The Des Moines Register... Racial diversity of its news staff and community

Comparing the racial diversity of the journalists

at America's daily newspapers

with the communities that they serve

Newsroom diversity report for

The Des Moines Register

Des Moines, Iowa

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

12.3

2004

12.5

2003

9.0

2002

8.8

2001

9.2

2000

8.5

1999

8.4

1998

7.8

1997

7.5

1996

5.4

1995

6.0

1994

6.0

1993

3.8

1992

4.5

1991

5.0

1990

4.7

The latest year at peak is

2004

See the notes and definitions section below for the sources of these figures.

Newsroom Diversity Index

for The Des Moines Register

Year

Non-white % of newsroom staff

Non-white % of circulation area

Newsroom Diversity Index (parity=100)

2005

12.3

8.3

148

2004

12.5

8.4

150

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 Des Moines Register

This newspaper's Newsroom Diversity Index is 148.

This paper

Peer group

Compare that with 64, which is the median Diversity Index for all newspapers

reporting in this circulation category of 100,001 to 250,000 daily sales.

In that group, this newspaper's Diversity Index ranks 3 out of 58

newspapers reporting in the category of 100,001 to 250,000 daily sales.

FYI, in circulation, this newspaper's average weekday circulation of

approximately 152,800 ranks 73 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 Des Moines Register

Circulation area

Race/ethnicity

% of population

Number of residents

Hispanic

3.2

32,446

Black

2.2

22,321

Asian and Pacific Islander

1.8

18,144

Native-American

0.2

2,056

Other non-white

0.1

842

Multi-racial

0.9

9,004

Non-white

8.4

84,813

White

91.7

931,421

Total

1,016,234

Home county: Polk

Race/ethnicity

% of population

Number of residents

Hispanic

4.4

16,490

Black

4.8

17,874

Asian and Pacific Islander

2.7

9,943

Native-American

0.2

878

Other non-white

0.2

554

Multi-racial

1.4

5,077

Non-white

13.6

50,816

White

86.4

323,785

Total

374,601

The home county of this newspaper is Polk.

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 Des Moines Register

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

50322 / Windsor Heights / IA / 5.1 mi.

6,969

13,340

52.2

$57,297

6.1

1.8

1.6

0.1

1.8

50021 / Oralabor / IA / 7.6 mi.

6,169

11,778

52.4

$56,977

3.6

1.0

0.8

0.1

0.9

50265 / West Des Moines / IA / 6.1 mi.

5,909

12,710

46.5

$54,629

8.5

3.1

1.5

0.1

2.7

50310 / Des Moines / IA / 2.2 mi.

5,267

13,435

39.2

$46,095

14.0

2.9

5.8

0.3

2.6

50315 / South Des Moines / IA / 3.9 mi.

5,043

14,466

34.9

$39,457

13.5

6.4

2.9

0.4

2.3

50317 / Risingsun / IA / 4.3 mi.

4,797

15,795

30.4

$40,316

9.4

3.9

2.0

0.3

2.0

50266 / West Des Moines / IA / 6.5 mi.

3,994

7,321

54.6

$54,410

9.3

2.8

2.4

0.1

2.9

50309 / East Des Moines / IA / 1.4 mi.

3,907

2,272

172.0

$17,188

31.6

9.0

15.2

0.6

3.5

50010 / Timberland Heigh / IA / 27.3 mi.

3,840

10,797

35.6

$37,511

13.0

1.7

2.4

0.2

7.3

50312 / Windsor Heights / IA / 2.5 mi.

3,588

7,648

46.9

$45,587

11.9

2.6

5.8

0.1

1.5

50325 / Des Moines / IA / 5.6 mi.

3,002

4,785

62.7

$74,742

7.9

2.5

1.2

0.1

2.7

50311 / Windsor Heights / IA / 2.5 mi.

2,787

7,449

37.4

$39,260

21.4

6.1

9.1

0.3

3.3

50125 / Summerset / IA / 16.4 mi.

2,574

6,296

40.9

$47,594

2.4

0.9

0.4

0.1

0.5

50131 / Johnston / IA / 6.2 mi.

2,523

3,336

75.6

$76,309

4.6

1.5

0.6

0.1

1.9

50313 / Saylorville / IA / 2.5 mi.

2,384

6,773

35.2

$36,447

15.3

6.0

4.4

0.3

2.9

50208 / Newton / IA / 28.8 mi.

2,357

8,294

28.4

$40,945

4.1

1.3

0.3

0.6

50158 / Marshalltown / IA / 44.6 mi.

2,221

11,794

18.8

$37,088

14.8

11.3

1.1

0.4

1.0

50320 / South Des Moines / IA / 4.7 mi.

2,177

5,791

37.6

$42,079

20.9

10.1

5.4

0.2

3.9

50009 / Ivy / IA / 8.3 mi.

2,120

4,444

47.7

$51,587

4.7

1.7

0.8

0.3

0.9

50316 / East Fourteenth / IA / 1.8 mi.

2,087

5,945

35.1

$32,129

36.8

11.8

15.6

0.5

6.5

52776 / West Liberty / IA / 114.3 mi.

1,968

1,518

129.6

$41,753

35.6

31.6

0.3

0.1

2.9

50219 / Pella / IA / 36.9 mi.

1,888

4,454

42.4

$47,177

3.8

1.0

0.1

0.2

2.0

50321 / South Des Moines / IA / 4.4 mi.

1,828

3,026

60.4

$55,275

10.5

3.7

0.4

1.7

50036 / Boone / IA / 31.9 mi.

1,775

6,608

26.9

$39,966

1.9

0.8

0.3

0.2

50263 / West Des Moines / IA / 11.4 mi.

1,559

2,373

65.7

$60,050

2.3

0.6

0.4

0.0

0.7