Comparing the racial diversity of the journalists
at America's daily newspapers
with the communities that they serve
Newsroom diversity report for
Daily News-Sun, Sun City
Sun City, Arizona
Owner: Freedom Communications (Ca.)
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 17.4
2004 18.2
2003 10.0
2002 4.3
2001 8.7
2000 13.6
1999 5.0
1998 0.0
1997 11.1
1996 0.0
1995 0.0
1994 0.0
1993 0.0
1992 4.3
1991 4.2
1990 12.0
The latest year at peak is 2004
See the notes and definitions section below for the sources of these figures.
Newsroom Diversity Index
for Daily News-Sun, Sun City
Year Non-white % of newsroom staff Non-white % of circulation area Newsroom Diversity Index (parity=100)
2005 17.4 2.3 750
2004 18.2 2.3 784
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, Freedom Communications (Ca.),
has a companywide, circulation-weighted Diversity Index of 59.
See the notes and definitions section below for the sources of these figures.
Peer group comparison
for Daily News-Sun, Sun City
This newspaper's Newsroom Diversity Index is 750. This paper
Peer group
Compare that with 33, which is the median Diversity Index for all newspapers
reporting in this circulation category of 10,001 to 25,000 daily sales.
In that group, this newspaper's Diversity Index ranks 3 out of 259
newspapers reporting in the category of 10,001 to 25,000 daily sales.
FYI, in circulation, this newspaper's average weekday circulation of
approximately 16,579 ranks 567 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 Daily News-Sun, Sun City
Circulation area
Race/ethnicity % of population Number of residents
Hispanic 1.0 383
Black 0.5 193
Asian and Pacific Islander 0.3 123
Native-American 0.1 45
Other non-white 0.0 4
Multi-racial 0.4 141
  Non-white 2.3 889
White 97.7 37,420
Total 38,309
Home county:  Maricopa
Race/ethnicity % of population Number of residents
Hispanic 24.9 763,341
Black 3.5 108,521
Asian and Pacific Islander 2.2 68,287
Native-American 1.5 45,703
Other non-white 0.1 4,086
Multi-racial 1.6 47,681
  Non-white 33.8 1,037,619
White 66.2 2,034,530
Total 3,072,149
The home county of this newspaper is Maricopa.
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: Newspaper's home city. 
  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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