Publishers continue to remain highly focused on revenue diversification and the value of first party data according to new research from the Association of Online Publishers (AOP), a UK industry body that represents digital publishing companies. The AOP undertook its Digital Publishing: Meeting the Future survey to provide “a snapshot of how digital publishing companies across the UK are continuing to respond to the challenge to change.” The research offers a look at publishers’ business priorities and the future-readiness of the media industry.
The AOP carried out its survey between January 5 and February 9 of 2022. Of the 111 responses, 83% were from publishers and 17% from organizations providing solutions to the publishing sector.
Diversifying revenue streams
Across all types of publishers (B2B, B2C, or a combination), respondents said that their highest priority is developing new revenue streams through product innovation. Ensuring data privacy compliance and transparency ranked second.
The AOP’s publisher respondents ranked opportunities for revenue growth over the next three years. More than half (55%) feel that subscriptions are the big revenue opportunity right now, with lead generation-based revenues ranking second (33%). The report concludes that these findings mean that publishers are highly focused on building direct relationships with audiences and leveraging their first party data.
Audio and ecommerce tied for third (31%) in terms of revenue priorities, which points to continued revenue-model innovation. The research finds that both B2B and B2C publishers agreed that subscriptions have the most potential for growth. However, publishers that target both B2B and consumer audiences saw ecommerce as the most promising revenue generator.
Data dominates
While publisher concerns about ensuring privacy and providing transparency rank high, they clearly know the value of their first party data and seek to maximize its use. According to the report, publishers are focused on building the right ecosystem of commercial, data, and tech partnerships.
In the shadow of cookie deprecation, some publishers are considering collaborating on data initiatives. AOP found that, while 12% of publisher respondents are unsure of their next moves and 12% do not expect to collaborate, many publishers are either already collaborating (20%), are discussing collaborating (16%), or are open to the possibility of collaboration (40%).
The majority (75%) of publishers said that they are working to ensure that audience data informs everything they do and that they are investing in tools to help achieve this. Despite the emphasis on data, however, only 17% of publishers said that all their teams are aligned internally around their audience data. Half of the solutions provider respondents suggest that, while publishers understand being joined up internally around audience data is important, many don’t yet have a strategy in place to achieve their goals.
Workforce and workplace concerns
Interestingly, recruiting and retaining talent, and ensuring a diverse and inclusive workplace, are rated higher (tying for third place with “developing new first party data strategies”) than the tech-based challenges you might expect the digital publishing sector to be focused on.
Most respondents (75%) report that “supporting and retaining current employees” is their top priority when it comes to recruitment and workforce development. This was followed by adapting the publisher’s offering to appeal to new talent entering the industry.
Putting in place recruitment processes that eliminate bias and support the development of a more diverse workforce is ranked third here. However, when asked how they would describe their organization’s diversity, equity & inclusion (DE&I) strategy, respondents suggest confidence in their progress on this challenge. Just over half (51%) believe they have made good progress with areas for continued improvement, and 24% believe they have an effective DE&I strategy. Only 5% of respondents don’t believe they have a clear strategy on DE&I.
As Covid-19 restrictions are being eased in the UK and elsewhere, publishers are evaluating their working environments and plans to return to offices. This survey found that 37% of respondents say their ideal working pattern would be to work from the office two days a week and 24% would be happy to come in for the occasional key meeting, but primarily work from home.
Nearly a third (30%) of respondents expect their employers to be fully flexible and happy for them to choose to work as they wish. However, 66% believe they will be asked to work at least a few days in the office each week.
Clearly, the past couple of years have seen trends like ecommerce intensify and placed increased pressure on publishers to innovate. That innovation has, unsurprisingly, focused on product and revenue. However, it has also required publishers to reexamine workplace culture, recruiting, and retention strategies. The AOP’s survey finds that digital publishing companies that understand the bigger picture challenges and have identified many opportunities. However, it appears that they may still be working through the best tactics and strategies to provide the requisite competitive advantage moving forward.
When we talk about minority groups should we use BIPOC, POC, something different or nothing at all? It’s a question posed in America many times since the death of George Floyd in May 2020 – from Newsweek to The New York Times.
His murder sparked a similar debate across the pond over the United Kingdom’s equivalent acronym: Should BAME (black, Asian and minority ethnic) be used by British broadcasters?
Taking collective action
At the end of 2021, four of the UK’s major broadcasters formulated an answer. They committed to avoid using the collective term in their corporate communications, content and editorial news content. Instead, they would use more specific terms where available.
For Miranda Wayland, the BBC’s Head of Creative and Workforce Diversity and Inclusion, the departure from the catch-all term allows for a greater acknowledgement of the experience of people from different ethnic backgrounds.
“As a creative industry we are focused on increasing representation, so our content reflects society,” she said. “At the heart of representation is how we recognize people’s varied lived experiences and their identity. The more specific we are when describing someone’s heritage, the better we represent them. In turn, we create more inclusive and relevant content for our audiences.”
UK broadcasters – the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5/Viacom CBS UK – agreed to avoid “wherever possible” the BAME acronym following a report the Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity. Commissioned by the BBC, the study stated that “A major concern, apparent in recent public responses to BAME, is that it homogenises culturally distinct social groups.”
A question of trust
Through interviews and audience research, the report’s authors found there was a lack of trust around the term BAME because of a belief that it has been used to hide failings in the representation of specific ethnic groups. They wrote: “Several interviewees illustrated this point by saying organisations are quick to announce hitting ‘BAME targets’ but what does that mean if there is still massive black under representation or east Asian representation.”
The researchers did acknowledge, however, that it would not be realistic to remove BAME terminology altogether because it is widely used in society. However, where BAME must be used, content-makers will strive to ensure that any use of the term is accompanied by an explanation. This will be achieved, for example, by stating that ”data for ethnic groups is unavailable.” Another solution is writing out the acronym in full – “black, Asian and minority ethnic” – to recognize the constituent groups that make up the collective term.
Sarita Malik, Professor of Media and Culture at Brunel University London and Academic Lead on the Report, said broadcasters need to acknowledge the importance of language as part of wider work to tackle racial disparities.
“Language is a really important issue for media and cultural organizations to look at when trying to tackle inequalities,” she said. “At the heart of the issue is a power dynamic; a power dynamic between those who have the power to label and those who are labelled. Our research identified a mostly negative sentiment towards the grouping of people under collective terms.”
She added that “Committing to use language in more culturally nuanced ways can help to deepen understandings of different ethnic groups. This is one of the ways in which trust can be built with audiences.”
Supporting cultural nuance
As Professor Malik observes, broadcasters need to give their content-makers the right support and resources so they can get their language right and add nuance to their work. At the BBC, the content-makers’ inclusion toolkit seeks to provide such support. Tools include Ipsos MORI’s Language Matters audience research, which echoes the findings of the BAME report by concluding that “specificity around identity is key”.
“In communicating, we often seek to oversimplify. But, when it comes to identity, ensuring the full nuances of someone’s identity are acknowledged as important,” said the Ipsos MORI researchers. “We see this when it comes to how ethnic and national identity interact with one another and how individuals navigate between these two aspects of their identity.”
Participants in the research succinctly illustrated the point. “I always say I’m Indian even though I am a British citizen. I am proud of my Heritage,” he said. Another explained: “My identity shouldn’t be defined by what ‘colour’ I am. I’m an individual and part of a diverse community with a diverse heritage.”
We are not the same
Understanding this type of nuance is at the heart of the BBC Audience’s BAME: We’re Not the Same report. It explores the culture, identity and heritage of the six largest ethnic minority groups in England and Wales – Indian, Pakistani, Black African, Black Caribbean, Bangladeshi and Chinese.
BBC Senior Audience Planner Helen Xa-Thomas began work on the report after noticing that content-makers had no tools to help them move away from “bucket terminology” and address the “nuance” within groups.
“All our identities are so multifaceted and complex. We are never just one entity of our identity,” she explained. “Labeling is a symptom of the shortcuts that we use as an industry. We all think very much demographic first and that can be problematic. For example, when we say ‘youth’ as if all young people are exactly the same.”
She continued: “It’s about understanding, culture and identity for different groups and making us more consciously aware of those differences. Because we are not the same.”
The BBC Audience’s report is backed by the Corporation’s Director of Creative Diversity, June Sarpong, who encouraged people “to grab a coffee and take a moment out to read this insightful BBC Audiences research”.
“This report starts to unpack ‘BAME’ because a ‘one size fits all’ approach doesn’t help us appreciate the complexity and richness of identities that fall within it,” she wrote in her foreword to the report. “One of the barriers we face when seeking to address the diversity deficit is the limits of our own perspective.”
She also pointed out that “The catch-all term of BAME may feel a like a convenient box for those interested in counting people. But when you fail to acknowledge the difference in people’s lived experience and history then people won’t feel like they count.”
