Papers respond to diversity complaints |
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Tue, 16 Jan 2007 21:05
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PHILADELPHIA (AFX) - The owner of The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News has pledged to create a new diversity committee in response to complaints that recent Inquirer newsroom layoffs disproportionately affected minorities.Seven minority employees met with management on Tuesday and the papers' owner, Philadelphia Media Holdings, pledged to create the committee that will explore ways to hire more minority journalists, said Melanie Burney, an education reporter at the Inquirer and an executive board member of the National Association of Black Journalists.A call to the company was not immediately returned.Management said the paper's hands were tied by union contracts that required the most recent hires to be laid off first, Burney said.'I still believe there was some flexibility. ... I think more could have been done,' Burney said.Earlier this month, Philadelphia Media Holdings said it would cut 71 Inquirer newsroom jobs, laying off 68 and reassigning three employees. Burney said 16 of those jobs were held by blacks and five by Asians. The paper also is laying off 34 advertising employees.Several employees volunteered to leave the company to minimize the layoffs, but management said it was not planning to recall any laid-off employee, according to Burney.The president of the National Association of Black Journalists, Bryan Monroe, called the layoffs 'lopsided' in a Jan. 3 letter to Philadelphia Media Holdings CEO Brian Tierney.'With this latest round of layoffs, your newsroom diversity representation will surely decline. While many other papers are improving nationwide, you will actually be getting worse,' he wrote.Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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