Comparing the racial diversity of the journalists
at America's daily newspapers
with the communities that they serve
Newsroom diversity report for
The News-Press, Fort Myers
Fort Myers, Florida
Owner: Gannett Co. (Va.)
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	18.9
2004	17.9
2003	10.8
2002	11.5
2001	15.6
2000	12.5
1999	13.0
1998	17.8
1997	15.6
1996	16.2
1995	15.3
1994	11.5
1993	7.6
1992	8.0
1991	Did not report
1990	Did not report
The latest year at peak is	2005
See the notes and definitions section below for the sources of these figures.
Newsroom Diversity Index
for The News-Press, Fort Myers
Year	Non-white % of newsroom staff	Non-white % of circulation area	Newsroom Diversity Index (parity=100)
2005	18.9	19.2	98
2004	17.9	19.0	94
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, Gannett Co. (Va.),
has a companywide, circulation-weighted Diversity Index of 89.
See the notes and definitions section below for the sources of these figures.
Peer group comparison
for The News-Press, Fort Myers
This newspaper's Newsroom Diversity Index is 98.				This paper
				Peer group
Compare that with 50, which is the median Diversity Index for all newspapers
reporting in this circulation category of 50,001 to 100,000 daily sales.
In that group, this newspaper's Diversity Index ranks 13 out of 90
newspapers reporting in the category of 50,001 to 100,000 daily sales.
FYI, in circulation, this newspaper's average weekday circulation of
approximately 90,168 ranks 118 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 News-Press, Fort Myers
	Circulation area
Race/ethnicity	% of population	Number of residents
Hispanic	10.8	51,070
Black	6.2	29,521
Asian and Pacific Islander	0.8	3,621
Native-American	0.2	1,039
Other non-white	0.1	572
Multi-racial	1.0	4,649
Non-white	19.0	90,472
White	81.0	384,621
Total		475,093
	Home county:  Lee
Race/ethnicity	% of population	Number of residents
Hispanic	9.5	42,042
Black	6.4	28,020
Asian and Pacific Islander	0.8	3,490
Native-American	0.2	944
Other non-white	0.1	554
Multi-racial	1.0	4,399
Non-white	18.0	79,449
White	82.0	361,439
Total		440,888
The home county of this newspaper is Lee.
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: ZIP Code 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.
Demographics of ZIP Codes
where sales were reported by
The News-Press, Fort Myers
Note that some ZIP Codes listed here may not have been included in determining the newspaper's circulation area. In calculating the Diversity Index, a
ZIP Code was included only if the household penetration was at least 10 percent. Any lower-penetration ZIP Codes are also listed here for your information.
Also, if the newspaper reported more than 300 ZIP Codes, only the top 300 in weekday sales are listed here.
ZIP / City / State / Approx. distance in miles from the newspaper's home office	Weekday sales	Households	Penetration % (daily sales per 100 households)	Median household income	Non-white % of population	Hispanic % of population	Black % of population	Native % of population	Asian % of population
33908 / Fort Myers / FL / 8.5 mi.	8,976	12,287	73.1	$40,981	8.2	5.1	2.0	0.1	0.5
33912 / South Fort Myers / FL / 7.9 mi.	6,496	13,376	48.6	$51,708	8.7	5.5	1.0	0.2	1.1
33919 / Fort Myers / FL / 5 mi.	6,315	12,866	49.1	$43,027	7.2	4.0	1.3	0.1	1.0
33917 / North Fort Myers / FL / 5.1 mi.	5,702	13,043	43.7	$33,120	4.7	2.8	0.4	0.3	0.4
33904 / Cape Coral / FL / 5.2 mi.	5,595	14,929	37.5	$40,352	9.7	6.6	1.1	0.2	0.8
33903 / North Fort Myers / FL / 4.2 mi.	5,410	11,209	48.3	$33,946	8.2	4.8	1.4	0.4	0.8
33931 / Fort Myers Beach / FL / 12.2 mi.	4,363	5,566	78.4	$41,291	4.0	2.9	0.1	0.3	0.3
33914 / Cape Coral / FL / 8.2 mi.	4,080	9,858	41.4	$49,148	11.8	8.3	1.4	0.2	0.7
33907 / Fort Myers / FL / 4.2 mi.	3,927	9,717	40.4	$35,065	24.2	15.1	6.2	0.2	1.3
34135 / Bonita Springs / FL / 17.4 mi.	3,521	10,402	33.8	$41,334	28.1	26.4	0.4	0.2	0.4
33905 / Tice / FL / 6.3 mi.	3,510	9,179	38.2	$35,039	38.0	22.2	13.5	0.2	0.9
33928 / Estero / FL / 13 mi.	3,492	4,364	80.0	$41,380	4.9	3.8	0.4	0.1	0.3
33901 / Fort Myers / FL / 0 mi.	3,400	9,021	37.7	$29,875	37.1	10.4	21.7	0.2	1.2
33990 / Cape Coral Central / FL / 4.9 mi.	2,756	8,679	31.8	$42,185	16.2	10.8	2.5	0.2	1.5
33957 / Sanibel / FL / 17.1 mi.	2,691	3,068	87.7	$78,780	3.2	1.4	0.9	0.1	0.4
34134 / Bonita Springs / FL / 17.2 mi.	2,368	6,046	39.2	$66,947	3.4	2.3	0.3	0.1	0.5
33936 / Lehigh Acres / FL / 14.6 mi.	2,290	6,658	34.4	$33,276	25.9	15.3	7.9	0.1	0.9
33916 / Fort Myers / FL / 1.9 mi.	1,941	7,080	27.4	$24,050	78.4	17.3	58.5	0.3	0.5
33991 / Matlacha Isles / FL / 7.8 mi.	1,347	3,279	41.1	$46,958	11.1	6.7	2.2	0.3	1.0
33909 / Cape Coral / FL / 6.8 mi.	1,163	2,965	39.2	$42,541	15.8	9.8	3.2	0.4	0.8
33935 / Labelle / FL / 25.9 mi.	1,097	5,313	20.6	$33,065	52.8	46.3	5.1	0.3	0.3
33956 / Saint James City / FL / 14.4 mi.	1,042	2,128	49.0	$35,746	1.7	0.8	0.1	0.2	0.3
33971 / Lehigh Acres / FL / 10 mi.	977	2,682	36.4	$43,961	28.3	15.3	10.4	0.4	0.8
33972 / Lehigh Acres / FL / 13.7 mi.	951	3,148	30.2	$43,920	18.2	7.8	8.3	0.2	0.7
33993 / Matlacha / FL / 10.6 mi.	845	1,565	54.0	$45,302	8.0