The failed goal of a diverse newsroom

In 1978, the American Society of News Editors (ASNE) proposed an initiative called Goal 2000. It was their hope that by the year 2000, newsrooms across the U.S. would become more diverse to reflect the racial and ethnic makeup of the country. 

However, in 2024, almost 25 years after Goal 2000 was set to be achieved, newsrooms are still struggling to reflect the ever-growing racial diversity of the country. As was the case historically, the racial makeup of newsrooms in the U.S. continues to be overwhelmingly white and male dominated.

In 2023, the Pew Research Center published a survey of 12,000 journalists that explained how journalists’ beats vary by race and gender. Among those surveyed, 76% were white journalists, 8% were Hispanic, 6% were Black and 3% were Asian. This trend has sustained for decades because of poor retention rates for journalists of color, racism and discrimination in the workplace, and societal norms that are deeply rooted whiteness. 

“One time I did a story and a viewer called, and he said, ‘I’m looking for the colored boy,’” journalist, Walter Smith Randolph said. “I had never been called colored in my life and I [said to the viewer], ‘you're speaking to Walter and I’m not a boy.’”  

This was one of the first encounters that Smith-Randolph, 37, had, when he emerged into the journalism field. In 2011, he was working at WENY-TV in Elmira, New York and although the statement came to him as a shock, that did not stop him from continuing to pursue his career. 

Today, Smith Randolph is an investigative executive producer at WCBS/CBS New York. As a Queens, New York native, covering the news in the Big Apple was always his “dream.” However, this does not go without saying that as a Black journalist specifically, Smith Randolph’s experience moving up the ladder looked different compared to his white colleagues. 

For one, being a Black journalist embodies an intersectionality that other white journalists do not need to think about. 

“It’s not about the department, it’s about the system as a whole,” Smith Randolph said, as he explained to his colleagues why people in 2020 were protesting to defund the police after the murder of George Floyd. “Not only do I have to be a journalist and do my job, I gotta be a Black journalist and do my other job of educating y’all.”

During the summer of 2020, police brutality, racial injustice and the call to diversify newsrooms took the forefront. Some news organizations took it upon themselves to write mission statements pledging to address diversity, equity and inclusion by implementing diversity training and hiring more journalists of color. However, while there seemed to be some momentum in 2020, many of those promises fell flat. 

“Black, Hispanic and Asian journalists are more likely than White journalists to say they engage in both training and informal discussions about issues of diversity and inclusion in their newsroom,” according to a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center in 2022. 

This survey provides a direct example as to why newsrooms are not successfully achieving their goal once again. Without all journalists being intentional about educating themselves on this topic, workplace racism and discrimination thrives. As a result, some journalists of color get fired or leave the field altogether.

“I remember I wanted to anchor with a Black woman, and my news director said, I don’t want the BET [Black Entertainment Television] newscast on my air,” Smith Randolph said. “So like, when the white people anchor, it’s not an issue, but when the Black people anchor, it’s an issue.”

In January 2024, the Los Angeles Times laid off 94 of the 400 members encompassing the NewsGuild. This union represents the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Associated Press and others. Of those 94 journalists, 63 of them were journalists of color according to Nieman Lab. 

Journalist and author Wanda Smalls Lloyd has witnessed this phenomenon since she began her journalism career in the 1970s. After serving on the board of the (ASNE) she argues that low retention rates for journalists of color are a direct result of massive layoffs and because the stories that journalists of color publish are sometimes not seen as valuable when it pertains to communities of color. 

“You bring in some of the best and the brightest. But how are you treating them when they're there,” Smalls Lloyd, 75, said. “Are you giving them some of the top assignments? How many people of color…are you putting in positions where they can win awards?”

In her book, “Coming Full Circle: From Jim Crow to Journalism,” Smalls Lloyd argues that the newsroom diversity conversation is the same as it was back in the 1960s and 1970s when segregation and the Civil Rights movement was happening. 

In a way, the summer of 2020 was yet another moment in time, when race and media were on the forefront and yet progress was not made.

Author Gwyneth Mellinger writes in the 2013 book, “Chasing Newsroom Diversity,” that “because whiteness has represented a norm in American culture, it tends to be invisible much of the time and particularly to those who enjoy its privileges.” 