Universal takeaways
As stated previously, four of the UK’s major broadcasters have committed to ensuring that people feel better represented by avoiding the use of BAME.
Marcus Ryder, Head of External Consultancies at Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity, applauded the decision to adopt the report’s recommendation. He believes there are wider themes that can be taken from the research and applied by content-makers – trust, transparency and the need for bravery.
“As a Black person, when I see the Covid reports I am thinking ‘how does it affect Black people?’ When a journalist just stops short and says People of Colour, it feels as if they’re not representing me properly,’ he said. “So even if you don’t have the information you should acknowledge it as you’re acknowledging that question of how it affects me.
“Admit what you don’t know. If the story was ‘Covid affects People of Color or BAME more according to the latest statistics’ but there’s no breakdown, then say that they have not provided us with more detailed information as to how it affects individual specific races.”
Ryder also said content-makers need to ensure that they are not using BAME, or BIPOC or People of Color because they are “scared to use the term white”.
“Sometimes collective terms are used as a way to avoid using the word white and so we should also ensure that we aren’t just using a term as a way to avoid white,” he explained.
“Lots of studies have shown that white people often think of themselves as being raceless. If we want to have a serious conversation about race, then we need to ensure that we don’t just talk about race of non-white people.”
What each of the reports and research illustrate is that catch-all terminology erodes the trust of the audience, which could cause them to tune out (or worse, log off). As we address increasingly diverse audiences, there is an altogether reasonable expectation that our language, and its use, adapts.
From the narrative-changing storytelling initiative, “Driving Change From the Inside“, a look at the DE+I movement in organizations across the country.
CHECK OUT THE FULL SERIES: Featuring Summaries, Key takeaways, and Video Highlights
The saying goes: What doesn’t break you makes you stronger. That seems to be the case during the pandemic for Robin Hood Foundation, the largest poverty nonprofit in New York City. Because of catastrophes like 9/11 and Hurricane Sandy, Robin Hood already had procedures in place that enabled it to act decisively and respond quickly supporting at-risk communities during the pandemic.
At the start of Covid-19, Robin Hood raised $90mm for grants across the city to improve the lives of people who were experiencing poverty as a result of the pandemic. But they’ve got their work cut out for them – now, and always.
To gain greater insight into how the organization appears to be thriving through the pandemic and the overlapping racial justice movement, we sat down with the organization’s Chief People Officer, Stephanie Royal.
As Stephanie recounts, “the murder of George Floyd really helped to inspire, mobilize, and accelerate action that had already started. There was such a tremendous outpouring of support within our organization to take the work that had already started even before I got here, and to really accelerate it to help us move toward becoming an anti-racist organization.”
The phrase “becoming an anti-racist organization” stands out. Few I’ve spoken to call out the issue so overtly. This sentiment is indicative of Stephanie’s self-awareness and of the culture being nurtured at Robin Hood. When asked to comment on her upbringing in an upper middle-class Black family, Stephanie shared a sobering dose of realism:
“We’re not far from people who experience poverty on a daily basis within our own family. While my dad was able to go to college — he’s a graduate of Fisk University, a historically Black college — his education changed the game for our family. Part of why I’m so committed to the work that we do at Robin Hood is because we know that access to good quality education is a lever for economic mobility.”
Stephanie helps to illuminate that, for many of our DEIJ leaders, it’s not enough to strive for and achieve excellence. There are headwinds that make achieving and maintaining excellence more difficult. It’s imperative that we have people in leadership roles who have purview into what’s required to overcome poverty, and what’s needed to create a sustained cycle of mobility.
She notes that, “We all know how disproportionately affected communities of color were with health disparities and Covid just made it even worse. We knew that we had to mobilize quickly, and do so in a way that was intensive and meaningful and really holistic.”
Through this learning and growing process Royal has seen that creating a culture of inclusivity and vulnerability requires an evolution of emotional intelligence across the organization. It means ensuring that everyone has the safety to respectfully express their views and ideas. Equally important to working to foster safety for underrepresented and under resourced groups, is having empathy for every voice in the room. Stephanie describes this need well:
“I can only imagine what it must feel like to be someone entering a conversation about race, never having done it before. Feeling like they should not be in the conversation because of a certain aspect of their identity, or having anxiety around it. It requires vulnerability, and it requires an incredible amount of self-reflection. Based on that, we do have responsibility, those that are further along this pathway, to bring along those that are not there yet.”
In our conversation, Royal offered insights from her journey as a professional, from Wall Street, to the classroom, to her current leadership role as Chief People Officer at Robin Hood. Her story is inspiring for those among us, who could direct our intellect and energy almost anywhere, but choose a path of curiosity, compassion, and purpose.
Here are a few highlights from our conversation (full transcript), curated to help any individual or organization seeking to adapt to societal change and create a safe space for employees of all backgrounds, orientations, races, and beliefs.
“We could not have meaningful conversations about DEI without reflecting on who we were as an organization. Were we reflective on racial, ethnic, gender, sexual orientation, ability, and cultural identifiers. Were they reflected in the staff at the time? No.”
“We took a comprehensive approach to how we’ve recruited, how we made decisions about hiring, how we onboarded our staff, how we made decisions about advancement and promotion, so we could embody the values that we set forth.”
“During Covid, we engaged an outside consultant to continue the work of a wholesale cultural assessment. That was a very intensive process. A deeply meaningful and personal process. I know that the results will help to inspire that next level of work.”
“I think our staff would say they are happy to be here, very much committed to the mission. They’re participating and helping to develop a culture where everyone can be their authentic selves, continue to learn, grow, thrive and contribute to advancing our mission.”
Act:
Today, a commitment to DEIJ is crucial to the overall health of organizational culture. True commitment requires the willingness to continue finding and repairing gaps in equity and justice proactively. The investment of time and effort might be challenging. However, the rewards from meaningful education, engagement, and growth can be seen in employee values alignment, retention, and output in times of crisis and for years to come.
2. Understand the influence of policy
Listen and learn:
“After we worked on the talent side, we wanted to dig into policy, practices, protocols, procedures. Were they equitable? We continued to dig into the policies related to HR, vendor selection, legal, through a lens of diversity, equity and inclusion. I’ll say it’s a different organization now.”
“There are policies within our cities and at the state and federal levels, that don’t make it easy to access fundamental needs such as quality affordable housing, high quality food, basic clean water. These are not distributed equitably across all communities in this country. Where you see inequity and lack of access somehow seems to align with under-resourced communities populated by people of color.”
“We are trying to address issues of people experiencing poverty through grant-making to the amazing non-profits here in New York City, and across the country, so that direct service can be administered, so that people can access good quality food, quality education, and enter the sectors where jobs are abundant.”
Act:
We are all pieces of a larger puzzle. Being a proactive ally for DEIJ requires understanding the rules, procedures, and policies that affect inequity on a micro (in your lives and offices) and macro perspective (in our communities). Start by looking at areas of improvement within your own organization. Examine the procedures that might contribute to inequity and lack of representation. Compassion for our own areas of growth yields ideas and solutions that positively affect the collective.
3. Recognize the link between inclusivity and innovation
Listen and learn:
“We are a place that is welcoming to all people however they show up. I reinforce that in every conversation. I want people to be free, because if you’re not, you can’t do your best work.”
“One of the things that we are most proud of is our Design Insight Group. DIG emerged from the work of our tech incubator Blue Ridge Labs, which works to help founders create tech solutions to some of the drivers of poverty. We invite people from under-resourced communities to work alongside our program officers to develop programs to help in relief efforts.”
“We can, in a very respectful way, engage the experiences of people who have lived experience with poverty and get their input, get their expertise, intelligence, and deep understanding around problem solving to help us find solutions. It’s also important that we compensate them at a level to help them gain sustained economic mobility, for themselves and their families.”
Act:
Great ideas can come from anyone, anywhere. In the case of fighting the causes of poverty, it takes first hand experience to illuminate the real problems and the blind spots in existing solutions. When wealth, education, security and power gaps exist, it can be difficult to build trust. Attention to thoughtful engagement and trust building, as well as ensuring fair compensation, can yield needle-moving collaboration and innovation alongside the communities that you serve.
4. Invest in building trust and progress toward anti-racism
Listen and learn:
“In this type of work, which is so human, you won’t be successful unless you have a culture of trust and mutual understanding rooted in safety.”
“What results from those moments are meaningful relationships, deeper friendships, the willingness to step out of your own space and join someone. These are the experiences that make for a stronger team in this culture.”
“There are people who are at different places on their journey of being able to address race, class, privilege, but we’re all on board. It is okay to be at the beginning of that DEI journey.”
“You have to be ready and open and provide the psychological safety for people to show up as they are, no matter where they are on their DEI journey.”
