The Burlington Free Press... Racial diversity of its news staff and community

Comparing the racial diversity of the journalists

at America's daily newspapers

with the communities that they serve

Newsroom diversity report for

The Burlington Free Press

Burlington, Vermont

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

8.0

2004

5.9

2003

7.5

2002

6.0

2001

8.1

2000

6.1

1999

6.1

1998

10.9

1997

10.9

1996

10.2

1995

9.1

1994

6.3

1993

8.2

1992

8.5

1991

2.1

1990

5.6

The latest year at peak is

1998

See the notes and definitions section below for the sources of these figures.

Newsroom Diversity Index

for The Burlington Free Press

Year

Non-white % of newsroom staff

Non-white % of circulation area

Newsroom Diversity Index (parity=100)

2005

8.0

4.8

168

2004

5.9

4.7

125

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 Burlington Free Press

This newspaper's Newsroom Diversity Index is 168.

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 6 out of 140

newspapers reporting in the category of 25,001 to 50,000 daily sales.

FYI, in circulation, this newspaper's average weekday circulation of

approximately 48,524 ranks 216 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 Burlington Free Press

Circulation area

Race/ethnicity

% of population

Number of residents

Hispanic

1.0

2,898

Black

0.6

1,903

Asian and Pacific Islander

1.2

3,700

Native-American

0.5

1,473

Other non-white

0.1

328

Multi-racial

1.3

3,852

Non-white

4.7

14,154

White

95.3

286,165

Total

300,319

Home county: Chittenden

Race/ethnicity

% of population

Number of residents

Hispanic

1.1

1,561

Black

0.9

1,283

Asian and Pacific Islander

2.0

2,929

Native-American

0.3

380

Other non-white

0.1

206

Multi-racial

1.2

1,790

Non-white

5.6

8,149

White

94.4

138,422

Total

146,571

The home county of this newspaper is Chittenden.

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 Burlington Free Press

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

05401 / South Burlington / VT / 4.3 mi.

7,184

15,907

45.2

$33,049

8.5

1.4

1.7

0.4

2.7

05403 / South Burlington / VT / 4.3 mi.

4,201

6,290

66.8

$51,705

7.1

1.2

0.8

0.2

3.4

05452 / Pinewood / VT / 1.7 mi.

3,865

6,953

55.6

$59,137

5.2

0.8

0.9

0.2

2.2

05446 / Saint Michaels College / VT / 4.5 mi.

2,739

6,243

43.9

$51,189

4.3

1.1

0.6

0.2

1.6

05478 / Saint Albans / VT / 20 mi.

2,072

5,773

35.9

$40,907

4.0

0.7

0.3

1.0

0.4

05495 / Williston / VT / 4.3 mi.

1,999

3,186

62.7

$59,859

3.3

1.0

0.5

0.1

1.1

05468 / West Milton / VT / 8.6 mi.

1,587

3,922

40.5

$50,780

2.3

0.6

0.3

0.4

0.3

05482 / Shelburne / VT / 8.5 mi.

1,345

2,652

50.7

$67,750

3.1

0.9

0.2

0.1

1.0

05753 / Weybridge Hill / VT / 31.7 mi.

1,207

3,391

35.6

$39,710

6.0

1.9

0.9

0.2

1.6

05404 / Winooski / VT / 2.8 mi.

1,134

2,944

38.5

$30,592

10.0

1.1

1.2

0.5

5.4

05461 / Mechanicsburg / VT / 12.8 mi.

985

1,622

60.7

$50,536

2.5

0.8

0.1

0.2

0.5

05465 / West Bolton / VT / 7 mi.

891

1,870

47.6

$62,989

3.2

1.1

0.6

0.1

0.6

05661 / Mud City / VT / 24.4 mi.

869

2,202

39.5

$34,271

3.1

0.7

0.3

0.4

0.5

05488 / West Swanton / VT / 26.8 mi.

816

2,738

29.8

$40,979

7.4

0.5

0.4

3.7

0.4

05602 / Montpelier Junction / VT / 30.1 mi.

816

5,400

15.1

$40,331

4.2

1.1

0.5

0.3

0.7

05491 / West Ferrisburg / VT / 22.7 mi.

789

2,196

35.9

$45,242

4.8

1.6

0.9

0.2

0.4

05454 / Fairfax / VT / 13.4 mi.

743

1,290

57.6

$52,857

3.0

0.6

0.5

0.4

05443 / West Lincoln / VT / 23.8 mi.

660

2,415

27.3

$45,551

2.4

0.7

0.2

0.5

05676 / Waterbury / VT / 20.2 mi.

657

1,905

34.5

$43,165

2.3

0.4

0.2

0.1

0.6

05445 / Charlotte / VT / 13.7 mi.

650

1,287

50.5

$62,313

2.5

0.7

0.2

0.1

0.6

05477 / Richmond / VT / 9.4 mi.

632

1,709

37.0

$56,713

2.1

0.7

0.0

0.2

0.4

05641 / Trow Hill / VT / 35 mi.

625

7,273

8.6

$36,176

3.3

1.6

0.3

0.2

0.4

05855 / West Derby / VT / 50.8 mi.

580

3,171

18.3

$30,000

4.2

1.1

0.6

0.4

05672 / Stowe / VT / 22 mi.

572

1,915

29.9

$52,378

3.1

1.1

0.3

0.4

05450 / Woodpecker Village / VT / 29.4 mi.

427

1,832

23.3

$36,138

3.8

0.5

0.3

1.1

0.2