Comparing the racial diversity of the journalists
at America's daily newspapers
with the communities that they serve
Newsroom diversity report for
Abilene Reporter-News
Abilene, Texas
Owner: Scripps (Ohio)
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 12.5
2004 10.0
2003 12.8
2002 15.4
2001 8.9
2000 2.6
1999 5.0
1998 2.1
1997 2.4
1996 Did not report
1995 5.1
1994 5.1
1993 5.1
1992 Did not report
1991 Did not report
1990 Did not report
The latest year at peak is 2002
See the notes and definitions section below for the sources of these figures.
Newsroom Diversity Index
for Abilene Reporter-News
Year Non-white % of newsroom staff Non-white % of circulation area Newsroom Diversity Index (parity=100)
2005 12.5 26.2 48
2004 10.0 26.2 38
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, Scripps (Ohio),
has a companywide, circulation-weighted Diversity Index of 56.
See the notes and definitions section below for the sources of these figures.
Peer group comparison
for Abilene Reporter-News
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 61 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 Longview News-Journal, Texas, with a 23.1 percent non-white staff in a community that is 28.4 percent non-white. Its index is 81.
FYI, in circulation, this newspaper's average weekday circulation of
approximately 32,627 ranks 314 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 Abilene Reporter-News
Circulation area
Race/ethnicity % of population Number of residents
Hispanic 18.2 45,019
Black 5.7 14,087
Asian and Pacific Islander 0.8 1,925
Native-American 0.4 881
Other non-white 0.1 187
Multi-racial 1.1 2,705
  Non-white 26.2 64,804
White 73.8 182,775
Total 247,579
Home county:  Taylor
Race/ethnicity % of population Number of residents
Hispanic 17.6 22,328
Black 6.5 8,243
Asian and Pacific Islander 1.3 1,590
Native-American 0.4 494
Other non-white 0.1 104
Multi-racial 1.4 1,797
  Non-white 27.3 34,556
White 72.7 91,999
Total 126,555
The home county of this newspaper is Taylor.
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
Abilene Reporter-News
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
79605 / Abilene / TX / 8.1 mi. 5,118 12,965 39.5 $33,309 24.0 14.4 6.3 0.4 1.2
79606 / Abilene / TX / 11 mi. 4,158 7,381 56.3 $46,652 15.6 7.4 4.3 0.2 2.1
79601 / Abilene / TX / 0 mi. 3,951 7,171 55.1 $26,307 34.7 18.7 13.8 0.3 1.1
79603 / Abilene / TX / 7.2 mi. 3,143 8,681 36.2 $30,175 47.5 35.5 9.5 0.5 0.6
79602 / Abilene / TX / 8.4 mi. 2,162 6,859 31.5 $35,362 25.0 17.1 5.0 0.4 1.2
79510 / Clyde / TX / 15.7 mi. 1,176 2,903 40.5 $34,073 7.4 5.2 0.3 0.5 0.3
79556 / Sweetwater / TX / 36.3 mi. 1,007 5,299 19.0 $26,271 34.4 28.2 5.1 0.2 0.2
76801 / Brownwood / TX / 72.1 mi. 917 9,667 9.5 $29,143 25.6 18.6 5.2 0.4 0.4
76424 / Breckenridge / TX / 51.3 mi. 595 3,401 17.5 $29,622 19.8 15.5 3.1 0.2 0.3
76448 / Eastland / TX / 51.8 mi. 583 2,203 26.5 $29,604 12.7 10.6 1.3 0.2 0.1
79536 / Merkel / TX / 20 mi. 524 1,881 27.9 $31,957 13.6 11.0 0.7 0.5 0.1
79553 / Stamford / TX / 37.7 mi. 509 1,554 32.8 $25,574 34.8 25.2 7.5 0.6 0.1
79521 / Haskell / TX / 47.5 mi. 497 1,617 30.7 $23,576 24.1 19.7 3.0 0.4 0.1
79501 / Anson / TX / 23.3 mi. 493 1,354 36.4 $26,516 31.9 28.0 2.2 0.2 0.6
76834 / Coleman / TX / 44.3 mi. 448 2,703 16.6 $25,816 18.8 14.8 2.3 0.4 0.3
76437 / Cisco / TX / 39.8 mi. 422 2,197 19.2 $26,229 12.2 8.0 2.7 0.4 0.2
79520 / Hamlin / TX / 37.2 mi. 410 1,053 38.9 $27,478 26.9 19.8 5.4 0.1 0.8
79512 / Colorado City / TX / 68.6 mi. 395 2,370 16.7 $25,509 45.2 30.1 13.9 0.2 0.4
79525 / Hawley / TX / 13.3 mi. 383 1,059 36.2 $37,143 7.2 5.2 0.4 0.2 0.6
