The Progress-Index, Petersburg... 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 Progress-Index, Petersburg

Petersburg, Virginia

Owner: Times-Shamrock (Pa.)

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

15.4

2003

Did not report

2002

13.3

2001

15.0

2000

4.5

1999

5.6

1998

4.5

1997

9.1

1996

5.0

1995

4.3

1994

4.5

1993

0.0

1992

4.5

1991

Did not report

1990

15.8

The latest year at peak is

1990

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

Newsroom Diversity Index

for The Progress-Index, Petersburg

Year

Non-white % of newsroom staff

Non-white % of circulation area

Newsroom Diversity Index (parity=100)

2005

N/A

38.5

N/A

2004

15.4

38.5

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, Times-Shamrock (Pa.),

has a companywide, circulation-weighted Diversity Index of 0.

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

Peer group comparison

for The Progress-Index, Petersburg

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 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 13,584 ranks 661 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 Progress-Index, Petersburg

Circulation area

Race/ethnicity

% of population

Number of residents

Hispanic

2.4

2,868

Black

33.2

40,463

Asian and Pacific Islander

1.3

1,632

Native-American

0.3

314

Other non-white

0.1

146

Multi-racial

1.2

1,404

Non-white

38.5

46,827

White

61.5

74,912

Total

121,739

Home county: Dinwiddie

Race/ethnicity

% of population

Number of residents

Hispanic

1.0

237

Black

33.5

8,221

Asian and Pacific Islander

0.3

Native-American

0.2

Other non-white

0.1

Multi-racial

0.8

187

Non-white

35.9

8,798

White

64.1

15,735

Total

24,533

The home county of this newspaper is Dinwiddie.

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 Progress-Index, Petersburg

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

23805 / Petersburg / VA / 7.4 mi.

5,131

7,224

71.0

$42,601

59.3

1.3

55.4

0.2

1.2

23834 / Colonial Heights / VA / 6.8 mi.

2,883

9,729

29.6

$45,496

20.2

1.8

14.6

0.2

2.4

23860 / Hopewell / VA / 15 mi.

1,083

10,814

10.0

$35,605

37.3

2.8

31.5

0.3

1.1

23875 / Prince George / VA / 12.5 mi.

1,038

3,323

31.2

$49,182

34.8

3.5

26.8

0.3

2.3

23841 / Dinwiddie / VA / 10.1 mi.

775

1,223

63.4

$53,281

42.1

0.7

40.2

0.0

0.3

23803 / Petersburg / VA / 0 mi.

740

15,379

4.8

$31,199

68.1

1.4

65.1

0.2

0.4

23850 / Ford / VA / 15.5 mi.

543

361

150.4

$32,850

43.7

0.5

42.3

0.1

0.2

23831 / Chester / VA / 9.6 mi.

490

9,251

5.3

$56,807

18.5

2.7

11.6

0.4

2.4

23833 / Church Road / VA / 11.3 mi.

404

768

52.6

$42,000

22.3

0.9

20.0

0.4

0.1

23830 / Carson / VA / 11.8 mi.

388

483

80.3

$41,029

32.4

0.5

30.2

0.3

0.7

23838 / Chesterfield / VA / 11.3 mi.

386

3,590

10.8

$73,963

12.5

0.9

9.6

0.2

1.1

23801 / Fort Lee / VA / 8.2 mi.

234

1,401

16.7

$36,325

63.3

11.4

46.1

0.6

2.6

23885 / Sutherland / VA / 5.9 mi.

209

952

22.0

$51,895

25.3

0.4

24.1

0.3

0.4

23872 / Mc Kenney / VA / 21.2 mi.

202

846

23.9

$39,643

39.6

1.1

37.5

0.2

23890 / Waverly / VA / 23.9 mi.

189

1,647

11.5

$32,545

69.0

1.1

67.1

0.1

23882 / Stony Creek / VA / 19.5 mi.

185

1,005

18.4

$31,755

64.4

0.7

62.8

0.1

23842 / Disputanta / VA / 15.2 mi.

154

2,015

7.6

$54,199

27.0

1.1

24.7

0.1

0.5

23840 / Dewitt / VA / 15.4 mi.

124

573

21.6

$50,026

31.4

0.0

30.0

0.3

0.1

23888 / Wakefield / VA / 32.7 mi.

115

946

12.2

$28,125

49.5

0.5

48.1

0.2

0.1

23897 / Yale / VA / 28.6 mi.

244

38.9

$32,303

42.6

0.3

41.5

0.2

0.3

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