St. Cloud Times newsroom staff diversity better reflects our community

Community journalism is the hallmark of the St. Cloud Times' mission. To perform that mission, it's important that our news team reflects the breadth of backgrounds and experiences of Central Minnesotans.

A year ago, the St. Cloud Times newsroom was less diverse than the region's population. Today, it is slightly more ethnically diverse than Central Minnesota as a whole.

Is that diversity the defining factor in our ability to do deep reporting on issues that matter to all Central Minnesotans? No. But it is a prerequisite to the work.

Our community is diverse, and it has been for a long time. As far back as 2006, students enrolled in St. Cloud public schools were known to speak at least 38 different languages at home. Meanwhile, American newsroom staffs, including this one until recently, have traditionally been whiter, straighter and more male than the rest of America. The disparity has been especially pronounced among newsroom leadership ranks, who set the tone and priorities for coverage.

The Times has worked for more than two decades to build a news team that looks like our community. For the third year in a row, we're publicly reporting our newsroom staff makeup, and we have good news to share.

Who we are

The Times’ parent company, Gannett, has set a goal for our newsrooms' staffing to reach parity with the diversity in the communities we cover by 2025. This year, the Times reached that goal in terms of ethnic diversity.

The news staff, which numbers nine, is currently 80% white. Our market area population, with more than 460,000 people living in and around Stearns, Benton and Sherburne counties, is 88.6% white. 

Since the end of 2016, the Times has evolved from a majority-male newsroom to one that is 60% female, with 68% of newsroom leadership positions held by women.

Diversity takes many forms beyond ethnicity and gender, and we have that as well: married staffers, LGBTQIA staffers, Generation X, millennials and Gen Z journalists. We have homeowners and renters, longtime Central Minnesotans and newcomers. We have staff members who are Christian, some who aren't, some who are hunters and some who are vegetarians. We all live here, in St. Cloud, Sauk Rapids and Sartell.

We're proud of the varied experiences within the team, and that range of experiences helps to ensure our perspectives and our work aren't narrowed by experiential blinders.

The work we do, and what's next

Times journalists have worked hard in the past year to report on the impacts of immigration, class divides, gender and political division. We sought out and shared public policymakers' stance on race and related issues, and we've asked candidates for public office about their stances on issues of diversity and gender equity.

We have acheived parity, but the mission continues. We're committed to representing the entire St. Cloud community.

— The is the opinion of St. Cloud Times News Director Lisa Schwarz. Contact her at lschwarz@stcloudtimes.com. Your subscription to local journalism is an investment in our strong community. Thank you!