Comparing the racial diversity of the journalists
at America's daily newspapers
with the communities that they serve
Newsroom diversity report for
The Daily Independent, Ridgecrest
Ridgecrest, California
Owner: Swift Newspapers (Nev.)
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	22.2
2002	25.0
2001	22.2
2000	Did not report
1999	Did not report
1998	Did not report
1997	0.0
1996	Did not report
1995	Did not report
1994	0.0
1993	0.0
1992	8.3
1991	9.1
1990	11.1
The latest year at peak is	2002
See the notes and definitions section below for the sources of these figures.
Newsroom Diversity Index
for The Daily Independent, Ridgecrest
Year	Non-white % of newsroom staff	Non-white % of circulation area	Newsroom Diversity Index (parity=100)
2005	N/A	23.5	N/A
2004	N/A	23.5	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, Swift Newspapers (Nev.),
has a companywide, circulation-weighted Diversity Index of 50.
See the notes and definitions section below for the sources of these figures.
Peer group comparison
for The Daily Independent, Ridgecrest
		This paper
						Peer group
The median Diversity Index is 0 for all newspapers
reporting in this circulation category of 5,001 to 10,000 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 Lake City Reporter, Florida, with a 23.5 percent non-white staff in a community that is 21.4 percent non-white. Its index is 110.
FYI, in circulation, this newspaper's average weekday circulation of
approximately 7,900 ranks 919 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 The Daily Independent, Ridgecrest
	Circulation area
Race/ethnicity	% of population	Number of residents
Hispanic	12.0	3,001
Black	3.4	846
Asian and Pacific Islander	4.3	1,075
Native-American	0.8	204
Other non-white	0.1	34
Multi-racial	2.8	700
Non-white	23.5	5,860
White	76.5	19,067
Total		24,927
	Home county:  Kern
Race/ethnicity	% of population	Number of residents
Hispanic	38.4	254,036
Black	5.7	37,845
Asian and Pacific Islander	3.3	21,905
Native-American	0.9	5,885
Other non-white	0.2	989
Multi-racial	2.1	13,795
Non-white	50.6	334,455
White	49.5	327,190
Total		661,645
The home county of this newspaper is Kern.
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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