Act:
Language is important. So, leaders need to speak about the importance for all to be bought in and supported, no matter where they are on their DEI journey. At Robin Hood, becoming an antiracist organization is essential to their health and culture. They see the results in retention, innovation, and passion. Combining the business imperative with examples of tangible and measurable benefits of anti-racism help organizations and the people they employ stay committed to long term DEIJ goals.
5. Gather a community of support and collaboration
Listen and learn:
“I found my tribe when I first came to New York City. A small group of Black women all working at banks. We relied on each other to make it, to draw upon each other’s good energy, and to share experiences so we could grow and thrive in a foreign world.”
“In my professional life, my responsibility is to care for others.There’s a team of people that look to me for support, for answers, for guidance, and that can be very lonely if you don’t have your own place of respite.”
“I know that I’m a role model to our junior staff. I have to show up for them and be my best self and make myself available to help them understand that this can be their seat as well.”
“We want to be partners with other nonprofits, other philanthropies, government, corporate communities, because we know that philanthropy cannot solve poverty alone.”
Act:
You can’t go it alone. Whether you are early in your career or sitting at the top, resilience requires teamwork and support. This is crucial for individuals from under represented groups because of the combined psychological and systemic hurdles that lay as obstacles. Peers and mentors illuminate roadblocks and strategies for presenting your best self. For marginalized individuals and groups, allies, and institutions, we get further by identifying values and goals alignment, and pursuing necessary work, in partnership.
Watch or listen to highlights of Michael and Stephanie’s conversation:
About the author
Michael Tennant is a founder, writer, and movement-builder dedicated to spreading tools of empathy and helping people find their purpose. Before founding Curiosity Lab, Tennant spent 15-years becoming a media, advertising, and nonprofit executive, and delivering award-winning marketing strategies for companies like MTV, VICE, P&G, Coca-Cola, sweetgreen, and Oatly.
Tennant founded Curiosity Lab in 2017 and created the conversation card game Actually Curious. Actually Curious became a viral sensation in 2020 during Covid-19 and the rise of the racial justice movement for helping people build meaningful connections and to tackle the important topics facing our world.
He has channeled his business success and momentum into a sustained movement supporting BIPOC and other underrepresented communities through speaking, writing, leadership, mentorship, consulting, partnerships, and talent-pipeline programs.
From the narrative-changing storytelling initiative, “Driving Change From the Inside“, a look at the DE+I movement in organizations across the country.
CHECK OUT THE FULL SERIES: Summaries, Key takeaways, and Video Highlights
One wish that I have for America is for more organizations to have the clarity of logic, depth of commitment, and force of execution happening at NPR as they address their businesses challenges and needs concerning Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
In January of 2020, NPR President and CEO John Lansing made audience diversity NPR’s number one priority. Since that time, the organization has shared its progress across workplace, content, and audiences. This includes a three-year strategic plan that opens with the words “NPR must change to survive.” To get a first hand view into this progressive change agenda, I had the privilege of sitting down with the Chief Marketing Officer of NPR, Michael. The conversation that unfolded might be considered a masterclass on establishing a long term DEI strategy.
According to Michael, the business imperative for DEI is simply “believing in the strategy that to serve a more diverse America, you need to have a team of people whose life experience is more in line with the customers that you’re serving.” That sentiment is shared from NPR CEO, John Lansing down through the organization.
“NPR came out of the Great Society program of the 1960s, where the government set up the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which helped launch NPR and PBS. Their mission was to create media resources that weren’t being fed by the commercial media.”
Back in 1971 when NPR launched, their audience was in line with the United States. About 80% white and 20% diverse audience, similar to the country at the time. Today, their radio audience is still about 80-20, while the composition of the American population has shifted to 60-40. And, of course, the country has made a massive switch to digital in the intervening years as well. In order to get back in sync with America, NPR has been prioritizing efforts to make the network younger and more diverse.
Michael says that NPR has a fiercely loyal audience, because their values align with those of the audience. However, he says most Americans are not even aware of NPR. “We know from research data that only 30% of all Americans have actually even heard of NPR, which is maybe surprising to people who are big fans of the brand. There’s a huge swath of America that we need to make aware of the great work that we do, and a lot of that audience are younger and more diverse people.”
As impressive as NPR’s DEI strategy and tactics are, so too is Michael Smith. The second son of “immigrant strivers” from Jamaica as he describes, Michael was raised by a single mother, gained admission and scholarships to Stanford University. Now, he is living his childhood dream of being a leader in media and entertainment.
“I’ve always had this feeling of being the new kid and being outside, and I think there’s something actualizing about the power of being able to have your voice heard, even if it’s not being heard in your day-to-day life. You feel like if you’re making media content, you can be heard by the world. So I think that’s what drew me to it.”
The beneficiary of an 1980s minority-focused internship program at the San Francisco Chronicle Foundation, Michael, like myself, took advantage of internship opportunities designed to address diverse pipeline issues. I benefited from a program at Viacom that still exists, which recruits and trains underrepresented media talent. Throughout our conversation, Michael offers insights from his four decades of navigating the media industry, from an intern to founding the Cooking Channel to the CMO of NPR — as a Black man.
His story is inspiring to anyone who is interested in a career path, but lacks the immediate familial access to knowledge and mentorship in that industry. His combination of hard work, curiosity, creativity and agency provides a blueprint any individual can follow to manifest their professional dreams.
Here are a few highlights from our conversation, curated to help any individual or organization seeking to adapt to societal change and create a safe space for employees of all backgrounds, orientations, races, and beliefs.
This is NPR’s “number one priority. To really diversify our audience to better reflect and serve America. We’ve always been about making a more informed, and more culturally enriched population through our content, but we haven’t always done it. Our commitment right now is to very much reflect all of America, and put the public back into National Public Radio.”
“It’s really one big thing, which is just believing in the strategy to serve a more diverse America. You need to have a team of people whose life experience is more in line with the customers and service users that you’re serving.”
“If you think about when a brand like NPR started in the 1970s, the country was about 80-85% white. If you think about who the listeners were, most of whom were in colleges, who were in corporations, and all kinds of institutions, it was 80-90% white. We’re at a time now where it’s really changed. For the first time in some states like California, the majority of kids who are in elementary school are of color.”
Act:
Change or risk extinction. It appears NPR sees something that many organizations are failing to prioritize. If you cannot relate to your audience, then you will eventually lose them. Our nation has become more diverse and our nation’s media (and other organizations) need to adapt to meet their audiences’ expectations and sensibilities. Once you identify the core business case for diversity, it unlocks the license to infuse DE+I goals intrinsically into your business strategy, goals, and roadmap.
2. Get educated on the headwinds BIPOC employees face
Listen and learn:
“I know from my own career, when I got out of college and business school and was working on Madison Avenue back in the ’80s at Young & Rubicam, a popular and famous agency. There were only two African-Americans, me and one other gentleman, in the entire company – account management – and they had, I think, about 800 different people in account management.”
“One of the things that I had noticed when I was younger is that a lot of senior executives in media: If you looked at their family backgrounds, their fathers were also in media. Or they had brothers or cousins, or there were the people around the dinner table when they were 12 or 14. Their dad was reading The Wall Street Journal and talking about what was going on at work. They just had certain insights that people, especially BIPOC people, we just didn’t have.”
“In terms of discrimination, I think that the biggest thing that I’ve faced, and I think a lot of people of color have faced, is being underestimated, undervalued and marginalized in terms of what people think your potential could be.”
Act:
In today’s job market, if you wish to foster safety and retain high potential BIPOC employees, it is unwise to ignore the effects of race and privilege. Creating lasting inclusivity requires the hard work of building trust and connection for team members to explore privilege and bias. Peer to peer storytelling can be effective when appropriately moderated and as bonds of trust in organizations are strengthened. Ongoing people-manager training, community gathering, and proactive mentorship programs can help to close the trust gap, and reduce missed opportunities between employers and underrepresented talent.
3. Make long term investments in BIPOC pipeline
Listen and learn:
“When you think about diversity and inclusion across U.S. companies, there are two things going on, and they’re both related to this question of the pipeline. One is getting more people into the pipeline. Two is once they’re in the pipeline, making sure that they actually make it through and thrive.”
“You see, what C-Suite leaders need to do to really make diversity a reality is, first get true buy-in to why this matters. Not just the moral reason behind it, but the business imperative. Because your audience is changing and you’re gonna become a dinosaur if you don’t reflect the people you’re serving outside of your company. You gotta get buy-in at first, and then understand the nuances of the situation. It’s a combination of bringing people into your organization, but more importantly, what do you do once they’re in the organization.”
