Comparing the racial diversity of the journalists
at America's daily newspapers
with the communities that they serve
Newsroom diversity report for
The Paducah Sun
Paducah, Kentucky
Owner: Paxton Media Group (Ky.)
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 3.7
1999 Did not report
1998 6.5
1997 8.0
1996 Did not report
1995 Did not report
1994 3.3
1993 7.4
1992 9.5
1991 7.1
1990 6.9
The latest year at peak is 1992
See the notes and definitions section below for the sources of these figures.
Newsroom Diversity Index
for The Paducah Sun
Year Non-white % of newsroom staff Non-white % of circulation area Newsroom Diversity Index (parity=100)
2005 N/A 9.3 N/A
2004 N/A 9.3 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, Paxton Media Group (Ky.),
has a companywide, circulation-weighted Diversity Index of 18.
See the notes and definitions section below for the sources of these figures.
Peer group comparison
for The Paducah Sun
This paper
Peer group
The median Diversity Index is 44 for all newspapers
reporting in this circulation category of 25,001 to 50,000 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 Herald & Review, Decatur, Illinois, with a 11.1 percent non-white staff in a community that is 11 percent non-white. Its index is 101.
FYI, in circulation, this newspaper's average weekday circulation of
approximately 25,165 ranks 394 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 Paducah Sun
Circulation area
Race/ethnicity % of population Number of residents
Hispanic 1.2 2,328
Black 6.6 12,955
Asian and Pacific Islander 0.3 603
Native-American 0.2 409
Other non-white 0.1 110
Multi-racial 0.9 1,838
  Non-white 9.3 18,243
White 90.7 178,561
Total 196,804
Home county:  McCracken
Race/ethnicity % of population Number of residents
Hispanic 1.1 694
Black 10.8 7,099
Asian and Pacific Islander 0.6 368
Native-American 0.2 129
Other non-white 0.1 36
Multi-racial 1.1 724
  Non-white 13.8 9,050
White 86.2 56,464
Total 65,514
The home county of this newspaper is McCracken.
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 Paducah Sun
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
42001 / Paducah / KY / 7.7 mi. 6,255 12,206 51.2 $37,708 17.1 1.2 14.1 0.2 0.7
42003 / Paducah / KY / 0 mi. 4,818 12,569 38.3 $29,350 13.2 1.1 10.0 0.3 0.5
42025 / Benton / KY / 14.9 mi. 1,866 7,686 24.3 $36,008 1.9 0.7 0.2 0.1 0.2
42066 / Mayfield / KY / 20 mi. 1,460 9,324 15.7 $28,037 11.5 3.2 6.6 0.2 0.3
62960 / Metropolis / IL / 17.1 mi. 1,144 4,774 24.0 $31,727 7.6 0.6 5.3 0.2 0.3
42071 / Murray / KY / 32.1 mi. 892 11,006 8.1 $29,594 8.3 1.4 4.1 0.2 1.6
42029 / Calvert City / KY / 10.5 mi. 859 2,436 35.3 $37,391 1.8 0.9 0.0 0.2 0.2
42053 / Kevil / KY / 19.8 mi. 610 1,817 33.6 $37,271 2.5 0.7 0.9 0.2 0.2
42086 / West Paducah / KY / 12.1 mi. 530 1,483 35.7 $39,090 4.9 0.6 3.0 0.1 0.4
42038 / Eddyville / KY / 31.5 mi. 399 1,760 22.7 $30,687 10.8 0.9 9.0 0.2 0.2
42044 / Gilbertsville / KY / 16.7 mi. 397 1,366 29.1 $39,073 2.4 0.8 0.0 0.4 0.1
42087 / Wickliffe / KY / 22 mi. 396 1,009 39.2 $32,105 4.4 0.9 1.3 0.1 0.3
