The Desert Sun, Palm Springs... 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 Desert Sun, Palm Springs

Palm Springs, California

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

20.3

2004

26.2

2003

25.0

2002

26.4

2001

22.5

2000

20.0

1999

23.5

1998

Did not report

1997

32.7

1996

29.1

1995

33.3

1994

26.2

1993

23.7

1992

17.9

1991

Did not report

1990

Did not report

The latest year at peak is

1995

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

Newsroom Diversity Index

for The Desert Sun, Palm Springs

Year

Non-white % of newsroom staff

Non-white % of circulation area

Newsroom Diversity Index (parity=100)

2005

20.3

51.3

2004

26.2

51.3

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 Desert Sun, Palm Springs

This newspaper's Newsroom Diversity Index is 40.

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 79 out of 140

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

An example of a newspaper of similar circulation, in an area of similar level of non-white residents, but one that has a relatively high Diversity Index, is Visalia Times-Delta and Tulare Advance-Register, California, with a 41.4 percent non-white staff in a community that is 51.6 percent non-white. Its index is 80.

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

approximately 45,803 ranks 231 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 Desert Sun, Palm Springs

Circulation area

Race/ethnicity

% of population

Number of residents

Hispanic

45.3

139,639

Black

2.0

6,268

Asian and Pacific Islander

2.1

6,505

Native-American

0.5

1,456

Other non-white

0.1

276

Multi-racial

1.2

3,717

Non-white

51.3

157,861

White

48.7

150,089

Total

307,950

Home county: Riverside

Race/ethnicity

% of population

Number of residents

Hispanic

36.2

559,575

Black

6.0

92,403

Asian and Pacific Islander

3.8

58,483

Native-American

0.7

10,135

Other non-white

0.2

2,425

Multi-racial

2.2

33,535

Non-white

49.0

756,556

White

51.0

788,831

Total

1,545,387

The home county of this newspaper is Riverside.

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 Desert Sun, Palm Springs

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

92260 / Palm Desert / CA / 14.3 mi.

7,730

13,899

55.6

$43,299

23.3

18.3

0.9

0.3

2.5

92211 / Palm Desert / CA / 15.3 mi.

6,299

9,604

65.6

$52,251

15.0

10.4

1.1

0.1

2.1

92201 / Indio / CA / 20.1 mi.

5,169

16,538

31.3

$36,180

75.4

70.1

2.4

0.4

1.4

92234 / Cathedral City / CA / 6.6 mi.

5,031

14,294

35.2

$38,964

57.3

49.3

2.5

0.5

3.5

92253 / La Quinta / CA / 19.6 mi.

5,024

8,538

58.8

$54,686

37.2

32.1

1.2

0.4

1.8

92270 / Rancho Mirage / CA / 10.5 mi.

4,970

6,421

77.4

$63,349

12.6

9.4

0.8

0.2

1.4

92262 / Smoke Tree / CA / 1.3 mi.

4,596

11,029

41.7

$32,844

39.4

28.2

5.5

0.7

3.4

92264 / Palm Springs / CA / 5.6 mi.

4,566

9,889

46.2

$39,173

26.0

18.3

1.5

0.6

4.4

92240 / Desert Hot Sprin / CA / 5.9 mi.

3,129

8,126

38.5

$27,335

50.6

41.2

4.7

0.7

1.7

92210 / Palm Desert / CA / 16.2 mi.

1,496

2,004

74.7

$95,126

6.4

3.2

0.4

0.2

1.6

92276 / Thousand Palms / CA / 11 mi.

1,070

2,471

43.3

$33,776

40.7

37.7

0.6

0.5

0.9

92236 / Coachella / CA / 24.5 mi.

855

4,921

17.4

$28,606

98.2

97.2

0.3

0.2

92203 / Indio / CA / 19.8 mi.

686

869

78.9

$37,250

65.5

63.0

0.4

0.2

0.9

92284 / Yucca Valley / CA / 20.6 mi.

651

8,434

7.7

$29,924

17.4

11.0

1.9

0.9

1.4

92274 / Vista Santa Rosa / CA / 29.2 mi.

590

4,001

14.7

$24,760

91.4

88.2

0.3

1.2

1.0

92277 / Twentynine Palms / CA / 33.2 mi.

199

6,782

2.9

$29,781

33.3

14.2

8.1

1.1

4.9

92257 / Niland / CA / 64.5 mi.

164

1,289

12.7

$22,821

39.9

31.1

3.8

0.8

1.9

92254 / North Shore / CA / 37.4 mi.

102

1,800

5.7

$23,588

96.0

94.5

0.0

0.3

0.7

92256 / Morongo Valley / CA / 13.1 mi.

1,499

5.3

$31,761

15.2

10.5

0.8

1.0

0.6

92252 / Joshua Tree / CA / 23.2 mi.

3,472

1.9

$25,700

17.7

10.5

1.7

1.1

1.4

92275 / Thermal / CA / 27.3 mi.

342

7.9

$24,087

35.8

29.5

1.0

1.1

0.6

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