“I give a lot of credit to, as we talk about diversity, to the San Francisco Chronicle Foundation, which is a newspaper foundation that had created a minority internship program back in the 80s. The idea was to help kids of color get exposure to the business. If it wasn’t for that, I don’t think I would have gotten my foot in the door at the TV station that they owned. And then that led to other internships that I got in the industry and started my career.”
Act:
Content is king and content companies are the king makers. In the cases of media and advertising, as the cost of creating content falls and new platforms for brands and storytellers emerge, the competition for all talent is increasing. In order to create long term demographic shifts, investments need to be made that recruit and support the retention of candidates over an extended period. If you aren’t investing in BIPOC talent, stand back as players from all sectors win the love of the talent and audiences that you covet.
4. Measure the impact of investment in DE+I
Listen and learn:
“We measure our social impact on how many people we reach with our content, and how much of a change we make in our society through that content. When we look at NPR historically: We had about 80% white audience, 20% diverse audience, and that was similar to the country. But if you look at us today, our radio audience is still about 80-20, and the country has changed to digital. So we realize that we’ve gotten out of sync with America, and so we’ve been re-doubling our efforts to make the network younger and more diverse.”
“We’ve had great success in podcasting, because that’s the platform that younger people really resonate with. It’s on demand. They listen on their smartphones. We found that our podcast content, whether it’s shows like How I Built This or Planet Money or Code Switch, or It’s Been a Minute, those shows actually have about a 40% to 45% people of color audience.”
“So we see the path forward. Which is to make content and put it on the platforms where younger people are. We have another series on YouTube, which is another place where young people love to go. It’s called Tiny Desk Concerts, and it’s basically live concerts featuring a wide variety of diverse artists. And that series is bringing in young and very diverse people into the NPR fold. So we just feel like it’s about those series.”
Act:
Numbers don’t lie, unless you want them to. For NPR, by focusing on goals of attracting a younger and more diverse audience, they were able to implement strategies that are yielding the processes and connections necessary to produce the content that appeals to their desired audience. Whether your business goal is to appeal to more consumers, employees, clients or potential partnerships, identifying the business imperative for diversity, equity and inclusion and measuring it clearly, is the most effective tactic of assuring your moral goals remain linked to your business health regardless of leadership or cultural changes.
Watch or listen to highlights of Michael Tennant’s conversation with Michael Smith
About the author
Michael Tennant is a founder, writer, and movement-builder dedicated to spreading tools of empathy and helping people find their purpose. Before founding Curiosity Lab, Tennant spent 15-years becoming a media, advertising, and nonprofit executive, and delivering award-winning marketing strategies for companies like MTV, VICE, P&G, Coca-Cola, sweetgreen, and Oatly.
Tennant founded Curiosity Lab in 2017 and created the conversation card game Actually Curious. Actually Curious became a viral sensation in 2020 during Covid-19 and the rise of the racial justice movement for helping people build meaningful connections and to tackle the important topics facing our world.
He has channeled his business success and momentum into a sustained movement supporting BIPOC and other underrepresented communities through speaking, writing, leadership, mentorship, consulting, partnerships, and talent-pipeline programs.
From the narrative-changing storytelling initiative, “Driving Change From the Inside“, a look at the DE+I movement in organizations across the country.
Madison Avenue has long been one of the most coveted industries to work for in America. Today advertising stands among the masses anxiously awaiting the end of the pandemic while striving to adapt workplace culture to address the “great reshuffle” happening in the U.S. job market.
Every major industry has been faced with a reckoning around equitable opportunity and a need to attract and retain diverse talent. For advertising, this has been keenly felt as it becomes increasingly evident that messaging that reflects the audiences it serves is best created by diverse talent. To put this industry’s situation into context: In 2020, major Advertising holding companies responded to the fallout following the rise of the Black and AAPI advocacy movements with grand pledges to correct the inequities being denounced on a National and International level. A full year later, despite what appears to have been a genuine effort across the industry, the incremental advancements have been underwhelming.
Like many of the holding companies, Havas Group released its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Stats in Q3 of 2021. It showed improvement—and room for improvement. Havas Group North America increased the number of diverse employees across all career levels within its U.S. offices by 3% between July 2020 and June 2021. A closer look at the data shows Hispanics/Latinos were up 1.6%, followed by Asians at 1%, multiracial people at .2%, and American Indians/Pacific Islanders and Black people at .014% each.
But these numbers only paint part of the picture. So, I sat down with Juliana Akoumouh, Chief Culture Officer and Head of Diversity Equity and Inclusion at Havas North America to get a holistic view inside this agency group. Julianna’s job as the NA DE&I lead is to work closely with Havas’s global talent leader, as well as agency CEOs, to help them bring their DEI efforts to life and make them successful.
As Julianana describes it:
“We’re in the middle of the most dramatic talent management situation I’ve ever seen. People are reflecting on the world around them, on their careers, on their lives, what’s valuable to them, what makes them happy. We’re in a major talent shift.”
“We’re in a moment where, and it’s not just us, retention is a challenge. There’s a moment happening right now from a talent perspective where, certainly for under-represented talent, that they’re being sought out. So it is challenging to keep talent.”
Our conversation was a deeply personal interview for myself, an admitted Media and Advertising refugee who went out on my own because of a lack of feeling safe and inspired within workplace culture. A strategic and thoughtful HR leader, Julianna has felt this first hand. Speaking candidly with me, this outspoken change agent reveals that she has seen her fair share of conscious and unconscious biases on her way to excellence in her chosen path.
“You don’t hear it in the words. You may not hear it as discrimination. But I understood that they were talking about me as other.”
To address the ongoing and emerging issues in HR, Julianna describes the all-hands approach she’s part of. It spans a network of hand raisers, executive leaders, and employee resource groups. This community of people within Havas Group have come together to weather these uncertain times, while laying the foundation for a more inclusive workplace.
“I’m really optimistic that our numbers will be better. They could not have gone in the opposite direction with the level of attention and focus that we’ve had in every agency, with every leader, with every open role. So I’m optimistic. We’ll be reviewing our data and sharing [more] in the coming months. I’m really excited to see the progress that we’ve made. I know that it will be in the right direction.”
Below are a few highlights from our conversation (full transcript), curated to help any individual or organization seeking to create a safe space for employees of all backgrounds, orientations, races, and beliefs.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
To read the full interview and to follow the developments of “Driving Change” follow us at Curiosity Lab.
1. Have the difficult but necessary conversations
Listen and learn
“I think there’s a lot of value in just saying how you feel plainly so that we can actually deal with what the matters are at hand, for better problem-solving.”
“It’s difficult for people. And I understand why. But we can still work towards it.”
“I definitely want every individual to be personally accountable and understand their role in change. At the same time, I am very aware of each individual’s challenges in trying to prioritize all of these things that really matter. Our business matters. Inclusion matters in order for us to have a successful business. That’s my belief.”
“When someone identifies a situation as difficult, no matter what it is, I try to break that thing down in a way that’s digestible and give specific steps or a new way of looking at the situation that will help them still move through it.”
“That’s how we’re gonna make that progress consistently: Consistently pushing.”
Act
The tragic events of 2020 and early 2021 made our entire nation stop and pay attention to issues of inequity across our society. However, achieving measurable and sustainable progress will require leaders across all levels to continue difficult but necessary conversations about workplace inequity, safety, and culture change. In an increasingly competitive job market for top diverse talent, this is no longer an altruistic goal. It has become a business imperative to commit to sustaining the conversations that lead to inclusive workplaces and cultures.
2. Invest in this talent-driven market
Listen and learn
“We’re in the middle of the most dramatic talent management situation I’ve ever seen. People are reflecting on the world around them, on their careers, on their lives, what’s valuable to them, what makes them happy, and we’re in a major talent shift.”
“We’re in a moment where, and it’s not just us, retention is a challenge… There’s a moment happening right now from a talent perspective where, certainly for under-represented talent, that they’re being sought out. So it is challenging to keep talent. “
“I hope that all of the angles by which we’re trying to tackle this will signal to any current employees or people joining the organization that we take inclusion, belonging, and safety seriously.”
“I think our recruiters in the past have done a really good job of bringing diverse talent to the table. But we’ve seen in the past, how they don’t make it through. That diverse talent doesn’t make it through to the internship or beyond. So now, as an organization, we’ve been talking about how much this moment of access matters.”
Act
Having difficulty hiring diverse talent? You are not alone. We are in the midst of a hiring crisis, only exacerbated by a reckoning around employee burnout and renewed calls for more supportive work environments. Unfortunately, long standing issues with attracting and retaining under-represented talent creates a further issue in the lack of representation in mid- and upper-level management. This, in turn, makes it a challenge to recruit at all levels. Breaking this cycle will require a significant investment. Hiring top talent will require top dollars and filling the pipeline with good young talent will require proactive investment in training and PR to raise awareness, interest, and access in underrepresented communities.
