Comparing the racial diversity of the journalists | ||||||||||
at America's daily newspapers | ||||||||||
with the communities that they serve | ||||||||||
Newsroom diversity report for | ||||||||||
The Dispatch, Lexington | ||||||||||
Lexington, North Carolina | ||||||||||
Owner: New York Times Co. | ||||||||||
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 | 7.1 | |||||||||
2004 | 7.1 | |||||||||
2003 | 14.3 | |||||||||
2002 | 15.4 | |||||||||
2001 | 13.3 | |||||||||
2000 | 6.7 | |||||||||
1999 | 6.7 | |||||||||
1998 | 6.7 | |||||||||
1997 | 7.7 | |||||||||
1996 | 8.3 | |||||||||
1995 | 16.7 | |||||||||
1994 | 16.7 | |||||||||
1993 | 8.3 | |||||||||
1992 | 0.0 | |||||||||
1991 | 10.0 | |||||||||
1990 | 9.1 | |||||||||
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 Dispatch, Lexington | ||||||||||
Year | Non-white % of newsroom staff | Non-white % of circulation area | Newsroom Diversity Index (parity=100) | |||||||
2005 | 7.1 | 18.0 | 39 | |||||||
2004 | 7.1 | 18.0 | 39 | |||||||
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, New York Times Co., | ||||||||||
has a companywide, circulation-weighted Diversity Index of 69. | ||||||||||
See the notes and definitions section below for the sources of these figures. | ||||||||||
Peer group comparison | ||||||||||
for The Dispatch, Lexington | ||||||||||
This newspaper's Newsroom Diversity Index is 39. | This paper | |||||||||
Peer group | ||||||||||
Compare that with 33, which is the median Diversity Index for all newspapers | ||||||||||
reporting in this circulation category of 10,001 to 25,000 daily sales. | ||||||||||
In that group, this newspaper's Diversity Index ranks 114 out of 259 | ||||||||||
newspapers reporting in the 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 Enterprise Ledger, Alabama, with a 16.7 percent non-white staff in a community that is 24.4 percent non-white. Its index is 68. | ||||||||||
FYI, in circulation, this newspaper's average weekday circulation of | ||||||||||
approximately 11,704 ranks 717 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 Dispatch, Lexington | ||||||||||
Circulation area | ||||||||||
Race/ethnicity | % of population | Number of residents |
|
|||||||
Hispanic | 4.2 | 2,173 | ||||||||
Black | 11.8 | 6,089 | ||||||||
Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.8 | 409 | ||||||||
Native-American | 0.3 | 167 | ||||||||
Other non-white | 0.1 | 39 | ||||||||
Multi-racial | 0.8 | 411 | ||||||||
Non-white | 18.0 | 9,288 | ||||||||
White | 82.0 | 42,283 | ||||||||
Total | 51,571 | |||||||||
Home county: Davidson | ||||||||||
Race/ethnicity | % of population | Number of residents |
|
|||||||
Hispanic | 3.2 | 4,765 | ||||||||
Black | 9.1 | 13,389 | ||||||||
Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.8 | 1,193 | ||||||||
Native-American | 0.3 | 466 | ||||||||
Other non-white | 0.1 | 137 | ||||||||
Multi-racial | 0.8 | 1,138 | ||||||||
Non-white | 14.3 | 21,088 | ||||||||
White | 85.7 | 126,158 | ||||||||
Total | 147,246 | |||||||||
The home county of this newspaper is Davidson. | ||||||||||
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 Dispatch, Lexington | ||||||||||
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 |
|
27292 / Lexington / NC / 0 mi. | 9,160 | 15,295 | 59.9 | $34,237 | 22.8 | 5.2 | 15.4 | 0.4 | 0.9 | |
27299 / Linwood / NC / 7.8 mi. | 514 | 1,584 | 32.4 | $38,023 | 5.8 | 1.4 | 2.3 | 0.4 | 0.6 | |
27239 / Denton / NC / 16.5 mi. | 395 | 3,298 | 12.0 | $38,125 | 2.3 | 1.0 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.3 | |
27360 / Thomasville / NC / 9.7 mi. | 268 | 16,736 | 1.6 | $35,939 | 17.4 | 3.8 | 11.9 | 0.4 | 0.5 | |
27107 / Winston Salem / NC / 15.8 mi. | 196 | 14,588 | 1.3 | $36,279 | 43.6 | 10.8 | 31.6 | 0.3 | 0.2 | |
27127 / Winston Salem / NC / 15.5 mi. | 81 | 10,906 | 0.7 | $42,594 | 32.1 | 5.9 | 23.4 | 0.3 | 1.3 | |
27012 / Clemmons / NC / 15.7 mi. | 68 | 8,123 | 0.8 | $60,765 | 8.9 | 2.2 | 4.3 | 0.1 | 1.4 | |
File | nc_the_dispatch__lexington | |||||||||
Time | 5/21/05 7:59 PM | |||||||||
Page | 716 | |||||||||
Member | 133000 |