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May 1, 2024 – Our monthly Member Spotlight showcases a dedicated member who is actively working to dismantle obstacles for professionals of color and foster workplaces that prioritize equity, inclusion, and belonging for everyone. This month we connected with the Oregonian Media Group to learn about the organization’s newsroom diversity efforts and how they ensure all voices are being seen and heard across the organization’s channels and publications:  

What has the Oregonian done to maintain momentum with its newsroom diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts since releasing the last installment of it’s Publishing Prejudice project?

Our mission is to strengthen and empower the communities we serve. For us that means ensuring we serve all communities.

“Publishing Prejudice” was an unprecedented examination of The Oregonian’s historical racist past, which included an apology from the editor. The Oregonian/OregonLive newsroom committed at that time to a continual effort to make sure we were reflecting our diverse community and amplifying marginalized voices.

To that end, leaders in the newsroom have taken part in three listening sessions with diverse community groups over the past year to hear more about how we can improve our coverage. We have another listening session in the coming weeks. We’ve used the input we’ve received from these conversations to make changes to our reporting priorities: We assigned one reporter to cover community events, hired a full-time culture and communities reporter, and completed a summer series focused on positive community news.

We also conduct quarterly source audits, to identify who we are quoting and – importantly — who we are not hearing from regularly. We continuously examine and update our style guide, to make sure we are using inclusive language and following best practices.

Tell us about a notable Partners in Diversity program or connection that has helped further your organization’s DEI efforts.

Our leadership has been involved with Partners in Diversity for several years and in this space participated in several programs and events. In 2022, Partners in Diversity became a community partner of Here is Oregon. This partnership not only elevates DEI efforts in Oregon to a larger audience. It’s also given our teams new opportunities to connect, we now bring our photobooth to every “Say Hey!” event.

Oregonian Media Group is also a founding investor of the Black Business Association of Oregon. We’ve supported this new organization’s growth and offered access and support to advertising and promotions for Black owned businesses.

In the last two years, we’ve also renewed our community partnerships, doubling down on sponsoring events that elevate diverse and underrepresented communities. Today we support and attend more than 120 nonprofit events across our core community pillars.

The media is an integral part of our daily lives, how do you ensure varying voices, stories, and perspectives of historically marginalized groups are being seen and heard in your publications?  

This is all about intentionality. Journalists tend to run from headline to headline as news is a constant firehose. The Oregonian/OregonLive very specifically made assignments to ensure we were reaching into communities to find stories we would not find otherwise. Also, we contracted with the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization (IRCO) to have translators and interpreters available when news strikes.

We made adding Spanish language fluency a priority in our hiring and now have five fluent speakers in the newsroom.

We sponsor a high school journalism institute, support a summer internship program and participate in a masters program through Syracuse University to build the newsroom of the future. We are a strong supporter and publishing partner of Underscore.news, which covers Indigenous communities in the Northwest. And we talk daily about DEI issues that relate to our work and hold ourselves accountable through regular updates to the public.