Comparing the racial diversity of the journalists
at America's daily newspapers
with the communities that they serve
Newsroom diversity report for
The Courier News, Elgin
Elgin, 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 12.5
2002 Did not report
2001 15.4
2000 Did not report
1999 Did not report
1998 Did not report
1997 Did not report
1996 Did not report
1995 Did not report
1994 Did not report
1993 3.0
1992 0.0
1991 0.0
1990 Did not report
The latest year at peak is 2001
See the notes and definitions section below for the sources of these figures.
Newsroom Diversity Index
for The Courier News, Elgin
Year Non-white % of newsroom staff Non-white % of circulation area Newsroom Diversity Index (parity=100)
2005 N/A 37.1 N/A
2004 N/A 37.1 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 The Courier News, Elgin
This paper
Peer group
The median Diversity Index is 33 for all newspapers
reporting in this circulation category of 10,001 to 25,000 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 Muskogee Daily Phoenix and Times-Democrat, Oklahoma, with a 43.5 percent non-white staff in a community that is 36.9 percent non-white. Its index is 118.
FYI, in circulation, this newspaper's average weekday circulation of
approximately 15,118 ranks 607 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 News, Elgin
Circulation area
Race/ethnicity % of population Number of residents
Hispanic 27.6 48,187
Black 4.9 8,497
Asian and Pacific Islander 3.2 5,525
Native-American 0.2 281
Other non-white 0.1 135
Multi-racial 1.3 2,263
  Non-white 37.1 64,888
White 62.9 110,034
Total 174,922
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
The Courier News, Elgin
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
60123 / Elgin / IL / 1.6 mi. 6,069 19,274 31.5 $57,928 30.1 19.9 5.6 0.1 3.0
60120 / Elgin / IL / 0.2 mi. 3,116 15,403 20.2 $52,067 57.0 44.9 6.4 0.2 4.2
60110 / Carpentersvle / IL / 5.6 mi. 1,612 9,323 17.3 $53,624 48.8 39.8 5.5 0.3 1.8
60177 / South Elgin / IL / 2.8 mi. 1,032 5,871 17.6 $67,163 19.8 10.4 2.5 0.1 5.3
60118 / West Dundee / IL / 3.8 mi. 936 5,404 17.3 $72,500 8.4 4.0 0.7 0.1 2.1
60140 / Pingree Grove / IL / 11.8 mi. 893 2,497 35.8 $63,380 4.5 3.4 0.1 0.1 0.3
60103 / Ontarioville / IL / 7.1 mi. 328 23,463 1.4 $70,938 31.3 16.0 3.9 0.1 9.7
60142 / Huntley / IL / 12.2 mi. 187 2,977 6.3 $64,840 8.4 4.9 0.4 0.1 2.3
60102 / Lake in the Hill / IL / 8.9 mi. 147 16,048 0.9 $75,542 10.0 5.1 1.1 0.1 2.7
60174 / Valley View / IL / 7.5 mi. 112 11,583 1.0 $67,608 10.2 5.8 2.0 0.1 1.7
60175 / Saint Charles / IL / 6.1 mi. 96 5,479 1.8 $105,858 4.3 1.6 0.7 0.1 1.4
60014 / Village of Lakew / IL / 12.8 mi. 82 15,125 0.5 $69,395 10.4 7.1 0.5 0.1 1.7
60107 / Streamwood / IL / 5.5 mi. 48 11,828 0.4 $64,523 31.2 17.3 3.5 0.1 8.4
60135 / Genoa / IL / 19 mi. 25 2,192 1.1 $52,114 9.7 8.4 0.2 0.2 0.3
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