AP - Phila. newspaper pledges to reinstate diversity committee in response to complaints

The Philadelphia Tribune

Layoffs take media in wrong direction

Layoffs at The Philadelphia Inquirer and the sale of talk radio station WHAT-AM have reduced diversity of news and analysis in Philadelphia.

First, The Philadelphia Inquirer began two weeks ago informing 71 newsroom employees – about 17 percent of the newsroom staff – they would be let go as of tomorrow due to declining advertising revenue and loss of circulation.

Of the newsroom employees that are being laid off, 16 employees – or 22 percent – are African-American. According to the 2006 ASNE census, approximately 11.3 percent of the Inquirer’s staff is African-American.

The layoffs have sparked outrage from African-American journalists at the Inquirer, the National Association of Black Journalists, and the local NAACP.

“This takes the Inquirer in the wrong direction,” said NABJ President Bryan Monroe. “While we recognize that economic realities are forcing industry executives to make tough decisions, it’s troubling to see so many minority journalists being laid off at a disproportionate level.”

While local African-American journalists in the city were still reeling from the disproportionate level of layoffs at the Inquirer, diversity in communications in the city took another blow when news spread late last week that WHAT-AM was being shut down after more than 80 years on the air.

WHAT, which is perhaps best known for longtime personality Mary Mason, has been an influential forum for African-American talk radio since the 1960s.

WHAT is not the city’s only radio station with an African-American talk show format, and the Inquirer is certainly not the only place where African Americans report the news.

Still, the layoffs at the Inquirer and the termination of employees at WHAT-AM reduced the number of Black journalists and commentators in the city.

At the same time, there needs to be a diversity of views on the upcoming 2007 mayoral race in Philadelphia, the ongoing war in Iraq and other critical issues.

Now more than ever, working Black journalists and existing African-American-owned media need to be supported to provide an African-American perspective on the news in a city that is more 43 percent African-American.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

All editorials are the expressed opinion of The Philadelphia Tribune

http://www.phila-tribune.com/channel/inthenews/011607/layoffs.asp


==============================================================================

The Times Tribune . com

Phila. newspaper owner pledges response to diversity complaints
By DEBORAH YAO, AP Business Writer, The Associated Press
01/16/2007


...Earlier this month, Philadelphia Media Holdings said it would cut 71 Inquirer newsroom jobs, laying off 68 and reassigning three employees. Burney said 16 of those jobs were held by blacks and five by Asians. The paper also is laying off 34 advertising employees...

...The president of the National Association of Black Journalists, Bryan Monroe, called the layoffs "lopsided" in a Jan. 3 letter to Philadelphia Media Holdings CEO Brian Tierney.

"With this latest round of layoffs, your newsroom diversity representation will surely decline. While many other papers are improving nationwide, you will actually be getting worse," he wrote.


http://zwire.townnews.biz/site/news.cfm?notn=1&ncdr=1&newsid=17720167&BRD=2185&PAG=461&dept_id=415891&rfi=6

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20070116-1154-philadelphianewspapers.html

===========================================

Inquirer owner to reinstate diversity committee
By Jeff Gelles
Inquirer Staff Writer
In response to complaints by staffers at The Inquirer that the newsroom lost a disproportionate number of minority journalists in layoffs earlier this month, publisher Brian Tierney agreed yesterday to reinstate a diversity committee that he said previous management had allowed to lapse.

But Tierney and Inquirer editor William K. Marimow, who met yesterday with members of an ad hoc group of staff members protesting the cuts, said they could not promise to meet another of its goals: rescinding some of the layoffs.

"It depends upon the economics," Tierney said during an interview after the meeting. "We did them because of the business situation, not for any other reasons."

Of 25 reporters who lost their jobs, 10 are African American, according to their union, the Newspaper Guild. Overall, about 30 percent of the 71 editorial staff members who were cut were African American or Asian American, the staff group said in a statement after some of its members met with Tierney, Marimow and other managers.

"This is not an issue of civil rights. It's an issue of good journalism," said Acel Moore, who became the Inquirer's associate editor emeritus after a pathbreaking career as one of the paper's first and most prominent black journalists.

In its statement, the group of 27 staffers said newsroom diversity was crucial to the paper's ability to cover the region's diverse population, from the city's mayoral election to trends in music and the arts.

The group said also that having fewer minority editors would make it harder for the paper to judge the importance of stories to its readers and would raise the risks that the paper would unwittingly publish more "cultural and ethnic slights."

Even before the layoffs, the group said, The Inquirer's newsroom staff "was a poor reflection of the community it covers."

Newspaper officials declined to say whether any layoffs might be rescinded, which the Newspaper Guild said would be possible if management allowed senior staffers to accept "voluntary layoffs" in place of those who were cut.

But Tierney and Marimow both said maintaining a diverse staff was among their priorities.
"It's important journalistically, it's important to our business, and it's important because it's just right," Marimow said during an interview.

Tierney blamed the disproportionate loss of minority staffers on contract rules that, in general, required the company to cut its most recently hired staffers. He said a list of reporters' positions that the union and management agreed to exempt from the seniority list "didn't hurt diversity."

Minority staffers said the protections for certain jobs, such as for members of The Inquirer's City Hall and Harrisburg bureaus, had not helped.

"Our estimate is that the carve-outs protected 18 whites, 3 African Americans, and 1 Asian reporter," said Sarah Glover, an Inquirer photographer who spoke at a news conference after the meeting with management.
"We need to make diversity a priority in action, not just in words," Glover said.

Tierney said that, despite the effect on the newsroom, the recent layoffs of more than 100 journalists and advertising staffers had done little damage to overall staff diversity at Philadelphia Media Holdings L.L.C., the company he formed last year to buy The Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News. He said about 28 percent of the company's employees were minorities, which he said was similar to the overall market.

Tierney said he would welcome the chance to rehire minority and other staff members, if business conditions permit. He said he hoped recent gains in circulation would continue and would ease the financial strain facing the newspaper publisher.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact staff writer Jeff Gelles at 215-854-2776 or jgelles@phillynews.com.

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/business/16476285.htm?source=rss&channel=inquirer_business

also see: http://www.startribune.com/535/story/940025.html

"...Seven minority employees met with management on Tuesday and the papers' owner, Philadelphia Media Holdings, pledged to create the committee that will explore ways to hire more minority journalists, said Melanie Burney, an education reporter at the Inquirer and an executive board member of the National Association of Black Journalists..."