Comparing the racial diversity of the journalists
at America's daily newspapers
with the communities that they serve
Newsroom diversity report for
The Ann Arbor News
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Owner: Advance (Newhouse) (N.Y.)
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 6.9
2004 7.4
2003 7.1
2002 8.5
2001 7.2
2000 8.6
1999 18.6
1998 11.8
1997 12.3
1996 14.3
1995 16.1
1994 15.6
1993 12.3
1992 Did not report
1991 Did not report
1990 Did not report
The latest year at peak is 1999
See the notes and definitions section below for the sources of these figures.
Newsroom Diversity Index
for The Ann Arbor News
Year Non-white % of newsroom staff Non-white % of circulation area Newsroom Diversity Index (parity=100)
2005 6.9 20.3 34
2004 7.4 20.3 36
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, Advance (Newhouse) (N.Y.),
has a companywide, circulation-weighted Diversity Index of 63.
See the notes and definitions section below for the sources of these figures.
Peer group comparison
for The Ann Arbor News
This newspaper's Newsroom Diversity Index is 34. 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 63 out of 90
newspapers reporting in the category of 50,001 to 100,000 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 Florida Today, Melbourne, Florida, with a 19.1 percent non-white staff in a community that is 16.3 percent non-white. Its index is 117.
FYI, in circulation, this newspaper's average weekday circulation of
approximately 50,815 ranks 200 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 Ann Arbor News
Circulation area
Race/ethnicity % of population Number of residents
Hispanic 2.6 10,904
Black 10.3 44,080
Asian and Pacific Islander 4.8 20,640
Native-American 0.4 1,476
Other non-white 0.2 963
Multi-racial 2.0 8,598
  Non-white 20.3 86,661
White 79.7 339,494
Total 426,155
Home county:  Washtenaw
Race/ethnicity % of population Number of residents
Hispanic 2.7 8,839
Black 12.2 39,326
Asian and Pacific Islander 6.3 20,377
Native-American 0.3 1,042
Other non-white 0.3 864
Multi-racial 2.3 7,414
  Non-white 24.1 77,862
White 75.9 245,033
Total 322,895
The home county of this newspaper is Washtenaw.
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 Ann Arbor News
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
48103 / Ann Arbor / MI / 6.4 mi. 10,890 20,877 52.2 $61,809 17.6 2.5 7.3 0.2 5.1
48104 / Ann Arbor / MI / 0 mi. 6,857 16,140 42.5 $39,839 21.6 3.6 5.1 0.2 9.9
48197 / Ypsilanti / MI / 6.7 mi. 5,307 21,681 24.5 $44,171 36.1 3.1 24.6 0.4 4.6
48105 / Ann Arbor / MI / 4.5 mi. 4,651 13,785 33.7 $51,476 34.6 2.8 7.7 0.2 20.9
48108 / Ann Arbor / MI / 2.8 mi. 3,667 9,623 38.1 $49,882 35.2 4.0 16.6 0.4 10.3
48176 / Saline / MI / 9 mi. 3,217 6,489 49.6 $77,274 5.3 1.3 0.8 0.2 1.9
48198 / Ypsilanti / MI / 7 mi. 3,204 15,785 20.3 $41,048 36.5 2.5 29.3 0.5 1.3
48118 / Chelsea / MI / 16.3 mi. 2,042 4,259 47.9 $65,667 4.9 1.3 1.8 0.4 0.5
48111 / Belleville / MI / 13.4 mi. 1,838 15,712 11.7 $50,135 17.4 2.2 11.4 0.5 1.3
48130 / Dexter / MI / 11 mi. 1,812 3,816 47.5 $73,051 3.4 1.2 0.3 0.3 0.8
48160 / Milan / MI / 12.7 mi. 1,368 4,121 33.2 $58,193 16.5 3.9 10.6 0.3 0.5
48169 / Pinckney / MI / 18.1 mi. 1,183 6,888 17.2 $67,593 3.6 1.0 1.0 0.3 0.4
48189 / Whitmore Lake / MI / 10.4 mi. 1,100 5,127 21.5 $59,203 5.7 1.3 2.2 0.4 0.6
48116 / Brighton / MI / 18.8 mi. 992 9,382 10.6 $69,968 3.8 1.4 0.3 0.4 0.9
48158 / Manchester / MI / 17.2 mi. 929 2,646 35.1 $61,117 4.9 3.4 0.3 0.3 0.2
49286 / Tecumseh / MI / 20.4 mi. 714 5,457 13.1 $53,325 6.1 4.1 0.2 0.5 0.6
48178 / South Lyon / MI / 12.8 mi. 632 8,857 7.1 $67,463 3.6 1.3 0.3 0.3 0.8
49236 / Clinton / MI / 16.9 mi. 386 1,827 21.1 $52,604 2.5 1.3 0.2 0.4 0.1
48843 / Howell / MI / 23 mi. 364 15,605 2.3 $64,265 3.7 1.4 0.2 0.4 0.6
48114 / Brighton / MI / 18.6 mi. 356 6,678 5.3 $78,171 3.3 1.0 0.4 0.3 0.8
48170 / Plymouth / MI / 11.9 mi. 336 16,152 2.1 $67,360 7.4 1.5 2.2 0.3 2.2
48137 / Gregory / MI / 22.5 mi. 274 1,606 17.1 $58,429 6.1 3.3 0.8 0.4 0.3
48187 / Canton / MI / 12.6 mi. 265 16,337 1.6 $71,694 16.7 2.2 3.9 0.2 8.5
48191 / Willis / MI / 13 mi. 255 952 26.8 $69,180 7.9 0.7 5.4 0.3 0.3
49240 / Grass Lake / MI / 23.3 mi. 178 2,647 6.7 $58,792 3.7 1.0 1.7 0.3 0.1
48188 / Canton / MI / 12.1 mi. 142 11,248 1.3 $73,963 19.1 2.5 5.3 0.3 9.0
48143 / Lakeland / MI / 15.2 mi. 107 16 668.8 $35,250 2.6 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
49221 / Adrian / MI / 30.3 mi. 90 14,205 0.6 $41,924 18.8 11.8 4.7 0.4 0.7
48139 / Hamburg / MI / 13.4 mi. 87 41 212.2 $66,500 2.6 0.0 2.6 0.0 0.0
49229 / Britton / MI / 20 mi. 79 1,061 7.4 $52,071 4.4 2.9 0.2 0.3 0.2
48167 / Northville / MI / 14.5 mi. 65 14,349 0.5 $79,579 9.6 1.7 3.0 0.2 3.5
48165 / New Hudson / MI / 17.2 mi. 45 1,900 2.4 $66,875 4.0 1.8 0.3 0.3 0.4
48190 / Whittaker / MI / 11.2 mi. 32 39 82.1 $89,508 11.3 0.0 2.8 0.0 0.0
49285 / Stockbridge / MI / 28.7 mi. 30 1,785 1.7 $50,685 3.9 1.6 0.4 0.5 0.3
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