Diversity/inclusion is an internal and external responsibility at the Free Press

As the Free Press continues its efforts to bring on staff that reflects our complex and unique community, we have begun to look inward. We have brought on two outstanding consultants to help our efforts to make our workplace more inclusive, welcoming and supportive of all our staffers.

Their work is making a big difference.

One of the consultants, Mark Lee, shared a few weeks ago an article on how there was worry that the diversity and inclusion efforts that jetted forward in the wake of George Floyd's murder were losing momentum and may be consigned to dusty folders sitting on executives' bookshelves.

This felt to me like "deja vu all over again" (to quote the great philosopher Yogi Berra) as commitment to diversity and inclusion has ebbed and flowed dramatically over the now 47 years I have worked in journalism.

This is on my mind today as we release our third annual diversity report from our parent company Gannett, and from the Free Press.

Our numbers have basically stayed flat over the past year (one-third of our staff identifies as of color), even as we aggressively recruited more outstanding journalists to our staff. Turnover contributed, so did the welcome opportunity to make some remarkable hires such as bringing Neal Rubin and M.L. Elrick back to the Free Press. As is always the case, there is more we must do to welcome journalists of a variety of experiences in order to serve this region well.

The diversity audit is a snapshot in time and our staff can decline to identify their ethnicity. We have added to the staff two young, extremely talented photojournalists since the survey was taken a month ago, an African American woman and a Latino, Sarahbeth Maney and David Rodriguez Munoz. Like all of the remarkable staff I work with they are fantastic journalists and terrific people. If there was a measure of "good journalists, good people" I believe the Free Press staff would have the highest rating in the country. 

We are also fortunate to have great support from our parent company, which has allowed us to expand our staff this year. We've added news and sports reporters, columnists, editors and journalists with very specific skills we need for the digital age, such as newsletter editor Leah Olajide and a data expert. We lead our company of 200-plus news organization in digital subscribers (not counting USA TODAY) and continue to grow that audience.

Our staffing numbers remind me that the commitment to diversity and inclusion can never relent, in our hiring, in the environment we foster, and in our coverage. We continue to make strides in our reporting on the people and issues in the city, through our "Detroit Is ..." reporters (Scott Talley and Jasmin Barmore), in business (Chanel Stitt), and in arts and entertainment (Lyndsay C. Green and Duante Beddingfield). We have brought on more Arab American staffers in the past year — notably Khalil AlHajal who edits our arts and entertainment writers as well as other important beat writers — and will leverage their knowledge and experience as we work to better cover that community here. (Because we use census categories to compile our data, Arab Americans are not broken out separately.) I said in this report last year that we were seeking a reporter to cover "life after Floyd" and the interaction between the community and the cops in Detroit. Andrea Sahouri just came on board and her impact is already being felt.

Our consultants, Lee and Nikki Pardo, have helped us in many internal ways. They've surveyed the staff to better understand how leaders at the Free Press can improve our work environment. With that feedback, we are revamping our mentoring and onboarding programs, to help our new staffers navigate the newsroom. We've also done very specific training around microagressions and other issues that can make the workplace a less-hospitable place. 

Lee and Pardo are helping us chart a path forward that is lasting. We will measure it in a number of ways, but, for me, retention is the key. We want our staff to stay at the Free Press for a long time. We want them to live, love and understand this place in all its glory and difficulty. 

To accomplish that we need to keep working on diversity and inclusion issues internally, as we have with the consultants, and externally, as we seek to better connect with the communities that define Detroit and Michigan. As COVID-19 (hopefully) wanes we will seek to engage more with all of Detroit. In the end, it is always about the journalism. We hire staff that does that work and embraces the responsibility and opportunity it brings us. 

These issues will never gather dust at the Free Press or on my bookshelf. 

The American Community Survey by the U.S. Census Bureau asks two separate questions, one about Hispanic origin and one about race, allowing individuals to self-select from multiple options. However, to compare with internal Gannett employee information that asks individuals to mark only one option, we used the following categories: Hispanic or Latino (for ACS, regardless of any other race selected), White (not Hispanic or Latino), Black or African American (not Hispanic or Latino), Asian (not Hispanic or Latino), American Indian or Alaska Native (not Hispanic or Latino), Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander (not Hispanic or Latino), or two or more races (not Hispanic or Latino). All information on racial identity is provided voluntarily by employees. Gannett also allows an individual to not disclose their race or ethnicity.

Peter Bhatia is editor and vice president of the Free Press. He also serves as Michigan/Ohio editor of the USA TODAY Network. You can reach him at pbhatia@gannett.com