76430 / Albany / TX / 25.9 mi. 371 949 39.1 $29,337 9.5 8.2 0.3 0.3 0.0
79567 / Winters / TX / 37.3 mi. 344 1,499 22.9 $28,346 34.5 31.1 1.5 0.4 0.4
79549 / Snyder / TX / 76.2 mi. 337 5,215 6.5 $31,737 33.7 28.6 3.9 0.3 0.3
79563 / Tye / TX / 11.2 mi. 313 419 74.7 $30,125 13.4 9.9 1.4 0.4 0.7
79546 / Rotan / TX / 54.6 mi. 307 896 34.3 $24,167 33.9 28.5 3.9 0.3 0.2
79504 / Baird / TX / 24.3 mi. 286 1,213 23.6 $30,256 11.6 9.4 0.1 0.2 0.7
79562 / Tuscola / TX / 23.6 mi. 269 932 28.9 $46,696 7.4 4.9 0.4 0.8 0.1
76470 / Ranger / TX / 62.8 mi. 261 1,300 20.1 $24,214 18.6 11.5 5.3 0.5 0.5
76442 / Comanche / TX / 71.9 mi. 233 2,954 7.9 $29,420 23.6 21.3 0.8 0.5 0.2
76443 / Cross Plains / TX / 32 mi. 220 677 32.5 $22,969 6.2 4.6 0.0 0.8 0.0
79529 / Knox City / TX / 66.6 mi. 218 586 37.2 $25,852 32.9 22.1 8.7 0.3 0.3
76444 / De Leon / TX / 67.9 mi. 205 1,593 12.9 $25,809 21.8 20.5 0.1 0.3 0.1
79545 / Roscoe / TX / 50.1 mi. 197 674 29.2 $26,202 32.3 30.5 0.8 0.3 0.1
79543 / Roby / TX / 49 mi. 186 489 38.0 $31,058 21.1 17.9 1.8 0.7 0.0
79502 / Aspermont / TX / 57.9 mi. 185 621 29.8 $27,037 16.2 11.3 3.0 0.3 0.3
76454 / Gorman / TX / 57.8 mi. 166 665 25.0 $27,472 23.8 22.9 0.1 0.3 0.1
76401 / Stephenville / TX / 85.3 mi. 162 8,935 1.8 $30,602 14.4 11.6 1.1 0.4 0.5
79720 / Big Spring / TX / 103.9 mi. 162 10,850 1.5 $30,531 44.1 38.2 4.0 0.4 0.6
79607 / Dyess AFB / TX / 8.6 mi. 150 1,123 13.4 $33,846 33.3 13.4 12.3 0.5 3.0
79547 / Rule / TX / 51 mi. 149 351 42.5 $24,531 20.5 17.9 1.8 0.1 0.0
76371 / Munday / TX / 68.5 mi. 147 752 19.5 $25,417 35.7 27.6 6.9 0.3 0.2
76471 / Rising Star / TX / 45.9 mi. 147 719 20.4 $27,150 7.9 6.2 0.1 0.4 0.2
79530 / Lawn / TX / 24.5 mi. 133 200 66.5 $32,841 7.3 6.0 0.0 0.2 0.6
79508 / Buffalo Gap / TX / 16.2 mi. 128 432 29.6 $43,092 8.9 5.6 0.6 0.2 0.6
76821 / Ballinger / TX / 51.2 mi. 110 2,062 5.3 $26,936 32.3 28.9 1.7 0.2 0.4
76446 / Dublin / TX / 81.3 mi. 108 2,956 3.7 $28,374 27.2 26.0 0.1 0.3 0.1
76844 / Goldthwaite / TX / 99.1 mi. 103 1,427 7.2 $30,355 17.7 15.6 1.1 0.2 0.1
79561 / Trent / TX / 24.7 mi. 101 260 38.8 $39,375 16.5 13.5 1.5 0.0 0.5
79533 / Lueders / TX / 19.2 mi. 85 183 46.4 $27,981 8.4 6.3 1.2 0.7 0.0
76483 / Throckmorton / TX / 54.5 mi. 76 505 15.0 $29,940 11.0 9.8 0.1 0.3 0.1
79544 / Rochester / TX / 57.4 mi. 71 265 26.8 $20,568 34.4 28.5 3.8 0.6 0.6
76475 / Strawn / TX / 70.5 mi. 69 403 17.1 $30,326 22.0 20.3 0.2 0.5 0.0
76878 / Santa Anna / TX / 62.4 mi. 66 653 10.1 $23,333 19.7 15.1 3.2 0.4 0.1
76823 / Bangs / TX / 57.6 mi. 53 1,149 4.6 $29,654 15.6 10.6 3.6 0.2 0.0
79532 / Loraine / TX / 63.2 mi. 53 377 14.1 $22,596 47.9 41.8 4.6 0.8 0.0
76388 / Weinert / TX / 58.6 mi. 44 103 42.7 $24,000 18.1 17.2 0.0 0.0 0.0
76491 / Woodson / TX / 68.7 mi. 39 191 20.4 $27,083 10.5 10.1 0.0 0.0 0.0
76469 / Putnam / TX / 29.7 mi. 38 15 253.3 $11,667 12.1 9.1 0.0 0.0 3.0
79526 / Hermleigh / TX / 62.3 mi. 36 431 8.4 $29,896 42.4 23.4 18.7 0.2 0.0
79506 / Blackwell / TX / 45.7 mi. 32 377 8.5 $29,537 8.9 7.2 0.4 0.8 0.0
79511 / Coahoma / TX / 92.3 mi. 31 546 5.7 $38,854 20.7 19.5 0.4 0.5 0.1
79566 / Wingate / TX / 42.2 mi. 29 149 19.5 $27,222 20.7 19.0 1.2 0.0 0.3
76464 / Moran / TX / 30.7 mi. 28 183 15.3 $29,167 5.5 4.3 0.0 1.0 0.0
79548 / Rule / TX / 39.8 mi. 28 81 34.6 $22,917 22.3 18.7 2.1 0.0 0.0
76945 / Robert Lee / TX / 70 mi. 22 804 2.7 $28,750 18.6 16.8 0.2 0.9 0.1
79538 / Novice / TX / 33.8 mi. 22 89 24.7 $31,667 12.6 11.7 0.0 0.4 0.0
79503 / Avoca / TX / 28.5 mi. 18 112 16.1 $36,458 17.6 13.4 2.8 0.0 0.0
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