This norm of American culture is widely apparent in the broadcast news where a journalists’ physical appearance and name can become highly politicized by viewers and hiring managers. 

Hena Doba is a Pakistani-American journalist for NewsNation. She joined the team in 2024 and currently serves as the anchor of the weekend edition of Morning in America.

“Early on in my career whenever I applied for jobs…many, many, many times I was told no simply because of the way I look,” Doba, 47, said. Her detractors were referring to her skin color.

In addition to this, Doba was not allowed to use her maiden name, Zulfiquar, when she first began working in broadcast because her news directors wanted her to be more “ambiguous.” 

“I wish I was a little braver at 21 [years old] but I was just happy to have a job,” Doba said. “I’m not proud of it but that’s definitely how it played out back then.”

Compared to when Doba was first starting out in the field, today there has been some improvement in the number of women of color leading newsrooms.

“The Radio Television Digital News Association/Newhouse School at Syracuse University Survey found that a record-high of 40.5% of local TV stations had news directors who were women and 17.5% had news directors who were people of color” according to the Women’s Media Center.

In October 2023, Doba was recognized as one of the top women in media at the Cynopsis Media awards. It is her hope that as a journalist of over 20 years, she continues to be the representation for other women of color to pursue a career in broadcast news. 

“In a way it was kind of like getting my flowers,” Doba said. “When moments like that happen, you’re like okay, someone is watching, someone is seeing the growth… someone is realizing that I am trying to make a difference in this business.” 

Similarly, Smalls Lloyd and Smith Randolph have made it their mission to make a difference within their community by being dedicated members of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ).

 

Part of NABJ’s mission seeks to expand job opportunities and provide mentorship to young Black aspiring journalist and media professionals.

Smalls Lloyd points to a famous quote by Shirley Chisholm, who became the first Black woman to be elected to the United States Congress.

“If they don't give you a seat at the table, bring in a folding chair,” Chisholm said.

She was able to live out this philosophy by becoming a beacon for newsroom diversity and serving as a co-founder and former chair of the National Association of Minority Media Executives.

Smalls Lloyd also directed an NABJ study called, “Muted Voices: Frustration and Fear in the Newsroom,” in the 1990s. The study addressed “deep racial and cultural divisions within the journalist media itself.”

The study included 800 NABJ members across newsrooms. It revealed that 69 percent of members felt there was a “very serious problem” with the lack of commitment to diversity by supervisors compared to 21 percent of managers.

In addition to this, Smalls Lloyd has dedicated time to mentor many aspiring journalists. In 2019, she was inducted into the NABJ Hall of Fame and during her speech, she affirmed the importance of representation for people of color in journalism.

“One of the things I say to people is…someone’s always watching you,” Smalls Lloyd said. “A lot of people give me credit for mentoring them [and] they were just watching me.”

As a member since 2009, Smith Randolph also strongly believes in the work that NABJ has done to call out instances of racism and discrimination in the news. Most recently, he worked with other NABJ members to issue a statement calling out KMOV, Gray’s Television affiliate in St. Louis, for a story where they referred to Black homeowners as “colored.”

He currently serves as NABJ’s Vice President of Broadcast and still remembers the excitement he felt as a graduate student when he attended his first NABJ conference in Tampa, Florida. Since then, he’s gone to numerous conferences and summits. 

“It’s a camaraderie that I cannot explain,” Smith Randolph said. “My favorite thing to do is to swag surf [a kind of dance] with four thousand Black journalists,” he said laughingly. 

For Smith Randolph, the conferences serve as a time to celebrate Black leadership and achievements towards diversifying newsrooms. 

More importantly, it provides him with the fuel in his “soul” to know that the work journalists of color do as a collective, is done “with poise and excellence and a little bit of swag.” 

In the 70s and 80s, the premise of Goal 2000 was to integrate newsrooms to match the growing diverse population in the U.S. In 2024, the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic has led to virtual and hybrid office models. The days of in-person and bustling newsrooms are quickly fading and the push to diversify local newsrooms has now been overshadowed by the fight to keep them alive. For journalists like Smith Randolph, Doba and Smalls Lloyd, they believe that their passion and desire to guide the future generation of journalists, will work to change the outcome of newsrooms for the better.