3. Reshape corporate norms
Listen and learn
“The working environment or what it means to work together in an office space and the experience of collaborating will be changed for the better, for the future.”
“The talent is demanding it. In order for us or any organization in this industry to stay competitive from a talent retention standpoint, you’re going to have to do things differently to keep people and keep them happy. There’s going to be a shift in terms of what we think about the future of work, that people will have to adjust to. Be different and think differently.“
“I think that as we start to see demographics shift, we’ll also see corporate culture shift. Corporate culture meaning, when we think about what’s “professional” or what’s corporate. A lot of those standards have been very white-centered and very eurocentric.”
“From appearance, to tone of voice, to the language that’s used in corporate culture. Even how we interact with people will be different. Because we will have more backgrounds of people that communicate in ways that we hope are based more on empathy. Based more on honesty. Based more in vulnerability and safety. And that will definitely challenge corporate culture.”
Act
Leadership teams that are more male and more white than the populations they support are finding themselves out of touch with the desires of their staff. An inclusive workplace is not one in which everyone is invited to conform to a “corporate norm.” The very notion limits who will raise their hand to participate.
Once we’re able to acknowledge the likely existence of unconscious biases in ourselves and our organizations, the process of deep listening can begin. In order to remake corporate culture to meet the needs of the future workforce we need to involve them in the process. From investing in eye opening programming, to adapting past customs and expectations to address issues of burnout and mental health, staying competitive will require shifts that ask leaders to check their egos and acknowledge their blind spots.
4. Practice gratitude for the wins
Listen and learn
“I’m very grateful that the work that I’ve done over the last year in terms of sharing an approach for employee resource groups and in sharing a framework for DEI initiatives and audits has been received. I’ve been received with very open arms. It means that other people can share their ideas too.”
“I am really grateful for the women of color being added to senior leadership positions within the organization. They are dynamic and wonderful, and thoughtful, and I’m so happy to not be the only at such a senior level. “
“I am grateful for all of our employee resource groups and their leadership. We have staff across the entire network who are so passionate, who have real-life experience and pain that they work through and share with the entire network. And every moment of those shares, I have extreme gratitude for, because people are baring their souls, and everyone has the opportunity to be better for it.”
Act
For DE+I leaders like Julianna Akuamoah, the pursuit of a more safe, equitable, and inclusive workplace is the result of a life of facing and overcoming the very challenges our culture is confronting today. Understanding her experience teaches that driving change is a marathon-like endeavor that requires patience, strategy, and grace — empathetic qualities that all leaders should have. Taking a moment to reflect on and celebrate your wins helps to cultivate the consistency, poise, and resilience required to face these challenges over the long haul.
Watch or listen to highlights of Michael and Julianna’s conversation:
About the author
Michael Tennant is a founder, writer, and movement-builder dedicated to spreading tools of empathy and helping people find their purpose. Before founding Curiosity Lab, Tennant spent 15-years becoming a media, advertising, and nonprofit executive, and delivering award-winning marketing strategies for companies like MTV, VICE, P&G, Coca-Cola, sweetgreen, and Oatly.
Tennant founded Curiosity Lab in 2017 and created the conversation card game Actually Curious. Actually Curious became a viral sensation in 2020 during Covid-19 and the rise of the racial justice movement for helping people build meaningful connections and to tackle the important topics facing our world.
He has channeled his business success and momentum into a sustained movement supporting BIPOC and other underrepresented communities through speaking, writing, leadership, mentorship, consulting, partnerships, and talent-pipeline programs.
From the narrative-changing storytelling initiative, “Driving Change From the Inside“, a look at the DE+I movement in organizations across the country.
CHECK OUT THE FULL SERIES HERE: Summaries, Key takeaways, and Video Highlights
During the same summer that two billionaires made private space travel a reality, NASA announced an $18M investment in STEM diversity. But what’s it look like behind the headlines?
NASA’s investment in STEM diversity signals that the importance of recruiting, training, and maintaining a diverse workforce has risen in priority. This is a positive sign following a year that saw our nation wake up to the realities of injustice and inequality and their effect on government public service (law enforcement in particular). With government agencies under a microscope in the wake of an embattled and racially charged Presidential transition, we were grateful to have the opportunity to sit down with Edward Gonzales, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion lead for Heliophysics at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, as part of our series Driving Change from the Inside.
Eddie describes his childhood in West Covina, California as something like “Leave it to Beaver,” the idyllic 1950 tv series. However, he says his neighborhood started to change when he was about eight due to a growing gang – and police – presence. He describes it as going “from crayons to handcuffs in a very short time.” When he was 13, his father passed. Then, just months later at age 14, he was heading home from baseball practice when he heard sirens. Suddenly, police cars were everywhere and he knew something bad was going down. What he didn’t expect was to end up brutalized and handcuffed in the back of a police car.
Turns out the suspect they’d been chasing was a 6’4″ blonde haired 30-something. Given his treatment at the hands of the police, his family filed an accusation of police brutality. He describes that as game changing; it ruined his life at the time.
“When I walked to school, I was harassed by the police. When I was old enough to drive, I was pulled over probably about five to six times a week. Most times, they’d make me late for school. Try to explain that to a homeroom teacher. They never believed my reasons for being late because a lot of teachers, families, and students saw what happened that day and assumed that I deserved it and must have done something wrong. No one would listen to me. It really had a domino effect. That one day of being harassed and complaining about it. I paid the price for it throughout my high school years.”
Right out of high school, he got his girlfriend pregnant and worked multiple jobs to support his young family. But a neighbor who believed in him suggested he take a job at an LA law firm in the mail room. He did. And like an American dream, he worked his way up from the mail room to coordinator, then supervisor, then manager. He credits much of this to his father instilling a work ethic in him at an early age.
And – though he passed decades before Eddie took his first role at NASA – his father was instrumental in that move as well. When Eddie was five, his father brought him into the house and said,
“I want you to see this. It was Apollo 13. Not the movie. The actual Apollo 13 when it was happening for real. And for those of you that are unaware of Apollo 13, I encourage you to Google it. These astronauts were on their way to the moon. They ran into an anomaly, and not only were they not gonna make it to the moon, there was a good possibility that they weren’t gonna make it back to earth. But the flight director, Gene Kranz, and the amazing people that worked at NASA as a team brought those astronauts home safely.”
Beyond the clear fact of introducing a young Eddie to the otherworldly idea of supporting missions to outer space, he says it shaped his thinking in a way that persists today. “Failure is not an option. Let’s come up with solutions … watching that whole thing take place, I thought, I want to work for NASA. Not as an astronaut. But as some sort of problem solver. And if I could help people, that would be my dream.”
He joined NASA in 2001. His 20 years there has seen him in many roles. However, from his first day on the job he found himself naturally drawn to the role of mentor and connector. Yet it was not until 2018 when his title first recognized his passion as Principle of STEM Engagement for Underserved and Underrepresented. And just this year he was named Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Lead. In a wide ranging interview, Eddie describes his early childhood, the persistent cultural forces, and the work journey that led him to the role he has today. He also outlines the evolution of NASA’s equity journey – both highs and lows.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Here are a few highlights from our conversation (full transcript), which should be helpful to any individual or organization seeking to create a safe space for employees of all backgrounds, orientations, races, and abilities to feel confident that they will not be exposed to discrimination, criticism, harassment, or any other emotional or physical harm.
1. Inclusion takes active leadership
Listen and learn
“One of the things that I’m really excited about is our leadership. Not just in Heliophysics, my division, but as a center. They want to make a difference. They want to make a change. I mentioned to them that conversations are going to be uncomfortable, and if they weren’t uncomfortable, then we’re not talking about diversity. So they’re in it. I’ve seen a lot of changes already. I’m excited about it.”
“It’s gotta come from our leadership. They have to be champions of this work, and they are. It also takes community. I love celebrating the role our affinity groups play. Using the AISES group as an example, which is a Hispanic, Latinx affinity group at Goddard, they are amazing at not only taking care of “their own,” but supporting others who are moving to the area and in need of advice. The types of advice that make people feel important, make people feel safe, make people feel equal. The affinity groups are playing a huge role. Whether they’re an ally or whether they actually belong to that affinity group. I think that plays a huge role in being successful. Having a place where people feel equal, important and safe.”
Act
We hear it all the time: change starts at the top. But the reality is that leadership comes from every point in an organization. Not only do we need to see diversity reflected in all levels, we need to actively infuse our management and hiring processes with the tools to empower leaders to do more than set goals, but to achieve them.
2. Say it loud, and outloud
Listen and learn
“In 2008, a memo went out to everyone at NASA Jet Propulsion laboratory. In that memo, it said, if you have any piercings, if you have any tattoos, if you’ve got pink, green, purple, whatever color your hair is, we want you to bring your personality to work. We are eliminating the dress code. Now, as long as it’s not of a sexual nature, or it’s going to offend somebody, feel free to be who you are.”
