Comparing the racial diversity of the journalists
at America's daily newspapers
with the communities that they serve
Newsroom diversity report for
The Tennessean, Nashville
Nashville, Tennessee
Owner: Gannett Co. (Va.)
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	20.2
2004	20.1
2003	19.9
2002	16.5
2001	14.5
2000	17.1
1999	17.1
1998	13.8
1997	20.6
1996	20.0
1995	19.5
1994	20.9
1993	18.3
1992	14.0
1991	14.6
1990	12.2
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 Tennessean, Nashville
Year	Non-white % of newsroom staff	Non-white % of circulation area	Newsroom Diversity Index (parity=100)
2005	20.2	19.5	103
2004	20.1	19.7	102
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, Gannett Co. (Va.),
has a companywide, circulation-weighted Diversity Index of 89.
See the notes and definitions section below for the sources of these figures.
Peer group comparison
for The Tennessean, Nashville
This newspaper's Newsroom Diversity Index is 103.				This paper
				Peer group
Compare that with 64, which is the median Diversity Index for all newspapers
reporting in this circulation category of 100,001 to 250,000 daily sales.
In that group, this newspaper's Diversity Index ranks 8 out of 58
newspapers reporting in the category of 100,001 to 250,000 daily sales.
FYI, in circulation, this newspaper's average weekday circulation of
approximately 170,361 ranks 63 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 Tennessean, Nashville
	Circulation area
Race/ethnicity	% of population	Number of residents
Hispanic	3.2	50,134
Black	13.6	217,048
Asian and Pacific Islander	1.4	22,136
Native-American	0.3	4,125
Other non-white	0.1	1,628
Multi-racial	1.2	18,264
Non-white	19.7	313,335
White	80.3	1,280,530
Total		1,593,865
	Home county:  Davidson
Race/ethnicity	% of population	Number of residents
Hispanic	4.6	26,091
Black	25.8	146,939
Asian and Pacific Islander	2.4	13,550
Native-American	0.3	1,497
Other non-white	0.2	938
Multi-racial	1.7	9,726
Non-white	34.9	198,741
White	65.1	371,150
Total		569,891
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 Tennessean, Nashville
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
37027 / Brentwood / TN / 9.8 mi.	8,426	12,856	65.5	$94,590	7.4	1.3	2.6	0.2	2.6
37211 / Woodbine / TN / 6.1 mi.	6,904	27,536	25.1	$37,141	35.4	10.0	18.6	0.2	3.4
37064 / Rudderville / TN / 15.7 mi.	6,503	13,587	47.9	$59,496	15.4	3.3	10.3	0.2	0.7
37205 / Nashville / TN / 4.8 mi.	6,248	10,299	60.7	$68,194	5.2	1.1	1.3	0.1	1.8
37203 / Nashville / TN / 0 mi.	6,206	5,214	119.0	$19,437	61.9	3.2	53.2	0.2	3.6
37075 / Hendersonville / TN / 14.1 mi.	5,667	18,572	30.5	$51,916	7.5	1.6	3.9	0.3	1.0
37221 / Nashville / TN / 9.6 mi.	5,133	15,066	34.1	$57,314	11.8	1.8	5.0	0.2	3.4
37215 / Nashville / TN / 4.2 mi.	4,579	9,860	46.4	$69,446	4.6	1.0	1.4	0.2	1.4
37013 / Antioch / TN / 10.8 mi.	4,378	21,570	20.3	$46,063	37.3	5.6	25.1	0.3	4.2
37214 / Nashville / TN / 6.7 mi.	4,155	11,841	35.1	$43,222	15.0	2.7	9.1	0.4	1.6
37122 / Mount Juliet / TN / 14.8 mi.	4,001	11,543	34.7	$58,817	6.6	1.0	4.0	0.3	0.5
37076 / Hermitage / TN / 10.2 mi.	3,700	12,520	29.6	$46,514	17.7	3.6	10.9	0.4	1.3
37072 / Millersville / TN / 11.4 mi.	3,489	10,426	33.5	$45,848	10.2	1.2	6.4	0.3	1.2
37207 / Northeast / TN / 4.5 mi.	3,485	12,997	26.8	$29,703	75.3	2.7	70.2	0.2	0.7
37115 / Madison / TN / 8.3 mi.	3,460	15,605	22.2	$32,188	29.0	6.1	19.7	0.4	1.1
37209 / West / TN / 3.9 mi.	3,378	13,142	25.7	$33,014	41.1	4.2	30.8	0.3	3.7
37066 / Gallatin / TN / 23.2 mi.	3,341	12,949	25.8	$41,749	18.3	2.7	13.6	0.3	0.4
37217 / Nashville / TN / 7.7 mi.	3,042	12,238	24.9	$37,340	41.3	14.0	20.6	0.3	3.1
37167 / Smyrna / TN / 18.8 mi.	3,038	12,760	23.8	$47,971	13.1	3.6	6.8	0.3	1.2
37087 / Lebanon / TN / 25.5 mi.	3,017	12,136	24.9	$39,948	14.2	1.8	10.5	0.4	0.6
37069 / Franklin / TN / 11.8 mi.	2,838	5,420	52.4	$86,944	4.4	1.5	1.3	0.1	1.0
38401 / Columbia / TN / 37.5 mi.	2,767	19,366	14.3	$41,039	21.3	3.9	15.9	0.2	0.4
37138 / Old Hickory / TN / 10.1 mi.	2,766	8,667	31.9	$51,624	8.8	1.6	5.1	0.3	0.9
37067 / Franklin / TN / 14.7 mi.	2,609	6,082	42.9	$66,137	13.9	5.4	5.2	0.2	2.4
37129 / Murfreesboro / TN / 26.1 mi.	2,552	13,743	18.6	$50,504	11.9	2.5	6.4	0.2	1.9