The Sun, Lowell... 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 Sun, Lowell

Lowell, Massachusetts

Owner: MediaNews Group (Colo.)

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

3.5

2004

Did not report

2003

2.3

2002

2.2

2001

2.1

2000

2.2

1999

2.3

1998

2.1

1997

1.9

1996

5.5

1995

6.1

1994

Did not report

1993

2.2

1992

4.2

1991

Did not report

1990

Did not report

The latest year at peak is

1995

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

Newsroom Diversity Index

for The Sun, Lowell

Year

Non-white % of newsroom staff

Non-white % of circulation area

Newsroom Diversity Index (parity=100)

2005

3.5

15.6

2004

N/A

15.6

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, MediaNews Group (Colo.),

has a companywide, circulation-weighted Diversity Index of 47.

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

Peer group comparison

for The Sun, Lowell

This newspaper's Newsroom Diversity Index is 22.

This paper

Peer group

Compare that with 44, which is the median Diversity Index for all newspapers

reporting in this circulation category of 25,001 to 50,000 daily sales.

In that group, this newspaper's Diversity Index ranks 113 out of 140

newspapers reporting in the 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 The Jackson Sun, Tennessee, with a 37.5 percent non-white staff in a community that is 24.7 percent non-white. Its index is 152.

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

approximately 48,584 ranks 215 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 Sun, Lowell

Circulation area

Race/ethnicity

% of population

Number of residents

Hispanic

5.3

18,683

Black

1.8

6,144

Asian and Pacific Islander

6.7

23,722

Native-American

0.1

447

Other non-white

0.2

703

Multi-racial

1.5

5,201

Non-white

15.6

54,900

White

84.4

296,900

Total

351,800

Home county: Middlesex

Race/ethnicity

% of population

Number of residents

Hispanic

4.6

66,707

Black

3.2

46,598

Asian and Pacific Islander

6.3

91,757

Native-American

0.1

1,692

Other non-white

0.5

6,821

Multi-racial

1.9

27,050

Non-white

16.4

240,625

White

83.6

1,224,771

Total

1,465,396

The home county of this newspaper is Middlesex.

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 Sun, Lowell

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

01826 / Dracut / MA / 3.6 mi.

6,176

10,451

59.1

$57,676

5.9

1.6

0.8

0.1

2.6

01852 / Lowell / MA / 0 mi.

5,944

12,976

45.8

$38,576

32.2

15.1

3.0

0.2

9.8

01851 / Lowell / MA / 2.1 mi.

5,204

10,164

51.2

$42,081

47.8

10.2

3.3

0.2

30.8

01824 / Chelmsford / MA / 4.1 mi.

4,364

9,356

46.6

$73,882

7.6

1.3

0.7

0.1

4.7

01876 / Tewksbury / MA / 3.7 mi.

3,736

9,790

38.2

$69,581

4.3

1.2

0.7

0.1

1.6

01854 / Lowell / MA / 3.3 mi.

3,720

9,067

41.0

$35,371

37.4

16.1

3.8

0.2

14.6

01821 / Billerica / MA / 6.1 mi.

3,139

9,953

31.5

$67,884

5.8

1.3

0.8

0.1

2.7

01850 / Lowell / MA / 1.7 mi.

2,606

5,680

45.9

$40,418

29.3

15.5

4.2

0.1

6.6

01886 / Westford / MA / 8 mi.

2,214

6,808

32.5

$98,272

7.2

1.1

0.3

0.1

4.8

01879 / Tyngsboro / MA / 8 mi.

1,999

3,728

53.6

$69,714

5.3

1.1

0.5

0.2

2.5

01863 / North Chelmsford / MA / 4.9 mi.

1,365

3,461

39.4

$60,456

7.5

1.1

0.8

0.1

4.4

03076 / Pelham / NH / 7.2 mi.

1,243

3,606

34.5

$68,608

3.4

1.0

0.4

0.2

1.0

01862 / North Billerica / MA / 4.6 mi.

1,138

3,140

36.2

$65,460

8.0

2.1

2.0

0.1

2.9

01463 / Pepperell / MA / 15.9 mi.

1,071

3,847

27.8

$65,163

3.4

1.0

0.5

0.1

0.7

01887 / Wilmington / MA / 8.2 mi.

803

7,012

11.5

$70,741

4.2

1.0

0.4

0.1

2.0

01450 / Groton / MA / 13.6 mi.

665

3,268

20.3

$82,869

3.7

1.1

0.3

0.1

1.0

01460 / Littleton / MA / 11.9 mi.

633

2,958

21.4

$71,384

4.1

1.0

0.3

0.1

1.7

01432 / Ayer / MA / 14.8 mi.

600

2,985

20.1

$46,619

21.0

8.1

7.6

0.2

2.9

03051 / Hudson / NH / 10.8 mi.

461

8,037

5.7

$64,169

4.6

1.6

0.8

0.1

1.2

01827 / Dunstable / MA / 10.7 mi.

404

921

43.9

$86,891

2.9

0.5

0.1

0.0

1.5

01469 / Townsend / MA / 20.3 mi.

392

2,067

19.0

$64,583

3.1

1.2

0.7

0.3

0.2

01464 / Shirley / MA / 18.4 mi.

229

2,067

11.1

$53,344

17.6

6.9

6.5

0.4

2.2

03060 / Nashua / NH / 10.6 mi.

196

12,176

1.6

$40,653

18.4

10.8

2.1

0.4

3.5

01730 / Bedford / MA / 9.5 mi.

138

4,621

3.0

$87,962

10.1

1.8

1.6

0.2

5.4

03062 / Nashua / NH / 11.9 mi.

124

9,992

1.2

$65,984

10.9

2.6

1.7

0.1

5.2

01810 / Andover / MA / 6.7 mi.

110

11,305

1.0

$87,683

9.4

1.8

0.7

0.0

5.7

01720 / Acton / MA / 12.5 mi.

7,293

1.1

$91,492

12.7

1.8

0.7

0.1

8.6

01803 / Burlington / MA / 10.1 mi.

8,289

0.9

$75,240

14.2

1.3

0.1

10.7

03087 / Windham / NH / 12.2 mi.

3,568

1.3

$94,794

3.9

1.0

0.3

0.1

1.7

01844 / Methuen / MA / 8.9 mi.

16,561

0.3

$49,604

14.3

9.7

0.9

0.1

2.4

03079 / Salem / NH / 11.6 mi.

10,403

0.3

$58,090

5.9

2.0

0.5

0.2

2.3

03063 / Nashua / NH / 14.9 mi.

6,721

0.5

$57,332

11.3

3.5

1.7

0.2

4.5

01741 / Carlisle / MA / 7.6 mi.

1,618

2.0

$129,811

7.5

1.2

0.2

0.0

4.9

01840 / Lawrence / MA / 8.6 mi.

2,054

0.9

$12,307

78.9

73.7

2.0

0.1

1.5

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