42041 / Fulton / KY / 36.5 mi. 352 2,263 15.6 $26,756 19.0 0.9 16.3 0.2 0.5
42031 / Clinton / KY / 30.3 mi. 350 1,484 23.6 $30,250 14.8 0.9 12.5 0.3 0.1
42023 / Bardwell / KY / 27.3 mi. 328 1,025 32.0 $30,643 3.2 1.1 1.1 0.3 0.1
42445 / Princeton / KY / 42.2 mi. 328 4,657 7.0 $29,007 7.1 0.6 5.4 0.1 0.2
42064 / Marion / KY / 35 mi. 312 3,528 8.8 $28,687 2.2 0.5 0.7 0.1 0.1
42058 / Ledbetter / KY / 8.3 mi. 278 920 30.2 $35,905 1.6 0.8 0.2 0.2 0.1
42045 / Grand Rivers / KY / 18.3 mi. 269 907 29.7 $32,353 1.9 0.2 0.0 0.9 0.1
42055 / Kuttawa / KY / 26.2 mi. 261 1,027 25.4 $34,833 4.3 0.4 2.5 0.5 0.2
42082 / Symsonia / KY / 10.4 mi. 261 766 34.1 $33,421 1.1 0.3 0.2 0.1 0.0
42078 / Salem / KY / 23.6 mi. 260 769 33.8 $29,522 1.7 0.6 0.2 0.3 0.0
42027 / Boaz / KY / 6.7 mi. 259 1,042 24.9 $36,875 2.6 0.7 1.0 0.1 0.0
42056 / La Center / KY / 22.5 mi. 251 767 32.7 $31,802 8.4 0.5 6.6 0.1 0.2
62910 / Brookport / IL / 9.3 mi. 188 1,118 16.8 $30,189 9.5 1.3 6.5 0.3 0.2
42081 / Smithland / KY / 15 mi. 184 916 20.1 $30,978 2.6 1.2 0.0 0.6 0.0
42050 / Hickman / KY / 47.4 mi. 176 1,448 12.2 $22,500 27.1 0.4 26.0 0.1 0.0
42051 / Hickory / KY / 12 mi. 170 1,132 15.0 $36,533 4.0 1.8 1.0 0.2 0.2
42021 / Arlington / KY / 23.4 mi. 158 770 20.5 $29,141 2.4 0.9 1.3 0.0 0.1
42024 / Barlow / KY / 27.6 mi. 149 665 22.4 $29,375 6.4 0.6 3.6 0.1 0.1
62938 / Golconda / IL / 22.2 mi. 128 1,198 10.7 $30,043 8.7 1.2 5.1 0.6 0.3
42035 / Cunningham / KY / 17.8 mi. 125 343 36.4 $34,735 3.5 0.2 0.6 1.4 0.0
42048 / Hardin / KY / 24 mi. 125 840 14.9 $22,188 1.8 0.8 0.0 0.3 0.1
42088 / Wingo / KY / 27.9 mi. 118 1,055 11.2 $37,235 3.2 1.1 1.2 0.2 0.2
42069 / Melber / KY / 11.5 mi. 113 316 35.8 $33,958 3.7 1.3 1.3 0.2 0.2
42039 / Fancy Farm / KY / 20.4 mi. 110 664 16.6 $30,179 1.7 0.9 0.2 0.0 0.1
38257 / South Fulton / TN / 41.6 mi. 93 1,997 4.7 $33,194 12.5 0.4 11.1 0.1 0.1
42079 / Sedalia / KY / 29.9 mi. 92 564 16.3 $33,750 2.5 1.1 0.8 0.1 0.2
42411 / Fredonia / KY / 36.2 mi. 83 672 12.4 $30,080 1.8 0.4 1.0 0.1 0.0
38261 / Union City / TN / 49.4 mi. 69 6,950 1.0 $33,915 18.7 2.8 14.6 0.2 0.3
62956 / Karnak / IL / 29.1 mi. 63 417 15.1 $27,500 8.1 2.4 5.6 0.0 0.1
62995 / Vienna / IL / 33.4 mi. 61 1,377 4.4 $32,193 36.0 5.0 30.1 0.2 0.1
62914 / Cairo / IL / 34.4 mi. 52 1,751 3.0 $21,049 62.2 0.7 59.7 0.1 0.7
62941 / Grand Chain / IL / 29.5 mi. 51 340 15.0 $38,173 7.3 0.5 5.6 0.0 0.0
42085 / Water Valley / KY / 32 mi. 45 423 10.6 $32,917 3.1 0.5 1.6 0.2 0.1
42211 / Cadiz / KY / 44.5 mi. 39 4,930 0.8 $32,511 11.6 0.9 9.0 0.2 0.3
42028 / Burna / KY / 18 mi. 36 297 12.1 $24,118 1.2 0.8 0.0 0.0 0.1
62982 / Rosiclare / IL / 31.7 mi. 33 589 5.6 $25,536 2.9 1.1 0.6 0.1 0.7
42083 / Tiline / KY / 21.5 mi. 27 154 17.5 $29,605 3.7 1.6 0.0 0.5 0.0
42040 / Farmington / KY / 22.6 mi. 24 396 6.1 $32,981 1.2 0.3 0.0 0.0 0.1
62953 / Joppa / IL / 24 mi. 24 170 14.1 $18,594 12.9 2.6 7.5 0.2 0.0
62931 / Elizabethtown / IL / 37.6 mi. 20 729 2.7 $24,833 3.0 0.6 0.4 0.0 0.6
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