Comparing the racial diversity of the journalists
at America's daily newspapers
with the communities that they serve
Newsroom diversity report for
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Little Rock
Little Rock, Arkansas
Owner: Wehco Media (Ark.)
From a report for the Knight Foundation
by Bill Dedman and Stephen K. Doig, June 2005
Click here to read the national report or to select another newspaper
Year	Non-white % of newsroom staff
2005	Did not report
2004	Did not report
2003	Did not report
2002	Did not report
2001	Did not report
2000	Did not report
1999	Did not report
1998	Did not report
1997	Did not report
1996	Did not report
1995	Did not report
1994	Did not report
1993	Did not report
1992	8.5
1991	14.1
1990	Did not report
The latest year at peak is	1991
See the notes and definitions section below for the sources of these figures.
Newsroom Diversity Index
for Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Little Rock
Year	Non-white % of newsroom staff	Non-white % of circulation area	Newsroom Diversity Index (parity=100)
2005	N/A	21.7	N/A
2004	N/A	22.1	N/A
How the index is calculated
The Newsroom Diversity Index is the non-white percentage of the newsroom staff
divided by the non-white percentage of residents in the circulation area.
(Parity = 100.)
Company index
This newspaper's owner, Wehco Media (Ark.),
has a companywide, circulation-weighted Diversity Index of 42.
See the notes and definitions section below for the sources of these figures.
Peer group comparison
for Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Little Rock
	This paper
					Peer group
The median Diversity Index is 64 for all newspapers
reporting in this circulation category of 100,001 to 250,000 daily sales.
An example of a newspaper of similar circulation, in an area of similar level of non-white residents, but one that has a relatively high Diversity Index, is The Detroit News, Michigan, with a 26.2 percent non-white staff in a community that is 21.6 percent non-white. Its index is 121.
FYI, in circulation, this newspaper's average weekday circulation of
approximately 182,391 ranks 59 out of 1,410 daily newspapers in the US.
See the notes and definitions section below for the sources of these figures.
Details on race/ethnicity
in the circulation area
and the home county
of Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Little Rock
	Circulation area
Race/ethnicity	% of population	Number of residents
Hispanic	3.5	57,582
Black	16.0	264,680
Asian and Pacific Islander	0.8	13,978
Native-American	0.6	9,743
Other non-white	0.1	874
Multi-racial	1.1	18,745
Non-white	22.1	365,602
White	77.9	1,290,461
Total		1,656,063
	Home county:  Pulaski
Race/ethnicity	% of population	Number of residents
Hispanic	2.4	8,816
Black	31.7	114,732
Asian and Pacific Islander	1.3	4,555
Native-American	0.4	1,303
Other non-white	0.1	300
Multi-racial	1.2	4,378
Non-white	37.1	134,084
White	62.9	227,390
Total		361,474
The home county of this newspaper is Pulaski.
About this report
This third annual report for the Knight Foundation adds context to an annual survey by the American Society of Newspaper Editors. ASNE has set a goal that
every newspaper, to help it know its community and gather the news, should employ at least one non-white journalist, and that newspapers should strive to
employ non-whites in proportion to their share of the community. ASNE's report, at www.asne.org, shows each newspaper's non-white employment, but does
not disclose how closely that employment mirrors the newspaper's circulation area.
That gap is filled by the report you are reading now. This report was not done by ASNE, but was done for the Knight Foundation by Bill Dedman and
Stephen K. Doig. It shows how close each newspaper is to ASNE's goal, by comparing the newsroom staffing with the circulation area population.
The full report is at www.powerreporting.com/knight.
Notes and definitions
1. The Newsroom Diversity Index is the non-white percentage of the newsroom staff divided by the non-white percentage of the circulation area's residents. Parity = 100.
2. Source for staffing: Survey by American Society of Newspaper Editors, April 2005. Newspapers report non-white staff as of the end of the previous year.
3. Following ASNE's definition, newsroom staff includes only supervisors, reporters, editors, copy/layout editors and photographers.
4. Also following ASNE's definition, "whites," "blacks," etc., exclude Hispanics, who are counted in a separate category.
5. Source for boundaries of this newspaper's circulation area: County circulation data, Audit Bureau of Circulations, latest available.
6. A paper may define its circulation area differently for marketing efforts, or news coverage, or to set advertising rates.
7. If ZIP Codes or counties are used, this report applies a threshold: 10 percent household penetration is required to include an area in the circulation area.
8. Source for the demographics of residents of that circulation area: US Census 2000.
9. Source for total circulation: Editor & Publisher magazine, Monday-Friday average at year-end 2004.
10. Staff of non-English publications, such as the Miami Herald's El Nuevo Herald, are excluded from the ASNE staffing survey for the first time this year.
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