Comparing the racial diversity of the journalists
at America's daily newspapers
with the communities that they serve
Newsroom diversity report for
The Sun News, Myrtle Beach
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
Owner: Knight Ridder (Calif.)
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 11.9
2004 13.1
2003 8.8
2002 Did not report
2001 11.0
2000 12.5
1999 16.1
1998 17.2
1997 18.4
1996 16.7
1995 13.7
1994 21.3
1993 18.4
1992 17.0
1991 15.9
1990 13.2
The latest year at peak is 1994
See the notes and definitions section below for the sources of these figures.
Newsroom Diversity Index
for The Sun News, Myrtle Beach
Year Non-white % of newsroom staff Non-white % of circulation area Newsroom Diversity Index (parity=100)
2005 11.9 24.7 48
2004 13.1 24.7 53
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, Knight Ridder (Calif.),
has a companywide, circulation-weighted Diversity Index of 76.
See the notes and definitions section below for the sources of these figures.
Peer group comparison
for The Sun News, Myrtle Beach
This newspaper's Newsroom Diversity Index is 48. This paper
Peer group
Compare that with 44, which is the median Diversity Index for all newspapers
reporting in this circulation category of 25,001 to 50,000 daily sales.
In that group, this newspaper's Diversity Index ranks 59 out of 140
newspapers reporting in the category of 25,001 to 50,000 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 Jackson Sun, Tennessee, with a 37.5 percent non-white staff in a community that is 24.7 percent non-white. Its index is 152.
FYI, in circulation, this newspaper's average weekday circulation of
approximately 49,462 ranks 211 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 Sun News, Myrtle Beach
Circulation area
Race/ethnicity % of population Number of residents
Hispanic 2.4 5,976
Black 20.4 51,599
Asian and Pacific Islander 0.7 1,697
Native-American 0.3 816
Other non-white 0.1 214
Multi-racial 0.8 2,073
  Non-white 24.7 62,375
White 75.3 190,051
Total 252,426
Home county:  Horry
Race/ethnicity % of population Number of residents
Hispanic 2.6 5,057
Black 15.4 30,206
Asian and Pacific Islander 0.8 1,561
Native-American 0.4 742
Other non-white 0.1 189
Multi-racial 0.9 1,834
  Non-white 20.1 39,589
White 79.9 157,040
Total 196,629
The home county of this newspaper is Horry.
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: County 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.
      
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