Demands for diversity and economic fairness apparently stop at the front door of some newspapers in the nation’s largest media chain, Gannett.
In an unusual report on 14 Gannett papers by six reporters from some of those same newspapers, the company that is woke on the raging issues of race and fairness overwhelmingly favors whites in pay and job security.
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“Our analysis of salaries in 14 newsrooms at Gannett, the largest newspaper company in the U.S., found pay disparities among women and people of color, as well as a dearth of diversity, in nearly every location that participated,” said the report from the Newsguild, part of the Communications Workers of America union.
The chain has been a voice for diversity and equity, but some of those interviewed in the new report said the firm operates by a different code inside its offices.
“I think it’s criminal for Gannett or any other news organizations to have pay inequity based on gender or color while these same organizations expose and condemn other industries of doing the same,” said a journalist for the Sarasota Herald-Tribune in the report. “It’s the typical do as I say, not as I do,” added the staffer.
A Nieman Lab report quoted Gannett’s “Chief People Officer” Samantha Howland disputing the report, calling it misleading and a sliver of data from Gannett’s 250 newsrooms.
“Gannett is committed to a pay structure that is merit-based, meaning that the company will continue to recognize employees for their unique contributions, abilities and skill, as well as other business-related factors,” she said.
But the story is a common one in media, especially the liberal press, which is generally white and male.
“Journalism has a race problem,” said a report last year from Harvard University’s Journalist’s Resource. Pew Research Center found that about three-quarters of newsroom employees are non-Hispanic white.
But the Gannett union report is rare. It put numbers on the disparities and included quotes from many who feel they have been discriminated against.
Pulled from the report, shown below:
- Women who worked at least 30 years at newspapers currently owned by Gannett earned $27,026 less, or 63% the annual median salary of male peers.
- Women of color earned $15,727 less, or 73% of white men’s median salary.
- Women earned $9,845 less, or 83% of men’s median salary.
- Journalists of color earned $5,246 less, or 90% of the white median salary.
“Memphis, a majority-black city, does not have a majority-black newsroom. This pay study, unfortunately, shows that black reporters that do work in our newsroom make less than our newsroom’s white reporters. How can we hire and retain reporters of color if they are not paid equitably? Wages should also be sufficient enough to allow reporters to be active members of the communities they cover,” said a Memphis Commercial Appeal journalist.
