Alt-D Quick Answer O’ the Day: Diversify your content. If your staffing is too white, don’t sweat it. Just make sure that your editorial team is reaching out and covering diverse communities—and not just the bad stuff or stories about their communities. The easiest way to diversify fast is in your “soft” coverage. Once people of color start noticing your deliberate efforts to diversify your coverage (which really means: “cover your entire community”), you will get more applicants of color. How to retain them? That’s a different riddle. Keep reading!
Content, Do It Now, Ladd's Advice, Recruitment
content, Hiring
Donna Ladd, June 6, 2008
The following diversity concerns and suggestions came from conversations with AAN and mainstream editors and media-diversity experts, as well as from my own experiences. Please be in touch with further concerns and suggestions we should add to the list.
1. “I have troubling finding qualified candidates of color.”
Diversity media experts say the answer is “pipeline.” That is, you have to actively seek out a diverse pipeline of potential employees. You do this by reaching out to local colleges, communities of color, even business and civic leaders in the community who might send their kids to you to intern, or suggest others. Join advisory boards at local ethnic colleges; volunteer to speak to classes to motivate young people one-on-one to seek out a career in the alternative press. Watch the alternative press for staffers with potential. Also, don’t forget the AAN diversity grants to help you fund interns during their training period. Watch local ethnic press for potential employees or partnerships.
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Ladd's Advice, Recruitment
Bean-counting, content, Newsroom Culture, Pipeline, Recruitment, Training
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