Comparing the racial diversity of the journalists
at America's daily newspapers
with the communities that they serve
Newsroom diversity report for
The Post and Courier, Charleston
Charleston, South Carolina
Owner: Evening Post Publishing (S.C.)
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 11.8
2000 12.3
1999 8.1
1998 9.8
1997 10.5
1996 10.8
1995 12.3
1994 12.2
1993 11.4
1992 10.2
1991 9.7
1990 6.3
The latest year at peak is 2000
See the notes and definitions section below for the sources of these figures.
Newsroom Diversity Index
for The Post and Courier, Charleston
Year Non-white % of newsroom staff Non-white % of circulation area Newsroom Diversity Index (parity=100)
2005 N/A 35.9 N/A
2004 N/A 35.9 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, Evening Post Publishing (S.C.),
has a companywide, circulation-weighted Diversity Index of 19.
See the notes and definitions section below for the sources of these figures.
Peer group comparison
for The Post and Courier, Charleston
This paper
Peer group
The median Diversity Index is 50 for all newspapers
reporting in this circulation 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 The Times, Shreveport, Louisiana, with a 31.1 percent non-white staff in a community that is 41.3 percent non-white. Its index is 75.
FYI, in circulation, this newspaper's average weekday circulation of
approximately 95,588 ranks 109 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 Post and Courier, Charleston
Circulation area
Race/ethnicity % of population Number of residents
Hispanic 2.4 13,048
Black 30.5 166,181
Asian and Pacific Islander 1.4 7,418
Native-American 0.4 2,080
Other non-white 0.1 607
Multi-racial 1.1 6,219
  Non-white 35.9 195,553
White 64.1 349,180
Total 544,733
Home county:  Charleston
Race/ethnicity % of population Number of residents
Hispanic 2.4 7,434
Black 34.3 106,337
Asian and Pacific Islander 1.2 3,552
Native-American 0.2 712
Other non-white 0.1 339
Multi-racial 1.0 3,053
  Non-white 39.2 121,427
White 60.8 188,542
Total 309,969
The home county of this newspaper is Charleston.
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 Post and Courier, Charleston
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
29464 / Mount Pleasant / SC / 5.8 mi. 11,842 16,098 73.6 $57,014 13.1 1.3 9.7 0.2 1.1
29407 / Saint Andrews / SC / 3.4 mi. 7,379 16,142 45.7 $37,436 35.0 1.6 30.6 0.2 1.7
29412 / James Island / SC / 4.3 mi. 6,760 13,338 50.7 $45,762 22.7 1.2 19.8 0.2 0.7
29483 / Summerville / SC / 20 mi. 6,716 17,382 38.6 $40,926 24.9 2.0 20.0 0.7 0.8
29403 / Charleston / SC / 0 mi. 5,437 9,309 58.4 $17,843 71.7 1.5 68.5 0.1 0.7
29445 / Goose Creek / SC / 13.2 mi. 5,436 15,974 34.0 $43,629 29.3 4.1 18.4 0.5 4.0
29406 / North Charleston / SC / 8.7 mi. 5,311 14,881 35.7 $32,127 38.8 4.9 29.9 0.5 1.8
29485 / Summerville / SC / 17 mi. 4,730 10,321 45.8 $50,861 18.0 1.9 13.5 0.3 1.1
29414 / Charleston / SC / 5.9 mi. 4,563 9,615 47.5 $48,251 24.3 1.6 19.6 0.2 1.7
29405 / Pinehaven / SC / 4.4 mi. 3,878 10,881 35.6 $23,200 72.1 2.5 67.4 0.3 0.8
29461 / Moncks Corner / SC / 22.8 mi. 3,702 8,809 42.0 $35,827 35.3 2.2 30.9 0.7 0.4
29455 / Seabrook Island / SC / 10.4 mi. 3,667 5,353 68.5 $40,175 40.1 5.6 32.7 0.4 0.5
29418 / North Charleston / SC / 8.4 mi. 3,136 8,796 35.7 $35,424 48.3 3.4 39.6 0.3 3.0
29401 / Charleston / SC / 1.4 mi. 2,856 4,691 60.9 $36,671 12.1 1.2 9.4 0.1 0.8
29420 / North Charleston / SC / 11.4 mi. 2,294 5,010 45.8 $46,366 47.7 4.5 38.0 0.4 2.9
29456 / Ladson / SC / 16.4 mi. 1,894 6,129 30.9 $43,305 27.7 2.9 20.0 0.8 2.1
29451 / Isle of Palms / SC / 9.6 mi. 1,444 1,951 74.0 $75,847 2.7 1.2 0.4 0.1 0.5
29466 / Mount Pleasant / SC / 4.7 mi. 1,182 4,635 25.5 $67,492 22.2 1.6 18.6 0.1 1.3
29479 / Saint Stephen / SC / 39.1 mi. 993 2,539 39.1 $27,602 65.0 1.2 62.7 0.2 0.1
29449 / Yonges Island / SC / 17.8 mi. 937 2,630 35.6 $32,958 63.1 2.2 60.1 0.2 0.2
29477 / Saint George / SC / 42.2 mi. 716 2,600 27.5 $26,125 52.7 0.9 50.7 0.4 0.4
29472 / Ridgeville / SC / 27.5 mi. 665 2,580 25.8 $33,367 53.9 1.1 49.2 2.5 0.2
29492 / Wando / SC / 10.5 mi. 550 729 75.4 $66,042 41.8 0.7 40.2 0.1 0.5
29470 / Ravenel / SC / 14.8 mi. 526 1,459 36.1 $34,070 44.5 1.6 42.2 0.2 0.0
29431 / Bonneau / SC / 33.5 mi. 497 2,097 23.7 $39,214 15.2 1.3 13.0 0.3 0.1
29482 / Sullivans Island / SC / 6.4 mi. 479 797 60.1 $72,955 2.1 0.8 0.6 0.1 0.2
29438 / Edisto Island / SC / 24.6 mi. 425 989 43.0 $34,688 40.6 1.4 38.4 0.2 0.1
29439 / Folly Beach / SC / 9 mi. 418 961 43.5 $46,492 4.4 1.5 0.7 0.5 0.2
29448 / Harleyville / SC / 42.2 mi. 366 928 39.4 $29,577 46.8 0.5 44.6 0.8 0.1
29436 / Cross / SC / 35.1 mi. 296 1,639 18.1 $26,859 64.7 1.2 62.2 0.6 0.1
29429 / Awendaw / SC / 17.5 mi. 292 958 30.5 $31,731 62.4 1.0 60.4 0.2 0.3
29437 / Dorchester / SC / 32.1 mi. 285 778 36.6 $35,393 49.9 0.2 48.1 0.4 0.1
29487 / Wadmalaw Island / SC / 16 mi. 262 960 27.3 $31,653 65.3 4.1 60.6 0.1 0.1
29458 / McClellanville / SC / 32.4 mi. 224 1,062 21.1 $28,938 70.7 0.9 68.8 0.1 0.1
29426 / Osborn / SC / 23.1 mi. 222 676 32.8 $27,400 69.7 0.8 68.2 0.1 0.1
29404 / North Charleston / SC / 8.9 mi. 190 1,208 15.7 $34,736 27.9 6.6 16.1 0.7 1.6
29450 / Huger / SC / 16.7 mi. 173 982 17.6 $34,535 75.0 0.9 73.1 0.3 0.3
29468 / Pineville / SC / 40.3 mi. 137 872 15.7 $21,500 84.7 0.7 83.6 0.0 0.0
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