Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram... 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

Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram

Portland, Maine

Owner: Seattle Times

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

5.9

2004

5.5

2003

6.4

2002

5.7

2001

2.7

2000

0.0

1999

0.0

1998

1.1

1997

1.1

1996

1.2

1995

1.2

1994

1.8

1993

0.0

1992

0.0

1991

Did not report

1990

Did not report

The latest year at peak is

2003

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

Newsroom Diversity Index

for Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram

Year

Non-white % of newsroom staff

Non-white % of circulation area

Newsroom Diversity Index (parity=100)

2005

5.9

3.9

151

2004

5.5

3.9

141

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, Seattle Times,

has a companywide, circulation-weighted Diversity Index of 99.

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

Peer group comparison

for Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram

This newspaper's Newsroom Diversity Index is 151.

This paper

Peer group

Compare that with 50, which is the median Diversity Index for all newspapers

reporting in this circulation category of 50,001 to 100,000 daily sales.

In that group, this newspaper's Diversity Index ranks 6 out of 90

newspapers reporting in the category of 50,001 to 100,000 daily sales.

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

approximately 77,788 ranks 130 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 Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram

Circulation area

Race/ethnicity

% of population

Number of residents

Hispanic

0.8

4,155

Black

0.7

3,599

Asian and Pacific Islander

1.1

5,397

Native-American

0.3

1,278

Other non-white

0.1

412

Multi-racial

0.9

4,616

Non-white

3.9

19,457

White

96.1

479,690

Total

499,147

Home county: Cumberland

Race/ethnicity

% of population

Number of residents

Hispanic

1.0

2,526

Black

1.0

2,690

Asian and Pacific Islander

1.4

3,754

Native-American

0.3

710

Other non-white

0.1

280

Multi-racial

1.0

2,737

Non-white

4.8

12,697

White

95.2

252,915

Total

265,612

The home county of this newspaper is Cumberland.

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

Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram

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

04106 / South Portland / ME / 2.8 mi.

4,914

10,127

48.5

$42,646

4.8

1.1

0.6

0.3

1.6

04103 / Portland / ME / 2.9 mi.

4,643

12,421

37.4

$43,605

7.1

0.8

1.8

0.3

2.8

04101 / Portland / ME / 0 mi.

3,806

8,990

42.3

$26,689

14.0

2.8

4.5

0.7

3.5

04102 / Portland / ME / 2.4 mi.

3,600

7,830

46.0

$36,602

9.1

1.4

2.0

0.4

3.5

04074 / Scarborough / ME / 7.3 mi.

3,587

6,382

56.2

$56,897

2.9

0.5

0.4

0.2

1.1

04092 / Westbrook / ME / 5.8 mi.

2,662

6,863

38.8

$37,873

3.9

0.9

0.8

0.3

0.9

04062 / Windham / ME / 11.7 mi.

2,456

5,530

44.4

$46,526

2.8

0.4

0.5

0.4

04005 / Biddeford / ME / 17.9 mi.

2,243

8,997

24.9

$35,709

3.7

0.6

0.4

1.0

04011 / Brunswick / ME / 21.7 mi.

2,220

8,150

27.2

$40,402

6.5

1.6

0.2

1.7

04105 / Falmouth / ME / 6.3 mi.

2,146

3,940

54.5

$66,855

2.6

0.5

0.2

0.1

1.1

04072 / Saco / ME / 13.3 mi.

2,142

7,682

27.9

$45,857

2.6

0.6

0.3

0.2

0.6

04038 / Gorham / ME / 10.8 mi.

1,892

5,609

33.7

$49,905

2.8

0.6

0.4

0.3

0.7

04096 / Yarmouth / ME / 11.8 mi.

1,857

3,509

52.9

$58,636

2.0

0.6

0.4

0.0

0.4

04107 / Cape Elizabeth / ME / 5 mi.

1,740

3,488

49.9

$72,359

2.4

0.5

0.3

0.1

1.1

04064 / Old Orchard Beach / ME / 11.4 mi.

1,724

4,261

40.5

$36,515

3.1

1.0

0.6

0.2

0.5

04073 / Sanford / ME / 29.6 mi.

1,556

6,424

24.2

$33,504

5.0

1.1

0.4

0.3

2.1

04043 / Kennebunk / ME / 24 mi.

1,404

4,241

33.1

$50,932

2.4

0.5

0.2

0.1

0.9

04530 / Bath / ME / 25.7 mi.

1,373

5,005

27.4

$38,679

5.1

1.5

1.3

0.5

04090 / Wells / ME / 28.7 mi.

1,341

4,003

33.5

$46,229

2.2

0.6

0.2

0.5

04032 / Freeport / ME / 15.8 mi.

1,157

3,076

37.6

$52,034

3.2

0.7

0.4

0.2

1.1

04039 / Gray / ME / 16.2 mi.

1,016

2,485

40.9

$49,128

2.5

0.6

0.4

0.2

0.5

04015 / Casco / ME / 25.1 mi.

844

1,353

62.4

$41,799

2.3

0.5

0.3

0.5

04021 / Cumberland Center / ME / 9.4 mi.

843

1,917

44.0

$67,833

1.6

0.5

0.1

0.4

04046 / Kennebunkport / ME / 20.6 mi.

807

2,977

27.1

$51,382

2.0

0.6

0.2

0.3

0.5

04093 / Buxton / ME / 15.6 mi.

801

1,528

52.4

$47,604

2.0

0.2