[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0Ti-gkJiXc]
This is the caption of the video.
"No Contradiction" With Tough Economic Times
Amid concerns that economic troubles are putting newsroom diversity on
the back burner, Marcus Brauchli, the incoming
executive editor of the Washington Post, maintained Wednesday that
diversity of all kinds should be a core value of a news
organization, that there is no contradiction between seeking diversity
and struggling with tough times, and that racial
diversity need not be subsumed when seeking diversity of age, gender,
economic class and other indicators.
"Diversity of background brings diversity of ideas brings diversity of
coverage," Brauchli told Journal-isms. That, in turn,
can "improve the vision of the news."
Brauchli, 47, was named to the Post’s top newsroom job on Monday, the
first from outside the corporation since shortly after
new publisher Katharine Weymouth‘s great-grandfather Eugene Meyer
bought the paper at a bankruptcy sale in 1933, as Howard
Kurtz noted
in the Post after the announcement.
Brouchli became managing editor of the Wall Street Journal in May 2007
and remained there until April, until Rupert
Murdoch forced him out. Brauchli’s views on diversity are important
because while both news organizations are nationally influential, the
Post is viewed by some as a leader in
implementing the concept and, according to Journal staffers, the Journal is not.
"Frankly, I don’t know how he feels
about diversity," Wall Street Journal Washington reporter Gary Fields
told Journal-isms, "I don’t think it’s a big secret
that diversity doesn’t seem to be the priority or talking point it was
in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but
generally, as an outsider, I’ve always seen the Post as being one of the
most diverse papers out there in terms of its staff. That perception, at
least, remains true even at a time when minorities have been leaving the
bigger news organizations so he has a better foundation there to work
from than probably most other places."
Brauchli rejected the notion that diversity was not a priority at the
Journal. "It’s a huge priority," he said.
"We have tried very hard at the Journal. The Journal has always placed
a priority on having a diverse newsroom. It was not an
easy thing to do. There are not nearly enough people of diverse
backgrounds interested" in the news business, he said,
adding that "we all have an obligation to help bring people in.
"People of certain backgrounds tend to bring in people of the same or
similar backgrounds," he said, and newsroom
compositions "tend to be self-perpetuating."
Even so, Brauchli acknowledged, "we have not been as effective and
successful as we would like to have been."
Brauchli spoke from New York, where he was about to attend a function
of the Asian American Journalists Association. He said
he had attended Unity conventions with his chief newsroom recruiter,
Cathy Panagoulias, now a deputy managing editor, but
would not be at this month’s gathering in Chicago because he is
"between business cards." He does not start at the Post until
Sept. 8, and said he could not discuss diversity at the Post
specifically until he arrived there.
However, Weymouth, his boss, told Journal-isms, "No doubt it will be
an important priority for him."
The Post reported 25.1 percent journalists of color in the latest
survey of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, with
the largest portion — 13.5 percent — African American. The Journal
reported 20.4 percent, with the largest portion — 9.1
percent — Asian American.
Former Journal colleagues described Brouchli as open-minded and with a
strong desire to prove himself at the Post after the
clash with Murdoch. As one whose career has mostly seen him abroad as a foreign
correspondent, they said, Brouchli is sophisticated enough to know the
world is not composed of white males.
He had been national editor, but the paper gives its subeditors such
autonomy that it was difficult to make an impact on
diversity, according to these colleagues, and he wasn’t managing
editor long enough to do so. Moreover, they said the culture
did not place a strong priority on diversity when it involved African Americans.
"I like Marcus a lot," said Constance Mitchell-Ford, a black
journalist who is the Journal’s Real Estate and Property Bureau
Chief. "He learns fast is used to adjusting to different environments.
He tried to get the other editors to think outside
the box."
Raju Narisetti, a former Journal editor who is now editor of the Mint
in India, published in partnership with the Journal,
told Journal-isms that "While Marcus was in the top news role at The
Wall Street Journal for too short a period to have a
visible, long-term impact on diversity, his track record with women,
non-whites, non-Americans is quite solid from the time
he has been in a position to hire and juggle roles at WSJ as National Editor.
"Managing Editors of Asian and European journals, both decisions where
Marcus played the decisive role, are female/black
respectively as are several bureau chiefs, some of whom took on those
roles during the time Marcus played a key role in such
decisions along with Paul Steiger and Dan Hertzberg," Narisetti said by e-mail.
"Because of his diverse experiences, including significant foreign
stints, Marcus brings not just your conventional
skin-color and ethnic diversity issues to bear but also a much more
global approach to diversity.
"As someone who has worked closely with Marcus for nearly a decade, I
can pretty categorically say his role at the Washington
Post will also see the newsroom there — both print and online —
become a lot more diverse in its appearance but, more
importantly, in its thinking and its ability to serve a diverse
Washington-based readership (via Washington Post), a smaller
but important non-Washington yet US readership (again via Washington
Post and its online version) as well as a global
readership that turns to the Washington Post (via washingtonpost.com)
for an understanding of American policy and politics as
well the American view of geopolitics around the world." 
Udayan Gupta, a South Asian who wrote for Black Enterprise magazine before
starting a 12-year stint at the Journal 1985, told
Journal-isms that the business press in general does not place a
priority on diversity.
"They just don’t have the manpower and they just don’t arrange for the
manpower" to cover "diversity across the global
divide," he said.
They should be looking at how the subprime mortgage crisis affected
black businesses, he said, or giving more coverage to the
work of Denise L. Nappier, the Connecticut state treasurer and the nation’s only African
American woman in that role. She is changing the state’s
investment strategy to invest more heavily in emerging markets, such
as China, India, Malaysia and Brazil, as well as further
investment in developed foreign markets, as the Hartford Courant reported.
She oversees the $26 billion Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust Funds.
"It’s always been an issue at the Journal how you treat minorities,"
Gupta said. "The few people who were there have never
really fought for it. In many other situations, you have pressure from
advertisers or readers."
Brauchli said it was he who was fighting for it. "I don’t see a
contradiction between finding economic efficiency in
newsrooms and reducing costs and trying to be diverse," he said. "If
you’re hiring, you can bring in people of different
backgrounds. We hired whom we hired from the available talent pool
that we had. We always made it a top priority and put a
lot of (effort) into doing it well. It’s hard work."
CNN’s Johnita Due to Receive Ida B. Wells Award
Johnita P. Due, senior counsel and Diversity Council chair at CNN, has
been named the 2008 recipient of the Ida B. Wells
Award, given to a media executive to has demonstrated a commitment to
newsroom diversity and improving coverage of
communities of color, the two awarding groups announced on Wednesday.
"In selecting Ms. Due, the Wells jury cited her passionate and
impactful leadership of CNN’s Diversity Council, a team of
network colleagues dedicated to ensuring that CNN’s news coverage and
overall staffing reflect the rich racial and ethnic
composition of the nation," the National Conference of Editorial
Writers and the National Association of Black Journalists
said.
CNN’s Johnita Due to Receive Ida B. Wells Award
Johnita P. Due, senior counsel and Diversity Council chair at CNN, has
been named the 2008 recipient of the Ida B. Wells
Award, given to a media executive to has demonstrated a commitment to
newsroom diversity and improving coverage of
communities of color, the two awarding groups announced on Wednesday.
"In selecting Ms. Due, the Wells jury cited her passionate and
impactful leadership of CNN’s Diversity Council, a team of
network colleagues dedicated to ensuring that CNN’s news coverage and
overall staffing reflect the rich racial and ethnic
composition of the nation," the National Conference of Editorial
Writers and the National Association of Black Journalists
said.
[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0Ti-gkJiXc]
