Comparing the racial diversity of the journalists
at America's daily newspapers
with the communities that they serve
Newsroom diversity report for
The Courier, Lincoln
Lincoln, Illinois
Owner: Copley Press (Calif.)
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 0.0
2004 0.0
2003 0.0
2002 0.0
2001 0.0
2000 0.0
1999 0.0
1998 0.0
1997 0.0
1996 0.0
1995 0.0
1994 0.0
1993 0.0
1992 0.0
1991 0.0
1990 0.0
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 Courier, Lincoln
Year Non-white % of newsroom staff Non-white % of circulation area Newsroom Diversity Index (parity=100)
2005 0.0 8.7 0
2004 0.0 8.5 0
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, Copley Press (Calif.),
has a companywide, circulation-weighted Diversity Index of 43.
See the notes and definitions section below for the sources of these figures.
Peer group comparison
for The Courier, Lincoln
This newspaper's Newsroom Diversity Index is 0. This paper
Peer group
Compare that with 0, which is the median Diversity Index for all newspapers
reporting in this circulation category of 5,001 to 10,000 daily sales.
In that group, this newspaper's Diversity Index ranks 83 out of 211
newspapers reporting in the 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 The Cherokee Tribune, Canton, Georgia, with a 11.1 percent non-white staff in a community that is 9.6 percent non-white. Its index is 116.
FYI, in circulation, this newspaper's average weekday circulation of
approximately 6,100 ranks 1049 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 Courier, Lincoln
Circulation area
Race/ethnicity % of population Number of residents
Hispanic 1.5 524
Black 5.8 2,040
Asian and Pacific Islander 0.5 175
Native-American 0.2 51
Other non-white 0.0 6
Multi-racial 0.5 182
  Non-white 8.5 2,978
White 91.5 32,006
Total 34,984
Home county:  Logan
Race/ethnicity % of population Number of residents
Hispanic 1.6 503
Black 6.5 2,037
Asian and Pacific Islander 0.5 169
Native-American 0.2 48
Other non-white 0.0 3
Multi-racial 0.6 176
  Non-white 9.4 2,936
White 90.6 28,247
Total 31,183
The home county of this newspaper is Logan.
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 Courier, Lincoln
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
62656 / Lincoln / IL / 0 mi. 4,047 7,055 57.4 $37,264 13.6 2.2 9.8 0.2 0.8
62548 / Mount Pulaski / IL / 10.1 mi. 435 959 45.4 $40,361 0.8 0.3 0.0 0.0 0.1
61723 / Atlanta / IL / 9.6 mi. 282 946 29.8 $43,673 1.1 0.7 0.1 0.1 0.0
62664 / Teheran / IL / 16.4 mi. 234 1,337 17.5 $37,574 1.2 0.7 0.1 0.1 0.2
62634 / Elkhart / IL / 10.2 mi. 156 374 41.7 $47,868 0.3 0.0 0.2 0.0 0.1
62635 / Emden / IL / 11.1 mi. 144 264 54.5 $36,905 1.5 0.8 0.0 0.2 0.0
62671 / New Holland / IL / 10.6 mi. 123 282 43.6 $41,010 1.5 0.5 0.0 0.0 0.0
62666 / Middletown / IL / 11.4 mi. 108 263 41.1 $42,692 2.4 0.9 0.1 0.4 0.3
62643 / Hartsburg / IL / 7.4 mi. 96 161 59.6 $39,000 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.2 0.0
62512 / Beason / IL / 8.4 mi. 91 193 47.2 $57,875 1.1 0.9 0.0 0.0 0.0
62518 / Chestnut / IL / 10.2 mi. 85 185 45.9 $45,288 0.6 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0
62682 / San Jose / IL / 15.1 mi. 33 373 8.8 $39,231 2.4 1.0 0.3 0.3 0.6
62543 / Latham / IL / 15.6 mi. 32 219 14.6 $48,125 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.2 0.0
File il_the_courier__lincoln
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