Rocky Mountain News Was a Pioneer in Diversity Hiring
Feb. 27, 2009
Rob Kuznia--HispanicBusiness.com
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The venerable DenverRocky Mountain News, which printed its final edition after a 150-year run on Friday, was a pioneer in diversity hiring, according to the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.
In 2003, the paper was the first in the nation to work with the association to improve upon the news coverage and newsroom hiring of Hispanics.
"It was extraordinary, the change that the paper made in its coverage of the Latino community in Colorado, in its hiring," said veteran journalist and Democracy Now! co-host Juan Gonzalez on the show Friday. Gonzalez was the president of the association in 2003.
In a year, the number of Hispanic journalists in the 204-person newsroom doubled, to around 22, he said.
What's more, he added, the paper hired its first Native American employee. Gonzalez said the move was seen as a large symbolic step, given the longstanding animosity the Native-American community had for the paper. The bad blood stemmed back to the nineteenth century, when the paper is said to have stoked a massacre in which scores of Native Americans were killed, Gonzalez said.
On Friday, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists posted a statement about the closure on its Web site.
"The National Association of Hispanic Journalists is saddened to learn of the closing of The Rocky Mountain News," it said. "The Rocky Mountain News, which predated the founding of the state, was the community's conscience, a trusted source of local information and a fierce watchdog of the public's interests."
Source: HispanicBusiness.com (c) 2009. All rights reserved.
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