The Ledger continues commitment to diversity

For nearly 100 years, The Ledger has been the most comprehensive news source for Polk County.

These days, the county boasts about 700,000 people and a richly diverse population, and we are committed to building and sustaining a workforce that is reflective of that diversity.

As part of our commitment to an inclusive culture, we are annually publishing the makeup of our newsroom staff. That same commitment is being carried out across the USA TODAY Network, which is made up of more than 200 local publications and USA TODAY.

This information, a snapshot as of July 1, 2022, includes the gender and racial makeup of our news workforce and our coverage area, as well as for managers within our newsroom.

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.)

A diverse and inclusive workforce helps us better connect and serve you, our readers and our community partners. For example, we continue to look at the impact growth and development is having on our communities of color. And in the months since Gannett and The Ledger has taken a different approach to covering crime and public safety, readers have seem less “mugshot journalism.” The stories more often go beyond the practice of running crime photos but get to the heart of public safety and the impact it has on a community.

Recently:Change is coming: The Ledger to revamp opinion offerings, approach to content delivery

During my tenure as executive editor over the past year, I have taken advantage of opportunities to connect with community and civic groups to share our approach to providing diverse coverage to the areas we serve and the reasons as to why it is important to do so.

That said, as staff transitions continue to occur we will always try to keep the value of diversity in staffing and news coverage top of mind as we move forward.

We still have a long way to go. Much work needs to be done to achieve unquestionable success in these areas and we thank our readers for sticking with us as we continue our push in that direction.