Is the Projo the Whitest Metro Newspaper in America?
Tuesday, April 25, 2017
The Providence Journal currently does not employ a minority reporter or editor. For the daily newspaper in an urban community that is majority-minority, the lack of any representation in the newsroom is stark contrast to the community it covers.
In 2015, the Providence Journal wrote a multi-piece series titled "Race in Rhode Island," but now less than two years later, the last minority reporter, Alisha Pina, has resigned and taken a job in public relations for the State of Rhode Island.
“I was saddened to see Alisha Pina move on. While our communities have become more diverse in cultures, races and languages spoken, the newsrooms made up of people of color have reduced drastically,” said Ann Clanton of the National Association of Black Journalists, New England Chapter.
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The percentage of minorities working as reporters in newsrooms across the county is flat or slightly increased, according to recent studies.
“The annual survey also found that 28 percent of the news organizations reported having at least one minority journalist among their top three editors and 77 percent reported having at least one woman in a top-three position,” reported ASNE - the survey is funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
Minority journalists comprised 17 percent of the workforce in newsrooms that responded to this year's ASNE Diversity Survey.
A 2014 study conducted by the American Press Institute and the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, found that only 25 percent of African-Americans and 33 percent of Hispanics said they felt the media accurately reflected their community — according to a story in Salon.
"There’s no [minorities] that I know of (at the Providence Journal),” said Jim Vincent, President of the NAACP Providence Branch. "I would think it’s something on their radar screen, and they’re actively recruiting people of color at all levels — I’m trusting that they’re actively engaged."
The Providence Journal recently offered a buyout package to its newsroom. On Thursday, John Hill, head of the Providence Newspaper Guild told GoLocal that Deputy Executive Editor Peter Phipps, reporter Karen Lee Ziner, and one unidentified reporter had accepted the buyout package. It is expected that Providence Journal will have additional layoffs.
“With the exit of our friend Pina from the Providence Journal, I am concerned about the media-wide apathy, lack of resources - hiring of people of color. I urge the managing editors, newsrooms to reach out to the Journalism Departments and schools at our Historical Black Colleges and Universities and the National Association of Black Journalists and National Association of Hispanic Journalists,” said Clanton.
Related Slideshow: Where the Former Projo Stars Are Today
Take a look at where the top Providence Journal writers and reporters from the 1990s and 2000s are now reporting. UPDATED April, 2017
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