Danville Register & Bee... 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

Danville Register & Bee

Danville, Virginia

Owner: Media General (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

19.0

2004

4.3

2003

4.3

2002

Did not report

2001

Did not report

2000

17.4

1999

8.0

1998

0.0

1997

Did not report

1996

Did not report

1995

Did not report

1994

Did not report

1993

Did not report

1992

Did not report

1991

Did not report

1990

Did not report

The latest year at peak is

2005

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

Newsroom Diversity Index

for Danville Register & Bee

Year

Non-white % of newsroom staff

Non-white % of circulation area

Newsroom Diversity Index (parity=100)

2005

19.0

36.5

2004

4.3

36.5

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, Media General (Va.),

has a companywide, circulation-weighted Diversity Index of 39.

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

Peer group comparison

for Danville Register & Bee

This newspaper's Newsroom Diversity Index is 52.

This paper

Peer group

Compare that with 33, which is the median Diversity Index for all newspapers

reporting in this circulation category of 10,001 to 25,000 daily sales.

In that group, this newspaper's Diversity Index ranks 83 out of 259

newspapers reporting in the 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 Muskogee Daily Phoenix and Times-Democrat, Oklahoma, with a 43.5 percent non-white staff in a community that is 36.9 percent non-white. Its index is 118.

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

approximately 21,139 ranks 463 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 Danville Register & Bee

Circulation area

Race/ethnicity

% of population

Number of residents

Hispanic

1.3

1,592

Black

34.0

40,636

Asian and Pacific Islander

0.4

445

Native-American

0.2

179

Other non-white

0.1

Multi-racial

0.6

729

Non-white

36.5

43,643

White

63.5

75,833

Total

119,476

Home county: Pittsylvania

Race/ethnicity

% of population

Number of residents

Hispanic

1.2

759

Black

23.5

14,525

Asian and Pacific Islander

0.2

114

Native-American

0.1

Other non-white

0.0

Multi-racial

0.5

331

Non-white

25.6

15,824

White

74.4

45,921

Total

61,745

The home county of this newspaper is Pittsylvania.

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

Danville Register & Bee

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

24540 / Danville / VA / 6.7 mi.

7,060

13,945

50.6

$31,274

40.4

1.3

37.6

0.1

0.5

24541 / Schoolfield / VA / 4.2 mi.

6,854

13,161

52.1

$29,015

39.4

1.4

36.8

0.2

0.6

24531 / Chatham / VA / 16.8 mi.

1,475

3,578

41.2

$33,103

32.2

0.8

30.5

0.2

0.1

24586 / Ringgold / VA / 10.6 mi.

1,026

2,062

49.8

$37,628

19.9

1.3

17.9

0.1

24549 / Dry Fork / VA / 10.5 mi.

728

1,642

44.3

$33,534

14.3

1.0

12.7

0.1

24527 / Blairs / VA / 10.7 mi.

552

1,103

50.0

$33,606

35.8

1.6

33.0

0.1

0.4

24557 / Gretna / VA / 25.1 mi.

523

3,338

15.7

$29,162

27.3

0.9

25.6

0.2

0.1

27311 / Pelham / NC / 7.2 mi.

318

1,489

21.4

$38,832

31.4

1.3

29.3

0.2

0.0

24566 / Keeling / VA / 15.9 mi.

302

556

54.3

$27,852

19.5

2.1

16.3

0.2

0.0

24594 / Sutherlin / VA / 17.1 mi.

294

691

42.5

$35,128

25.5

0.8

24.0

0.3

0.1

24069 / Leakesville Junction / VA / 7.6 mi.

273

822

33.2

$31,220

41.8

1.0

40.2

0.1

0.2

27379 / Yanceyville / NC / 14.7 mi.

261

1,940

13.5

$31,703

53.5

1.7

50.4

0.3

0.2

27315 / Providence / NC / 6.2 mi.

204

669

30.5

$36,731

10.3

1.3

7.4

0.1

0.3

24530 / Callands / VA / 14.1 mi.

199

413

48.2

$31,165

27.1

1.0

25.5

0.1

0.0

24592 / Turbeville / VA / 32.6 mi.

199

5,848

3.4

$29,471

43.9

1.4

41.2

0.2

0.5

24565 / Java / VA / 24.8 mi.

133

504

26.4

$23,235

60.0

3.1

56.0

0.1

0.3

24054 / Axton / VA / 25.9 mi.

128

2,512

5.1

$36,164

38.0

5.0

31.8

0.3

0.2

27212 / Blanche / NC / 11.5 mi.

124

532

23.3

$40,063

38.0

1.6

34.0

0.1

1.2

27305 / Milton / NC / 15.9 mi.

111

595

18.7

$29,196

56.8

2.0

53.8

0.0

0.1

24112 / Martinsville / VA / 19.3 mi.

14,406

0.7

$30,434

41.6

2.3

37.8

0.1

0.5

24139 / Pittsville / VA / 27.6 mi.

213

40.8

$34,083

36.2

1.3

34.1

0.0

27343 / Semora / NC / 22.7 mi.

624

12.0

$34,531

44.0

2.0

40.9

0.2

0.1

27326 / Ruffin / NC / 9.7 mi.

1,534

4.3

$37,208

24.2

2.8

20.7

0.2

0.1

24520 / Alton / VA / 35.3 mi.

975

5.8

$28,547

37.2

0.8

35.2

0.1

0.2

24558 / Halifax / VA / 32.4 mi.

2,591

1.9

$34,452

37.3

1.2

35.1

0.1

0.2

27288 / Spray / NC / 13 mi.

10,254

0.4

$30,094

23.1

2.2

19.7

0.2

0.3

24597 / Vernon Hill / VA / 24.2 mi.

479

6.3

$31,845

36.4

2.7

32.1

0.3

0.1

24137 / Penhook / VA / 29.3 mi.

1,049

2.6

$38,722

14.7

0.6

13.0

0.0

0.2

27320 / Reidsville / NC / 17 mi.

15,458

0.1

$34,345

30.8

3.1

26.3

0.3

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