Act
Maybe your organization doesn’t yet reflect the diverse picture you imagine. Maybe there are issues of diversity you’ve not yet considered. From “professional hair” to “business attire” we create limitations on who can (or “should”) belong in our organizations. Making a clear statement that everyone is encouraged to openly express who they are, to truly be who they are, opens a door to diversity.
3. Active listening is essential
Listen and learn
“When I went to NASA Goddard in 2018…if you will recall, after Rodney King there was George Floyd, may he rest in peace. Because of that, our Center started having listening sessions. People would talk about different things that have happened to them in their childhood.”
“The people that work at Goddard, specifically, the white people, if you will, don’t take the approach of making all these necessary changes. They’re here to listen. “What is it that we can do to be a better ally for you?” They’re not trying to overstep, saying, “Okay, I have a Mexican friend, so therefore I’ve got this all figured out. No. They’re really in it to win it. And they’re doing all of the necessary things. I believe. It starts with educating yourself. Figuring out ways to do that. You could then go to some of the affinity group meetings and listen. You could go to different listening groups and hear the challenges that under-represented groups may go through, that they may not have ever gone through.”
Act
From coffee carts to moderated chats and regular listening and discussion sessions there are many ways that organizations can create discourse among different employees. And differences range from race and class to job titles, departments and divisions. Organizations that encourage open communication foster a level of understanding that will fuel compassion and creativity.
4. Mentorship is a valuable investment
Listen and learn
“Our network is our net worth. It really is. There are non-traditional ways of bringing in people of color from underserved, underrepresented communities. They just need the opportunity. We want to make sure that we create and tell them about those opportunities.”
“NASA continues to collaborate and partner with organizations to let them know that we’re here and we’re going to let them know about internship opportunities, early career hire opportunities, mid-career opportunities, and so on. If we are looking for a specific engineer, say, in Computer Science, that knows how to use a specific coding software program. We can go to minority serving institutions, HBCUs, and so forth and ask them to pull resumes that match. We can provide resumes that NASA may not have been able to see or have access to…. We’re letting the lab chiefs and people in decision making positions know that these organizations exist.”
“When I mentor students, they ask me, “Eddie, what can I do to pay you back?” And I always say “pay forward.” Mentor the next generation of leaders that are coming. If somebody asks you a question, respond. Respond to your emails. If you do a presentation at a school or an elementary school that you used to go to, notice if there’s a child in that room that really needs help. Help that person.”
Act
Identify organizations, universities, and community groups with which you can partner to open new pathways to success. Recognize that excellent employees come not just from “top universities” but may well have had to attend night school or community college while supporting a family and being an excellent employee at several part time jobs. And, as an individual, invest your time and energy in conversations with new hires or information seekers. The investment will pay dividends.
Watch or listen to highlights of Michael and Eddie’s conversation:
About the author
Michael Tennant is a founder, writer, and movement-builder dedicated to spreading tools of empathy and helping people find their purpose. Before founding Curiosity Lab, Tennant spent 15-years becoming a media, advertising, and nonprofit executive, and delivering award-winning marketing strategies for companies like MTV, VICE, P&G, Coca-Cola, sweetgreen, and Oatly.
Tennant founded Curiosity Lab in 2017 and created the conversation card game Actually Curious. Actually Curious became a viral sensation in 2020 during Covid-19 and the rise of the racial justice movement for helping people build meaningful connections and to tackle the important topics facing our world.
He has channeled his business success and momentum into a sustained movement supporting BIPOC and other underrepresented communities through speaking, writing, leadership, mentorship, consulting, partnerships, and talent-pipeline programs.
In the pop culture zeitgeist “Game of Thrones,” the Hand of the King bears the burden of their leaders’ whims. So too might our generation’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) leaders when the health of an organization hinges on its leadership’s ability to foster a feeling of safety internally. That means creating an environment where employees of all levels, backgrounds, and abilities feel confident that they will not be exposed to discrimination, criticism, harassment, or any other emotional or physical harm.
Life on the front lines or cutting edge of anything can be a lonely place. But particularly heavy lies the crown of those who are the cornerstones of transforming the future of workplace culture.
With this in mind, we’d like to introduce some of the leaders on the front lines of the diversity, equity, and inclusion movement. These leaders’ each have a personal story that informs the work they do and how they got there. They also posses practical knowledge and experience that can help others make lasting change in their organizations. Over the next few months we’ll share conversations with DE&I leaders from a range of organizations to understand, and learn from, their effortsto support enduring change.
History repeats itself
Last year, organizations across the country pledged to make advancements in diversity equity and inclusion in response to the racial justice movement that arose following the murder of George Floyd. Outraged by the actions of public officers, our country began to look inward at the inequity and injustice surrounding us. Once again, it exposed the lack of representation, psychological and even physical safety existing in our communities and places of work. So, a generation of newly minted and veteran DE&I leaders were empowered – and pressed – to devise and advance equitable agendas.
Meanwhile, optimistic albeit cynical onlookers like myself (an entrepreneur and self identified corporate refugee) could not help but recall similar awakenings in the past. This isn’t the first time outrage has rippled through corporate America. Unfortunately, time and again, we’ve witnessed committed companies and leaders fade into the chorus beneath the lead notes of profits and quarterly goals.
An empathetic approach
After a year working with these leaders as an empathy training consultant, I learned that many of them have overcome a kaleidoscope of challenges themselves. I chose to lay my judgments to the side and to see them as the allies and change-leaders that they are, particularly given a lack of precedent (and often leadership) to guide them.
In an effort to support other optimistic and like-minded leaders, I decided to do my part to help unlock and share their wisdom, elevating their voices so that peers and supporters can hear them. This new project, Driving Change From the Inside, distills insights from intimate conversation with leaders at a range of organizations including NASA, NPR, Robin Hood Foundation, and Havas Group. It is about those who are leading the charge of change to correct issues of discrimination, harassment, emotional harm, and inequity.
Tactics and takeaways
The series dives into the practical tactics and best practices leaders want to learn about and enact. It also offers an intimate look at the people serving in these roles. What we find is that their success requires the passion and support of all the people around them – from the CEO and the board to the entire executive team and leadership team, and rank and file employees who share the mission and belief.
We hope that viewers and readers will open their compassion as they experience the backstory of these individuals as well as the complicated layers of their present. As one interviewee said, “we’re running the same race but with different roadblocks.”
Driving change
All of our interview subjects have attained great achievement. Their stories are remarkable, but far from over. These conversations provide insight into the work required to establish and maintain a culture that fosters the DE&I agenda, including the steps our guests have taken, the processes and procedures they’ve implemented, and the support systems they’ve needed to achieve short- and long-term goals.
In the absence of an inclusive and empathetic past to guide us, these pioneers are writing a guide book that we all can put to work in our own organizations. Through these conversations, we can begin to understand the “why” behind what leaders do that equips them to show up day after day in the arena, bloodied while projecting grace, and Driving Change From the Inside. Their experiences and insights give us hope and support as we shape the future of work with diversity and empathy at the core.
Key takeaways, highlight videos and full interviews:
Michael Tennant is a founder, writer, and movement-builder dedicated to spreading tools of empathy and helping people find their purpose. Before founding Curiosity Lab, Tennant spent 15-years becoming a media, advertising, and nonprofit executive, and delivering award-winning marketing strategies for companies like MTV, VICE, P&G, Coca-Cola, sweetgreen, and Oatly.
Tennant founded Curiosity Lab in 2017 and created the conversation card game Actually Curious. Actually Curious became a viral sensation in 2020 during Covid-19 and the rise of the racial justice movement for helping people build meaningful connections and to tackle the important topics facing our world.
He has channeled his business success and momentum into a sustained movement supporting BIPOC and other underrepresented communities through speaking, writing, leadership, mentorship, consulting, partnerships, and talent-pipeline programs.
After two years, London Fashion Week is back with crowds, front rows, and shows. And the welcome strut of models on the catwalk brings with it the potential for great strides forward in making the industry more representative of society.
The British fashion industry has taken up a diversity initiative born in the BBC’s London newsroom but made it their own. Indeed, they’ve innovated in ways that could be trendsetting for newsrooms, content teams, and the fashion publications devoted to their work.
The partnership with the BBC’s 50:50 Project began that to the BBC’s Director of Creative Diversity June Sarpong joined the BFC’s Council. In September 2020, she became part of a newly formed BFC diversity and inclusion steering committee, which initiated the discussions of how 50:50 could be used to collect representation for the fashion industry.
Twenty design businesses signed up to use the 50:50’s data collection model at this September’s London Fashion Week. They were asked to collect diversity data from their teams represented at the event, which the BFC will collate. The results will be fed back to designers to support their future decision-making.
