Most publishers can now tell you how diverse their workforce is. Fewer can say whether the people they hired are still there five years later, or whether anything changed on the page as a result.
That gap is where the useful work happens. Immediate audited its business, published an ethnicity pay gap report and moved to blind recruitment. News UK rebuilt its intake around apprenticeships rather than graduate schemes, which shifted its gender and ethnicity mix and kept 80 per cent of recruits. Class is the stubborn one: only a small minority of journalists come from lower socio-economic backgrounds, and unpaid internships keep it that way.
If their only chance of promotion is to ape the bosses’ thinking, then your efforts will fail.
Joseph Harker Diversity: more than just a numbers game
Content is the other half. Inclusive coverage has opened up new audiences for some titles, and misjudged coverage has damaged trust for others. Small publishers have shown it doesn't take a big budget to make a start.
The worry now is drift. Industry surveys show diversity slipping down the list of priorities for a third year running, just as publishers chase the younger and broader audiences it would help them reach.
Below you'll find some of our best feature articles on diversity in media, from recruitment, apprenticeships and class to representation, age and inclusive content, alongside our latest news and industry commentary.
Making UK media more diverse is not simply a question of employing more people from different backgrounds. The jobs you give them and the way you treat them is equally important.
The latest AOP CRUNCH event was titled, ‘Investing in the future: How wider perspectives lead to inclusive narratives and engaged audiences’. The AOP’s Richard Reeves picks out the main talking points.
Paying lip service to improved diversity and inclusion is one thing, putting someone in charge of putting it right is another. Ridhi Radia, who was given that role at Immediate Media, explains why ED&I matters and outlines the steps they have taken.
Are we ready to admit it?, asks Mark Hudson. The journalism pipeline is broken. To fix it, News UK is investing heavily in its apprenticeship scheme, which has brought fresh and diverse new talent into the business.
The results are in for the AOP’s annual ‘Digital Publishing: Outlook and Priorities’ survey. Richard Reeves summarises the main findings.
In terms of female representation in the newsroom, progress is being made, but we mustn’t get complacent because there is still lots of work to be done. For a start, says Jem Collins, we need to broaden our definition of diversity and accessibility.
As an industry, we often talk a good game when it comes to diversity but are we putting up barriers to prospective non-middle-class journalists?
Most forms of discrimination are experienced by minority groups; a few by majority groups. But there’s one that could potentially affect all of us and that’s ageism, laments Dickon Ross.
Research suggests that diverse companies are more commercially successful than non-diverse ones. What do publishers need to do to improve their diversity and, thereby, profitability?
Diversity and inclusion should not be an ‘initiative’ but should be hardwired into your everyday. That, writes Ciar Byrne, is the approach taken by Uwern Jong, founder and editor-in-chief of OutThere.
WAN-IFRA, the World Editors Forum and the FOJO Media Institute are calling on media worldwide to support stronger protections for women journalists in a text released to mark the 250th anniversary celebrations of Sweden’s ‘Freedom of the Press Act’,
The London Evening Standard and The Independent have launched an apprenticeship programme which seeks to encourage greater diversity in newsrooms.
Management Today’s Editor Matthew Gwyther was named a 'Male Agent for Change' last week by the Women's Business Council, recognising his 'pioneering work' to promote gender equality.
Anna Jones is to step down as CEO of Hearst UK in February 2017 to launch AllBright, a funding platform for female-led businesses in the UK.
The Institution of Engineering and Technology and the Women’s Engineering Society (WES) have digitally published The Woman Engineer (TWE), providing online access to 18 volumes from 1919 to 2014 for the first time.
The World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers has formalised a 3-year, NOK 9,000,000 (EUR 1,000,000) agreement with the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to support WAN-IFRA's Media Freedom activities in Central East Africa and South Ea
Low wages and recruitment practices are making a career in media increasingly remote for people from disadvantaged backgrounds, says the NUJ.
RBI is one of the founding members of a new steering group, “The Tech Talent Charter”, committed to increasing the ratio of women and under-represented groups working in technology.
Is the disproportionate number of pictures of un-newsworthy women in our national press an essential circulation prop or a demeaning way to treat half their potential readership? Or both? Liz Gerard investigates.
Newsweek’s Middle East Editor, Janine di Giovanni, has today been awarded the ‘Courage in Journalism Award’ from the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF), a Washington-based organisation which is dedicated to strengthening the role of women
Hearst Magazines UK will be honouring three senior female icons of the advertising industry at an exclusive Advertising Week Europe event – Cosmopolitan: A Celebration of Female Talent.
David Hepworth on magazines and beyond
Leading editors and publishers from Africa and the Middle East have been appointed to the WAN-IFRA Gender and Media Freedom Steering Committee, which will contribute to the organization's ambitious Women in News (WIN) gender and media development act
Fashion weekly Look has published its first-ever model cover, featuring a “curvy” model in partnership with Simply Be.
Last month, Estates Gazette, in association with FTi Consulting and in support of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, launched REWIRE, a cross-industry network for women in the built environment to network and support each other and to help those who need
