Comparing the racial diversity of the journalists
at America's daily newspapers
with the communities that they serve
Newsroom diversity report for
The Brownsville Herald
Brownsville, Texas
Owner: Freedom Communications (Ca.)
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	Did not report
2004	Did not report
2003	64.7
2002	67.6
2001	Did not report
2000	69.2
1999	59.3
1998	59.3
1997	53.8
1996	50.0
1995	Did not report
1994	Did not report
1993	45.0
1992	43.5
1991	50.0
1990	45.5
The latest year at peak is	2000
See the notes and definitions section below for the sources of these figures.
Newsroom Diversity Index
for The Brownsville Herald
Year	Non-white % of newsroom staff	Non-white % of circulation area	Newsroom Diversity Index (parity=100)
2005	N/A	89.4	N/A
2004	N/A	90.4	N/A
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, Freedom Communications (Ca.),
has a companywide, circulation-weighted Diversity Index of 59.
See the notes and definitions section below for the sources of these figures.
Peer group comparison
for The Brownsville Herald
		This paper
						Peer group
The median Diversity Index is 33 for all newspapers
reporting in this circulation category of 10,001 to 25,000 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 Laredo Morning Times, Texas, with a 91.3 percent non-white staff in a community that is 94.4 percent non-white. Its index is 97.
FYI, in circulation, this newspaper's average weekday circulation of
approximately 14,787 ranks 615 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 Brownsville Herald
	Circulation area
Race/ethnicity	% of population	Number of residents
Hispanic	89.4	165,789
Black	0.2	356
Asian and Pacific Islander	0.5	859
Native-American	0.1	141
Other non-white	0.0	53
Multi-racial	0.2	396
Non-white	90.4	167,594
White	9.6	17,842
Total		185,436
	Home county:  Cameron
Race/ethnicity	% of population	Number of residents
Hispanic	84.3	282,736
Black	0.3	909
Asian and Pacific Islander	0.5	1,563
Native-American	0.1	334
Other non-white	0.0	118
Multi-racial	0.3	888
Non-white	85.5	286,548
White	14.5	48,679
Total		335,227
The home county of this newspaper is Cameron.
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 Brownsville Herald
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
78521 / Brownsville / TX / 3.8 mi.	6,415	22,176	28.9	$23,426	94.0	93.4	0.1	0.1	0.3
78520 / Villa Nueva / TX / 0 mi.	3,327	13,934	23.9	$21,715	90.6	89.7	0.2	0.1	0.4
78526 / Brownsville / TX / 0.8 mi.	2,861	6,758	42.3	$31,710	91.2	89.5	0.4	0.0	1.1
78575 / Rancho Viejo / TX / 5 mi.	738	1,248	59.1	$39,952	73.6	70.7	0.2	0.1	2.0
78566 / Los Fresnos / TX / 9.7 mi.	407	3,257	12.5	$24,858	84.2	82.8	0.3	0.2	0.3
78578 / Port Isabel / TX / 18.6 mi.	393	3,364	11.7	$26,569	69.9	68.9	0.3	0.2	0.2
78597 / South Padre Isla / TX / 23.2 mi.	156	1,418	11.0	$41,794	23.6	21.5	0.5	0.4	0.3
78586 / Yescas / TX / 14.9 mi.	50	12,699	0.4	$24,014	89.7	89.2	0.1	0.1	0.2
78550 / Stuart Place / TX / 19.9 mi.	48	16,555	0.3	$29,223	76.5	74.3	0.7	0.2	0.9
File	tx_the_brownsville_herald
Time	5/21/05 5:21 PM
Page	614
Member	145800