Katie Rawle, the BFC’s Senior Business Development Manager and co-lead for the Council’s 50:50 initiative, said, “Our initial thoughts about taking on 50:50 was how it could be empowering for designers. We’re empowering them to add further consideration to their decisions based on the data sets we give back to them.”
Sarpong believes that the success 50:50 has had within the BBC (and elsewhere) will positively impact London Fashion Week. According to Sarpong, “50:50 encourages all businesses to make more conscious choices around their teams from full time employees to the freelancers employed at shows, from models, to stylists, hair and make-up artists, communications and production teams.”
The BFC’s program adheres to the 50:50’s core principles: Collect data to effect change, measure what you control, never compromise on quality. These are the same cornerstones used by more than 100 partner organizations across the globe.
As Rawle said, collecting data to effect change for the fashion industry is all about informing designers’ future decision-making. September’s London Fashion Week will set the benchmark for them and the industry at the tri-annual event and they will then seek to improve their previous performance where necessary. The BFC has pledged to publish the industry’s data after 18-months. Critically, this aligns with the 50:50 ethos: Change not only happens – but is seen to happen.
Beyond a superficial makeover
The fashion industry has advanced the “traditional” 50-50 model in that the design businesses also collect data on their behind-the-scenes staff. This includes everyone from the design teams themselves to hair and make-up, models, production, and communications.
Yvie Hutton, the BFC’s Director of Membership and co-50:50 lead, said the decision to use 50:50 for off-camera contributors was inspired by an improvement in the editorial sphere over the last five years. She believes a similar evolution is happening behind the scenes in the world of fashion – but would like to confirm it in numbers. And if it turns out more change needs to happen, transparency can only help.
“50:50 is such a great way to look at all the different sort of stakeholders that make up the industry and come together for a major event,” she explained. “It will give us a better understanding of whether people’s perceptions match the reality.”
Saul Nash AW21
Tailored collation
So how does the BFC’s adapted version of 50:50 work? Most of the 50:50 media partners monitor their content through perception and collecting that data on aggregating spreadsheets. This allows daily output that is simple, fast and can fit into a content-makers’ workflow. However, London Fashion Week is collecting its data through QR-codes.
Hutton explained that any contributor could simply scan the QR code on their phone and fill in a self-declaration survey there and then. She says that this method of data collection fits better with the industry’s current practices and for capturing off-catwalk representation. As with the media’s approach, it also allows data to be collated quickly and fed back to designers to support short-term and future decision-making.
Newsrooms looking to garner more actual data – as opposed to audience perception data – may want to consider the QR collection method. Sending it to a contributor before transmission or publication will allow them to use the data in real-time, which could be quite powerful.
A deeper look
In addition to extending the data collection on the who, the BFC have also widened the scope of what characteristics they are monitoring. They’re examining not just what the audience can see but those behind the scenes.
Rawle explained that, as with 50:50, they are monitoring gender, disability and ethnicity However, they have also included socioeconomic diversity (SED). Fashion, like the media and other creative industries in the UK, has been identified as lacking employees from working-class backgrounds.
“There’s this idea about creative industries that they’re a meritocracy and that you just work hard and you can make it and that isn’t the case,” she said. “I think we have to acknowledge that and that was one of the things that came out of the 50:50 pilot [at June’s London Fashion Week]. People were keen for us to capture it socioeconomic diversity, as well as the other characteristics.”
source: Social mobility in the Creative Economy
A recent report on social mobility in the creative economy highlighted how what Rawle describes here mirrored in the media. According to the research by PEC, 28% of those in film, TV, video and photography are from working-class backgrounds, while 41% come from what they describe as “privileged backgrounds.”
Fashion forward
At the very least the partnership forged between the media and the fashion industry through 50:50 is a powerful one. We share a common goal to create products that better reflect our world. And, as we see through each of our partnerships, there is much to be done, and much to learn.
In the case of the BFC’s approach to 50:50, they added in the element of class and economic diversity. To date, 50:50 has not been used to understand class as it is impossible to accurately perceive. It is interesting to consider the possibility of the BFC’s simple QR survey offering a means to capture this or other diversity dynamics.
We will be watching the BFC’s progress with interest, especially the BBC’s 50:50 external partners lead Miranda Holt. She has been working closely with the BFC and hopes their work will have an impact on representation within the media in the long-term from a different angle.
“At 50:50 we talk about how the media alone can’t change the representation our audiences see, hear and read,” she said. “Our pool of experts, spokespeople and contributors come from across a multitude of industries and sectors. If those people are not reflecting society, then it impacts our ability as content-makers to represent all. So, when industries – such as fashion – take steps to ensure their sector is representative it will have an impact for us. It will mean the media’s coverage of fashion can also better reflect our world.”
The emphasis, believes, Holt is on long-term. And Hutton agreed, pointing out that the British fashion industry’s 50:50 journey is just beginning, and that it will take time to create the change to which they aspire. There is no shortage of ambition. In two years’ time, she hopes the work being done now – not only with 50:50 but with other commitments on diversity and representation – will result in an industry that is not elite, but genuinely open to all.
“We’re playing a long game here and we all appreciate that this is an ongoing conversation,” Hutton said. “It’s not going to be an overnight success. It feels like it’s the very beginning of something that could be significant and it’s exciting to be part of it – to be at the forefront.”
Opening art credit: palmer//harding AW2120 (British Fashion Council)
The business case for diversity has been made time and again. In fact, according to McKinsey, the relationship between ethnic, gender, and cultural diversity and financial outperformance has only grown in the years since the company first outlined its importance. And when it comes to newsrooms, the philosophical, moral, and business rational for improving diversity are also evident.
It is certainly heartening to see the impressive — even historic — rise of female and diverse newsroom leadership in the past year or two. For the first time ever, Black executives lead every major broadcast news network in the U.S. Women and people of color have also assumed leadership roles at dozens of major media brands. However, as HuffPost Editor-in-Chief Danielle Belton, who is Black, suggested to CNN, truly diverse representation in media won’t be achieved simply by hiring women and people of color to fill top roles.
In order to better serve the diverse population it reaches, the media industry must reflect that population from the boardroom to product development and from the newsroom to the sales team. It must also reflect these audiences in its sourcing and reporting. Hiring is one of the most visible ways media organizations are changing right now. However, there are also a number of taking tactical approaches that are meaningfully moving the needle.
50/50 and beyond
In 2017, the BBC launched the 50:50 Project, challenging its teams to achieve 50% female representation in BBC content. Today, the company says that 70% of its content features 50% women contributors. And this initiative is not limited to the BBC. The project partners with more than 100 organizations in 26 countries. The network includes public and private media, academia, conference businesses, law, public relations, and corporations. The 50:50 Project recently announced it will also strive for better inclusion of ethnic minorities and disabled people and those. The aim to achieve a 50:20:12 balance.
The BBC approach is fairly straightforward. Participants monitor the numbers of contributors in their content to set benchmarks for their chosen diversity measures. They then track their progress against those benchmarks as content is produced. Teams continually share and discuss the data which informs editorial decisions.
The BBC has found that the longer teams monitor and share data regularly, the more likely they are to create cultural change. 50:50 has enabled teams to identify topic areas where women or other diversities are under-represented, such as science or sports. It has also encouraged content makers to think differently about the stories they choose to tell. Reporters continually seek new voices and different perspectives to enrich their output.
Working on workflow
NPR recently announced a new initiative to track the demographics of its sources in real time. The tool, called “Dex”, is integrated with the company’s content management system. Dex allows NPR reporters to easily monitor the diversity of sources’ race and ethnicity, gender identity, geographic location, and age range. Over time it will also become a robust database to identify more diverse sources as well.
Deputy director of news operations Rolando Arrieta told Poynter that incorporating the tool into the company’s CMS makes diversity an integral part of the newsgathering and reporting process. Dex also allows for continuous monitoring, unlike the annual diversity reports many organizations produce. And, as Arrieta points out, simply counting sources is not enough. Creating a continuously updated resource for diverse sourcing and integrating diversity into content creators’ processes facilitates continuous awareness and improvement.
More work
Tactics and tools beyond hiring and sourcing are increasingly emerging. They are intended to assist in diversity objectives, but sometimes create a business opportunity in themselves.
Nielson introduced a tool earlier this year designed to better allow content creators, distributors, and advertisers to quantify their progress in diversifying representation on the small screen. Gracenote Inclusion Analytics measures how the screen time of various identity groups (such as people from a specific gender identity, sexual orientation, race, or ethnicity) stack up against certain benchmarks.
Bloomberg’s Gender-Equality Index (GEI) tracks the performance of public companies committed to disclosing their efforts to support gender equality through policy development, representation, and transparency. The organization’s New Voices initiative works to increase the representation of women and minority executives as sources in both online and on-air content. Recently, the company expanded its objectives to be more inclusive of a range of gender identities as well.
