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Los Angeles will be the ethnic salad bowl of 21st-Century America, Ellis Island spread over 464 square, smog-shrouded miles of sprawl and mall.
Already the city is home to more people of Mexican descent than any other city outside Mexico, more Koreans than any other city outside Asia, more Filipinos than any city outside the Philippines, more. . . .
The "minorities" in the city of Los Angeles are now a majority-a third of them Latino, 15% black, 10% Asian-American; whites are now only 41% of the city's population. The Los Angeles-Orange County metropolitan area is now 30% Latino, 9% black and 9% Asian-American; whites are a bare majority.
How well does the ethnic composition of the Los Angeles Times news staff reflect this ethnic diversity?
Not very. Like most newspapers in this country-only more so than most major papers-The Times is still an overwhelmingly white institution, especially at the upper levels.
On the professional newsroom staff at The Times, 14% are minorities; of the editors, 9% are minorities. Although both figures are substantially above the industry average, they are below those at most other major papers, especially in the editing ranks. The proportion of minority editors is considerably higher, for example, at USA Today, the Detroit Free Press, Atlanta Constitution, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Miami Herald, Philadelphia Inquirer and Dallas Morning News.
Times editors say they are strongly committed to increasing minority representation in the newsroom, among reporters and editors alike, and over the last two years, since Shelby Coffey became editor, the paper has made significant improvements, especially in entry-level hiring (and in minority coverage).
The number of minority editors has almost doubled. Minority representation on the newsroom staff has increased 54%. The paper's nine-person editorial page staff has added two minority editors and one minority writer and is now 44% minority. The Times has also expanded its hiring and development office, appointed its first minority as editor of a daily section and put its first minority on the masthead.
But more than 80% of Coffey's higher-level appointments have been white, virtually all from within the staff. Unlike most other major newspapers, The Times still has no high-ranking minority editor with any major decision-making power in the daily news operation. The managing...