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What ProPublica is Doing About Diversity

ProPublica is working hard to increase the diversity of our workplace. Here’s what we’re up to:

This post has been corrected.

Like many news organizations around the country, ProPublica is working hard to increase the diversity of our workplace. That means creating and maintaining a newsroom that includes a broad array of social, ethnic, and economic backgrounds. We are particularly dedicated to recruiting and retaining people from communities that have long been underrepresented not only in journalism but particularly in investigative journalism, including African Americans, Latinos, other people of color, women, LGBTQ people, and people with disabilities.

The reason for our commitment is not simply moral but also journalistic. ProPublica is dedicated to stories with moral force. Stories of injustice. Many of these injustices disproportionately affect people of color and other minority groups. To execute that journalism at the highest level, it's crucial to have a newsroom filled with people from a broad range of backgrounds and perspectives.

Here's what we're doing

  • One barrier to getting into journalism has long been economic: It's hard to get clips if you're not in a position to take an unpaid internship or to work for free at your college paper. With support from a generous donor, ProPublica has just created the Emerging Reporters Program, which offers grants to college students of color who are interested in doing great journalism.
  • Through a new initiative with CUNY Journalism School and the Knight Foundation, we will also be hosting reporting fellows every summer who come from Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic-serving institutions, or are affiliated with organizations for journalists of color. We pay all our fellows – $700/week – and we always have.
  • We also want to recruit as broadly as possible. All our jobs are posted both internally and externally. But more importantly, we've been working to reach beyond our traditional networks for candidates. The best way to judge us on hiring, in the end, is to look at our numbers.

Here's our breakdown.

Race & Ethnicity - All of ProPublica (includes business side and fellows)

White

72%

Hispanic/Latino

13%

Asian

7%

Black

5%

Two+ Races

2%

Other

2%

Race & Ethnicity - Newsroom (not including fellows)

White

74%

Hispanic/Latino

9%

Asian

9%

Black

4%

Two+ Races

2%

Other

2%

Gender - All of ProPublica

Female

44%

Male

56%

Gender - Newsroom

Female

38%

Male

62%

NOTES: Race/Ethnicity and Gender breakdowns were calculated from responses to a questionnaire sent to all employees on July 17, 2015 and reflect 61 employees total (47 in the editorial department). For Race/Ethnicity, participants could select one or more of 5 options (White, Hispanic/Latino, Black, Asian, Two or More Races) or fill in a free form text field. For Gender, participants filled in a free form text field. Charts may not add up exactly to 100% due to rounding.

How you can get in touch if you're interested in a job at ProPublica. 

Here is our jobs page, where we regularly post new full-time positions and fellowships. You can also sign up to be notified when we have a job available. You can also simply email us. We're eager to hear from candidates as well as those with further ideas for outreach.



Correction: July 15, 2015: An earlier version of this post reversed the distribution for men and women in our workplace. It is 56 percent men overall, 62 percent men in the editorial department.



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