Editorial boards that look nothing like their cities shouldn’t speak for them

Why do editorial boards look nothing like their communities? For decades, one organization has comprehensively tracked newsroom’s hiring, retention, and diversity efforts. The American Society of News Editors’ annual survey has always painted an occasionally hopeful but dim-in-aggregate picture of American newsrooms. Across the board, newsrooms often reflect the diversity of the country and their … Continued

Social media policies are not the real issue

Gabe Schneider, Kendra Pierre-Louis, Sisi Wei and Karen K. Ho in a discussion around how newsrooms can work to become anti-racist starting with their social media policies and how they enforce them. Reporters of color being punished and fired for tweets is a symptom of the larger problem that newsrooms need to tackle head on. … Continued

Navigating the pitch

New questions, but plenty of promise Introductions in the time of COVID-19 can be a bit of a sticky wicket.  Faces are masked … or seen through Zoom boxes. Handshakes, if they weren’t already, are relics of the past. Thus, delivering and catching the subtleties and nuances of communication can get sunk or lost on … Continued

We’re building a better system for tracking source diversity

Chalkbeat and the Reynolds Journalism Institute want your help to develop the future of source auditingEvery news organization should be able to answer the question: “Does your journalism accurately reflect the communities you serve?” Historically, we know that disproportionately white newsrooms and the journalism they produce have not been inclusive of Black, Latino, Hispanic, Indigenous … Continued