Comparing the racial diversity of the journalists
at America's daily newspapers
with the communities that they serve
Newsroom diversity report for
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
St. Louis, Missouri
Owner: Pulitzer (Mo.)
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	16.4
2004	14.8
2003	13.6
2002	13.4
2001	14.2
2000	13.1
1999	7.9
1998	8.4
1997	10.3
1996	12.3
1995	7.1
1994	8.8
1993	9.4
1992	7.8
1991	6.3
1990	6.9
The latest year at peak is	2005
See the notes and definitions section below for the sources of these figures.
Newsroom Diversity Index
for St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Year	Non-white % of newsroom staff	Non-white % of circulation area	Newsroom Diversity Index (parity=100)
2005	16.4	21.4	77
2004	14.8	21.4	69
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, Pulitzer (Mo.),
has a companywide, circulation-weighted Diversity Index of 59.
See the notes and definitions section below for the sources of these figures.
Peer group comparison
for St. Louis Post-Dispatch
This newspaper's Newsroom Diversity Index is 77.				This paper
				Peer group
Compare that with 70, which is the median Diversity Index for all newspapers
reporting in this circulation category of 250,001 to 500,000 daily sales.
In that group, this newspaper's Diversity Index ranks 9 out of 24
newspapers reporting in the category of 250,001 to 500,000 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 Oregonian, Portland, Oregon, with a 18.8 percent non-white staff in a community that is 18.2 percent non-white. Its index is 103.
FYI, in circulation, this newspaper's average weekday circulation of
approximately 286,310 ranks 28 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 St. Louis Post-Dispatch
	Circulation area
Race/ethnicity	% of population	Number of residents
Hispanic	1.5	37,413
Black	16.9	410,704
Asian and Pacific Islander	1.5	36,349
Native-American	0.2	5,033
Other non-white	0.1	2,728
Multi-racial	1.1	27,426
Non-white	21.4	519,653
White	78.6	1,909,881
Total		2,429,534
	Home county:  St. Louis city
Race/ethnicity	% of population	Number of residents
Hispanic	2.0	7,022
Black	51.0	177,446
Asian and Pacific Islander	2.0	6,903
Native-American	0.3	862
Other non-white	0.2	647
Multi-racial	1.7	5,980
Non-white	57.1	198,860
White	42.9	149,329
Total		348,189
The home county of this newspaper is St. Louis city.
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
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
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
63017 / Chesterfield / MO / 18.6 mi.	8,013	16,377	48.9	$83,132	10.2	1.5	1.9	0.1	5.7
63123 / Saint Louis / MO / 9.2 mi.	7,354	22,080	33.3	$42,254	5.0	1.2	0.8	0.1	1.7
63122 / Saint Louis / MO / 12.8 mi.	7,180	16,004	44.9	$60,672	8.2	1.1	5.3	0.1	0.9
63021 / Ballwin / MO / 19.6 mi.	6,866	19,977	34.4	$66,638	8.6	1.5	2.0	0.1	4.0
63031 / Florissant / MO / 15 mi.	6,756	19,000	35.6	$49,467	15.0	1.4	11.3	0.1	0.7
63011 / Ballwin / MO / 19.7 mi.	6,410	13,943	46.0	$72,721	7.7	1.7	1.7	0.2	3.3
63129 / Saint Louis / MO / 13.9 mi.	6,042	19,197	31.5	$60,626	3.7	1.1	0.6	0.1	1.2
63119 / Saint Louis / MO / 9 mi.	6,033	14,778	40.8	$52,703	12.7	1.3	8.4	0.1	1.7
63101 / Saint Louis / MO / 0 mi.	5,585	889	628.2	$17,783	72.1	0.7	69.6	0.0	0.5
63366 / O Fallon / MO / 31.8 mi.	5,551	19,761	28.1	$57,342	5.6	1.5	2.1	0.2	0.8
63376 / Saint Peters / MO / 25.7 mi.	5,409	23,591	22.9	$60,732	6.1	1.5	2.4	0.2	1.0
63141 / Saint Louis / MO / 14.4 mi.	5,056	7,969	63.4	$81,180	11.9	1.8	3.1	0.2	5.9
63026 / Fenton / MO / 17 mi.	5,053	14,969	33.8	$55,378	3.7	1.2	0.7	0.2	0.8
63301 / Saint Charles / MO / 21.3 mi.	5,051	18,333	27.6	$45,128	7.2	2.1	2.9	0.3	0.7
63128 / Saint Louis / MO / 14 mi.	5,042	11,868	42.5	$59,347	2.9	0.9	0.4	0.1	1.1
63304 / Saint Charles / MO / 24.9 mi.	4,464	12,710	35.1	$67,402	5.6	1.2	2.3	0.2	0.9
63125 / Saint Louis / MO / 9.5 mi.	4,454	14,194	31.4	$37,988	5.6	1.8	1.6	0.2	1.0
63303 / Saint Charles / MO / 20.5 mi.	4,338	16,208	26.8	$56,006	7.0	1.4	3.1	0.2	1.3
63109 / Saint Louis / MO / 6.4 mi.	4,322	14,194	30.4	$40,412	7.8	2.0	2.7	0.2	1.1
63033 / Florissant / MO / 12.2 mi.	4,197	17,888	23.5	$47,852	46.9	1.2	43.3	0.2	0.8
63116 / Saint Louis / MO / 5.2 mi.	4,138	20,209	20.5	$30,775	29.0	3.5	17.5	0.3	4.6
63146 / Saint Louis / MO / 16 mi.	4,121	13,901	29.6	$53,377	16.5	2.1	6.1	0.1	6.7
63131 / Saint Louis / MO / 13.6 mi.	3,961	5,974	66.3	$112,017	6.1	0.9	0.9	0.1	3.5
63114 / Saint Louis / MO / 10.4 mi.	3,863	15,841	24.4	$35,946	26.5	2.3	20.3	0.3	1.6
63042 / Hazelwood / MO / 14.9 mi.	3,688	8,412	43.8	$42,004	23.2