CA diversity improves as newsroom continues focus on community and issue coverage

Memphis Commercial Appeal

For the last two years I've written about The Commercial Appeal's commitment to further diversify the newsroom to match the demographic makeup of our coverage area and improve our coverage of social justice issues.

While we are still far below the community's diversity, our newsroom staff diversity improved in the last year. Africans Americans make up 29% of the newsroom, compared with 22.2% at this time a year ago. The percentage of women in the newsroom rose to 45.2% compared with 37% a year ago.

While we are going in the right direction, we have more work to do to match the diversity in our coverage area (Scroll below to view the detailed graphics).

And we are going beyond merely saying we want to be more diverse. Our coverage of South Memphis and Whitehaven, which intensified nearly two years ago, continues to be a key part of our effort to better reflect the community. Here's a recent example from our South Memphis and Whitehaven reporter Astrid Kayembe on Whitehaven High's famed Drumline.

We are also shining a spotlight on broader community issues such as youth violence. This past spring, Columnist Tonyaa Weathersbee started an occasional series, "Killing Our Future: Inside Memphis' Youth Violence Epidemic." The columns detail why and how the violence has grown as well as ways to reverse the trend.

Our journalism is more authentically Memphis when we represent the whole of our community on our website, social platforms and in print. The Memphis area is a cultural melting pot and we want our coverage to reflect the rich and varied mix of people who contribute to the area's success.

For The CA to succeed, we must have an inclusive and diverse workplace where employees are valued and feel empowered.

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.

Meet the staff:Connect with Commercial Appeal journalists

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.

A diverse and inclusive workforce also helps us better connect and serve you, our readers and our community partners.

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.

Mark Russell is executive editor of The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached at mark.russell@commercialappeal.com or 901/288-4509. You can also follow him on Twitter: @MarkRussell44