Comparing the racial diversity of the journalists
at America's daily newspapers
with the communities that they serve
Newsroom diversity report for
The Huntsville Item
Huntsville, Texas
Owner: Community Newspaper Holdings (Ala.)
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	11.1
2004	12.5
2003	11.1
2002	12.5
2001	22.2
2000	18.2
1999	6.7
1998	Did not report
1997	10.0
1996	28.6
1995	10.0
1994	11.1
1993	12.5
1992	18.2
1991	Did not report
1990	Did not report
The latest year at peak is	1996
See the notes and definitions section below for the sources of these figures.
Newsroom Diversity Index
for The Huntsville Item
Year	Non-white % of newsroom staff	Non-white % of circulation area	Newsroom Diversity Index (parity=100)
2005	11.1	39.9	28
2004	12.5	39.9	31
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, Community Newspaper Holdings (Ala.),
has a companywide, circulation-weighted Diversity Index of 41.
See the notes and definitions section below for the sources of these figures.
Peer group comparison
for The Huntsville Item
This newspaper's Newsroom Diversity Index is 28.				This paper
				Peer group
Compare that with 0, which is the median Diversity Index for all newspapers
reporting in this circulation category of 5,001 to 10,000 daily sales.
In that group, this newspaper's Diversity Index ranks 77 out of 211
newspapers reporting in the category of 5,001 to 10,000 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 Manteca Bulletin, California, with a 63.6 percent non-white staff in a community that is 39.4 percent non-white. Its index is 161.
FYI, in circulation, this newspaper's average weekday circulation of
approximately 5,646 ranks 1081 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 Huntsville Item
	Circulation area
Race/ethnicity	% of population	Number of residents
Hispanic	14.1	8,712
Black	23.8	14,672
Asian and Pacific Islander	0.8	489
Native-American	0.3	169
Other non-white	0.1	70
Multi-racial	0.9	556
Non-white	39.9	24,668
White	60.1	37,090
Total		61,758
	Home county:  Walker
Race/ethnicity	% of population	Number of residents
Hispanic	14.1	8,712
Black	23.8	14,672
Asian and Pacific Islander	0.8	489
Native-American	0.3	169
Other non-white	0.1	70
Multi-racial	0.9	556
Non-white	39.9	24,668
White	60.1	37,090
Total		61,758
For this newspaper the home county was used as the circulation area. That county is Walker.
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: Newspaper's home county.
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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