Comparing the racial diversity of the journalists
at America's daily newspapers
with the communities that they serve
Newsroom diversity report for
The Meridian Star
Meridian, Mississippi
Owner: Community Newspaper Holdings (Ala.)
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 Did not report
1999 Did not report
1998 5.3
1997 11.1
1996 Did not report
1995 Did not report
1994 Did not report
1993 9.1
1992 5.3
1991 4.4
1990 Did not report
The latest year at peak is 1997
See the notes and definitions section below for the sources of these figures.
Newsroom Diversity Index
for The Meridian Star
Year Non-white % of newsroom staff Non-white % of circulation area Newsroom Diversity Index (parity=100)
2005 N/A 42.2 N/A
2004 N/A 42.2 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, Community Newspaper Holdings (Ala.),
has a companywide, circulation-weighted Diversity Index of 41.
See the notes and definitions section below for the sources of these figures.
Peer group comparison
for The Meridian Star
This paper
Peer group
The median Diversity Index is 33 for all newspapers
reporting in this circulation category of 10,001 to 25,000 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 Muskogee Daily Phoenix and Times-Democrat, Oklahoma, with a 43.5 percent non-white staff in a community that is 36.9 percent non-white. Its index is 118.
FYI, in circulation, this newspaper's average weekday circulation of
approximately 15,379 ranks 601 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 Meridian Star
Circulation area
Race/ethnicity % of population Number of residents
Hispanic 1.1 1,330
Black 40.1 50,775
Asian and Pacific Islander 0.4 465
Native-American 0.1 183
Other non-white 0.0 53
Multi-racial 0.5 596
  Non-white 42.2 53,402
White 57.8 73,132
Total 126,534
Home county:  Lauderdale
Race/ethnicity % of population Number of residents
Hispanic 1.1 888
Black 38.0 29,706
Asian and Pacific Islander 0.5 406
Native-American 0.2 127
Other non-white 0.0 31
Multi-racial 0.5 416
  Non-white 40.4 31,574
White 59.6 46,587
Total 78,161
The home county of this newspaper is Lauderdale.
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 Meridian Star
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
39301 / Meridian / MS / 0 mi. 5,691 11,294 50.4 $24,390 49.6 0.9 47.5 0.2 0.4
39305 / Meridian / MS / 11.6 mi. 2,849 7,644 37.3 $43,563 20.0 1.3 17.4 0.1 0.7
39307 / Meridian / MS / 14.6 mi. 1,063 6,736 15.8 $24,556 52.6 1.1 50.3 0.2 0.5
39325 / Collinsville / MS / 19.6 mi. 932 1,873 49.8 $45,206 13.4 0.7 11.9 0.1 0.3
39350 / Philadelphia / MS / 43.4 mi. 751 8,339 9.0 $28,411 41.0 1.1 21.8 17.0 0.3
39355 / Quitman / MS / 16.5 mi. 611 2,915 21.0 $31,415 29.9 0.9 28.5 0.1 0.1
39328 / De Kalb / MS / 26.7 mi. 594 1,778 33.4 $22,899 62.1 0.5 60.6 0.1 0.1
39345 / Newton / MS / 36.5 mi. 557 2,534 22.0 $26,778 54.3 0.7 52.8 0.1 0.4
36907 / Cuba / AL / 13.9 mi. 444 864 51.4 $21,976 77.6 1.7 75.6 0.0 0.0
39335 / Lauderdale / MS / 15.3 mi. 375 1,365 27.5 $33,889 43.0 2.8 38.0 0.4 0.9
39365 / Union / MS / 27.7 mi. 304 3,074 9.9 $27,727 18.0 0.9 15.9 0.6 0.1
36904 / Butler / AL / 27.6 mi. 262 1,932 13.6 $27,823 37.9 0.6 36.7 0.2 0.0
39326 / Daleville / MS / 16.4 mi. 256 310 82.6 $28,125 48.1 2.4 42.0 0.6 1.9
39341 / Macon / MS / 51 mi. 231 2,880 8.0 $22,912 70.3 1.1 68.4 0.2 0.1
39356 / Rose Hill / MS / 28.6 mi. 231 364 63.5 $24,850 44.6 1.9 42.3 0.3 0.1
39363 / Stonewall / MS / 14.7 mi. 215 808 26.6 $24,199 28.0 0.4 26.8 0.3 0.0
39367 / Waynesboro / MS / 46 mi. 209 5,981 3.5 $26,192 40.2 0.7 39.1 0.1 0.2
36925 / York / AL / 23.1 mi. 183 1,489 12.3 $19,724 77.2 1.0 75.5 0.1 0.1
39327 / Decatur / MS / 32.3 mi. 182 1,426 12.8 $29,784 27.1 0.8 25.4 0.3 0.1
39320 / Bailey / MS / 13.3 mi. 177 805 22.0 $36,799 24.8 0.8 23.2 0.3 0.1
39323 / Chunky / MS / 22.3 mi. 145 469 30.9 $40,972 13.3 4.1 8.0 0.1 0.3
36912 / Lisman / AL / 14.7 mi. 116 939 12.4 $19,414 85.4 0.9 83.7 0.1 0.0
39364 / Toomsuba / MS / 10.4 mi. 116 1,135 10.2 $30,729 43.4 0.7 42.0 0.0 0.2
39330 / Enterprise / MS / 20.9 mi. 111 1,020 10.9 $30,500 24.5 0.4 23.7 0.1 0.3
39092 / Lake / MS / 45.4 mi. 93 923 10.1 $25,081 34.6 1.0 33.1 0.0 0.0
36908 / Gilbertown / AL / 34.6 mi. 75 1,271 5.9 $28,828 16.5 0.8 15.1 0.1 0.1
39346 / Noxapater / MS / 56.4 mi. 68 1,037 6.6 $27,370 34.5 0.8 33.4 0.1 0.0
39358 / Scooba / MS / 36 mi. 33 601 5.5 $24,141 61.1 0.7 59.7 0.2 0.0
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