is survival of the whitest, not survival of the fittest. Some others who perform well in key positions say they experience "Who needs this s---?" syndrome." Confident of their proven skills and performance record but dissatisfied with their either role, their company, their boss or simply newspapers in general, an increasing number of journalists and executives of color are opting out of their jobs for new opportunities or temporary respites from the grind. For the first 30 years of my own career, the desire to stay in the newspaper business has been strong and all-encompassing, despite more than a few instances of racial insensitivity and even overt discrimination. Along the way there have been opportunities to leave, but to this point I have always chosen to stay. However, the recent departures of a number of dynamic and widely admired journalists and executives of color offer food for thought for everyone.
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