Comparing the racial diversity of the journalists
at America's daily newspapers
with the communities that they serve
Newsroom diversity report for
Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago, Illinois
Owner: Hollinger International (Ill.)
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	23.0
1995	17.9
1994	19.3
1993	Did not report
1992	12.0
1991	Did not report
1990	Did not report
The latest year at peak is	1996
See the notes and definitions section below for the sources of these figures.
Newsroom Diversity Index
for Chicago Sun-Times
Year	Non-white % of newsroom staff	Non-white % of circulation area	Newsroom Diversity Index (parity=100)
2005	N/A	50.3	N/A
2004	N/A	50.3	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, Hollinger International (Ill.),
has a companywide, circulation-weighted Diversity Index of 22.
See the notes and definitions section below for the sources of these figures.
Peer group comparison
for Chicago Sun-Times
	This paper
					Peer group
The median Diversity Index is 70 for all newspapers
reporting in this circulation category of 250,001 to 500,000 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 San Jose Mercury News, California, with a 32.1 percent non-white staff in a community that is 52.6 percent non-white. Its index is 61.
FYI, in circulation, this newspaper's average weekday circulation of
approximately 410,000 ranks 15 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 Chicago Sun-Times
	Circulation area
Race/ethnicity	% of population	Number of residents
Hispanic	18.2	947,837
Black	26.2	1,370,610
Asian and Pacific Islander	4.3	222,002
Native-American	0.1	6,240
Other non-white	0.1	6,195
Multi-racial	1.4	73,660
Non-white	50.3	2,626,544
White	49.7	2,596,349
Total		5,222,893
	Home county:  Cook
Race/ethnicity	% of population	Number of residents
Hispanic	19.9	1,071,740
Black	25.9	1,390,448
Asian and Pacific Islander	4.8	259,386
Native-American	0.1	6,754
Other non-white	0.1	7,291
Multi-racial	1.5	82,413
Non-white	52.4	2,818,032
White	47.6	2,558,709
Total		5,376,741
The home county of this newspaper is Cook.
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
Chicago Sun-Times
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
60607 / Chicago / IL / 2.2 mi.	7,732	7,293	106.0	$40,972	56.8	8.1	32.9	0.1	13.5
60611 / Chicago / IL / 0 mi.	7,685	17,532	43.8	$69,889	19.9	3.6	5.1	0.1	9.4
60606 / Chicago / IL / 1.3 mi.	7,228	1,036	697.7	$100,377	31.1	7.7	5.7	0.0	16.9
60638 / Chicago / IL / 10.7 mi.	7,019	20,761	33.8	$45,173	25.4	15.5	7.9	0.1	0.7
60629 / Chicago / IL / 9.6 mi.	6,913	32,389	21.3	$40,279	76.7	48.6	25.6	0.1	0.7
60628 / Chicago / IL / 14.1 mi.	6,810	27,023	25.2	$38,210	98.5	3.1	94.4	0.1	0.1
60618 / Chicago / IL / 5.6 mi.	6,771	34,989	19.4	$41,355	60.2	49.1	2.6	0.3	5.0
60619 / Chicago / IL / 10.4 mi.	6,255	29,870	20.9	$33,631	99.5	0.7	97.7	0.1	0.1
60601 / Chicago / IL / 0.6 mi.	5,898	3,501	168.5	$77,374	28.9	5.6	11.1	0.4	10.3
60610 / Chicago / IL / 1 mi.	5,897	28,638	20.6	$51,294	36.8	3.9	26.9	0.1	4.4
60617 / Chicago / IL / 12.8 mi.	5,817	31,600	18.4	$35,534	89.7	34.3	54.0	0.2	0.2
60614 / Chicago / IL / 2.5 mi.	5,714	36,510	15.7	$68,324	14.9	5.4	4.0	0.1	3.8
60634 / Chicago / IL / 11.2 mi.	5,513	26,276	21.0	$50,042	26.2	19.6	0.6	0.1	3.8
60616 / Chicago / IL / 3.3 mi.	5,364	19,279	27.8	$30,625	78.3	9.1	38.3	0.2	29.2
60453 / Oak Lawn / IL / 14.3 mi.	5,271	21,948	24.0	$47,529	9.9	5.3	1.2	0.1	1.7
60620 / Chicago / IL / 10.9 mi.	5,253	28,499	18.4	$36,334	96.9	0.8	95.2	0.1	0.1
60402 / Berwyn / IL / 9.8 mi.	5,235	22,225	23.6	$43,828	40.8	35.6	1.0	0.2	2.4
60609 / Chicago / IL / 6 mi.	4,994	22,813	21.9	$25,705	84.2	43.4	38.5	0.1	1.2
60630 / Chicago / IL / 8.7 mi.	4,947	21,527	23.0	$47,905	27.1	16.4	0.5	0.2	7.4
60643 / Chicago / IL / 14.2 mi.	4,796	17,525	27.4	$51,305	80.2	1.8	76.7	0.1	0.3
60641 / Chicago / IL / 7.5 mi.	4,548	25,403	17.9	$42,182	46.9	38.8	1.1	0.2	3.9
60608 / Chicago / IL / 4.1 mi.	4,462	24,881	17.9	$28,026	87.0	62.7	18.2	0.2	5.0
60632 / Chicago / IL / 7.5 mi.	4,458	24,566	18.1	$37,406	74.7	70.4	0.9	0.1	1.9
60637 / Chicago / IL / 7.9 mi.	4,342	21,702	20.0	$23,228	87.9	1.3	81.8	0.1	3.2
60615 / Chicago / IL / 6.5 mi.	4,215	21,341	19.8	$31,571	78.2	2.9	67.0	0.1