Certainly, it is heartening to witness the recent spate of DEI executive appointments. It is encouraging to see the newsroom leadership begin to lose its pallor. However, it is also significant to see media companies not only recognize the value of diverse leadership, but also the critical role of incorporating diversity into the culture and workflow of their organizations. If diversity is the goal, there is no one simple answer. But with a combination of leadership, trust, transparency, and tools the media business can begin to build solutions.
BBC News presenter Ros Atkins and I often talk about “pinch yourself moments” when it comes to 50:50 The Equality Project – a grassroots initiative he started at the heart of the BBC’s London newsroom four years ago.
He wanted to increase female representation on his program Outside Source by monitoring the contributors his team could control. Now, more than 100 organizations in 26 countries are using the data-driven core principles he came up to improve the gender balance on the content they produce.
Real results
That in itself could constitute a moment – reaching 100 partners. For me, however, a moment of truth has come. We can see how the global network is preforming. For the first time, the BBC invited 50:50 partners to join our annual challenge to see how many of us could feature at least 50% women contributors on our output.
The BBC Director-General Tim Davie found the results encouraging. He called on others to take up the next challenge. As he said, “We are now also seeing a real impact beyond the BBC on a global scale.”
This time around, 41 partners took up the challenge. So how did they fare? As a collective, 50% of the content reached gender balance. That’s up from 31% compared to when those organizations first joined the project.
Our 50:50 Impact Report 2021 details how even those organizations that did not reach gender balance showed signs of improvement. Over three-quarters (77%) of content-makers featured more than 40% women contributors on their output. That’s compared only 58% when they first joined the project.
BBC upward trend continues
Now, the 50:50 partners network has set itself a benchmark. So, next year’s challenge will be a real test of the progress 50:50 is making collectively. However, it is achievable, particularly if the BBC’s performance is anything to go by.
This was the BBC’s third challenge. For third consecutive year, there has been an improvement in the number of teams reaching gender balance. In fact, 70% of content reached 50:50 compared to 36% in the first month of monitoring. Plus, no team monitoring for three years or more featured less than 40% women contributors. That is a big first.
Audience appreciation
Audiences are noticing these equity advancements. A survey of more than 2,100 BBC online users found that 62% felt there were more women contributors on output. Meanwhile 58% of women aged 16-34 said they consumed more services as a result of greater female representation. That’s a 12 percentage point increase on comparable data from last year.
There are now 670 teams committed to 50:50 in the BBC. 50:50 Project Lead Lara Joannides is proud of the teams that took part in this year’s challenge. She said: “This is an incredible achievement, especially considering the extra demands teams have faced as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. The results prove that ensuring fair representation of all audiences across our content remains a priority for 50:50 teams, no matter what.”
The Australian way
ABC News in Australia was one of the very first partners to join the BBC in implementing 50:50. Together, the two organizations are creating real impact at opposite ends of the globe. In March, the Australian broadcaster saw 75% of their participating teams reach 50:50. That’s a big jump from 29%, when they first joined the project.
The scale of implementation of 50:50 at ABC means they have a core team to drive the change across the organization. Their 50:50 Equality Project Leads keep themselves attuned to the evolving news landscape so that they can provide support to ensure women’s voices are heard.
The changing working practices for journalists due to coronavirus is a good example of that. The ABC team gently reminded content-makers of the role 50:50 had in ensuring different voices were heard at such as crucial time.
“We also asked them to consider how the pandemic was specifically impacting Australian women, to tell the story of the health crisis in a way that surfaced women’s perspectives and gave voice to those on the frontline – nurses, doctors, care workers and teachers,” explained Emma Pearce and Rhiannon Hobbins in the report.
They added that there were unexpected benefits emerging from the pandemic too: “Some teams found it easier to reach and engage female talent, particularly in our afternoon and evening timeslots, as working from home became the norm and school pick-ups and commuter runs no longer affected their availability to do a quick Zoom, Skype or Slack interview.”
Covid-19 was not the only story the team had its eye on. At the start of 2021 there was a series of headline grabbing stories concerning the treatment of women in politics and the culture faced by women working in Canberra Parliament House.
ABC’s 50:50 Leads said: “Our 50:50 work fed into and enhanced our journalism on these issues. Our coverage incorporates female perspectives and the specific impacts on women. And our teams are alert to the need to empower and respect the agency of women at the centre of the stories.”
From Australia to Austria
In Europe, the Austrian public broadcaster ORF had 90 teams taking part in the March challenge. Overall, 52% of teams taking part featured at least 50% women.
ORF equal opportunities commissioner Katia Rössner said ORF is seeing improvement beyond the March snapshot. Over half of teams (55%) taking part for six months or more reached 50:50 by the end of March. That marks a 3% increase on the overall ORF performance. She said: “This confirms the fact, that the longer the teams are part of the challenge, the more likely they reach a quota of 50% in their programs.”
Rössner acknowledges in her submission to the 50:50 Impact Report that there was some trepidation when ORF started to implement 50:50’s core principles. She wrote about an observation by a regional news editor who told her: “At first there was some skepticism regarding ‘token women.’ But the team started focusing on interviewing a female intensive care doctor instead of a man. We found a great doctor who has the potential to become a new coronavirus expert on our show.”
For Rössner the “competitive and sporting spirit of the 50:50 Challenge” appealed to many ORF program-makers. She said: “Honest engagement and even small steps towards 50:50, no matter where you start, makes you a winner.”
Building a 50:50 future
One promising sign for the future is that 50:50 has a growing network of universities and journalism schools. Lecturers use it to get their students to think about the diversity of contributors during their News Days or Weeks.
Nottingham Trent University is one of 19 academic institutions taking part. In the report, BA Journalism student Emilia Roman said implementing 50:50 was “an eye-opening experience” for her.
During the first week, the students were asked to monitor their content but not change their way of working. In that week, Emilia said they recorded 29% women contributors across their website. Week two, the students focused on equal representation.
“The challenge of incorporating the principals of 50:50 into our work came down to one crucial element of story development – research,” said Roman. “Accepting the first reply and focusing on ‘getting the story up’ was not enough to help us drive a significant change in our coverage.”
By the last day of production, the students’ content featured 49% women contributors. Emilia said that “It’s pretty clear to us that recognizing the need for equal representation can significantly change the way your content looks.”
Spreading the 50:50 word
As evidenced by the universities, the 50:50 network now spans outside of media, with 50 partners coming from a range of sectors – public relations to legal to corporate. They use 50:50 to monitor their websites, social media, spokespeople, and event speakers. They seek to understand whether they are reflecting in their content the gender balance of their organizations.
Richard Purnell is communications manager at the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) and he said 50:50 “has helped draw attention to the issue of diversity in our organization, and given us the tools to do something about it.”
He said, “While it’s clear we have some way to go, 50:50 has triggered a whole series of conversations about equality which weren’t really happening before. As a result, we are now planning to train and develop a new set of media spokespeople. That should improve the breadth and depth of insight we can provide.”
An everyday movement
What the 50:50 partners have demonstrated is that we can all make small changes that are in our control and they can have a much wider impact.
The BBC’s Director of Creative Diversity June Sarpong reminds us in the 50:50 Impact Report a quote from American feminist Gloria Steinem: “The future depends entirely on what each of us does every day; a movement is only people moving.”
She goes on to say she believe 50:50 is creating that movement. I leave you with her words: “Every day, thousands of people are counting the 50:50 way. A small action for one individual, but a powerful tool of change – a movement. I would urge as many people and organizations as possible to join us so we can work together to reach a common goal – creating content that better reflects our world.”
About the Author
Nina Goswami is the BBC’s Creative Diversity Lead and is spearheading initiatives to support the Corporation’s aspiration that its on-air representation reflects society. Nina is also a journalist and, before her current post, was a BBC News senior producer. She has worked in media her whole professional career including The Sunday Times and The Sunday Telegraph.
Many white Americans—and American corporations—were shocked into a recognition of America’s ingrained racism, past and present, by the brutal drama that played out in 2020 on the blacktop of a Minneapolis street and under the knee of a former police officer.
The callous murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and countless other Black Americans spurred millions to finally take a close, honest look at their communities, schools, and businesses. Eyes turned to newsrooms as we sought to understand why the media’s depiction of these institutions do not reflect the diverse reality of our lives.
History lessons
Echoing uprisings in the streets, we saw similar uprisings within America’s newsrooms. The inequities seen in our communities parallel those long in place in media institutions. And our news coverage and the framing of news stories and issues reflect these biases.
Racial disparities in America are older than the Constitution. They began with America’s original sin of chattel slavery. Tremendous leaps and bounds have been made in the fight to realize the promises in our founding documents for all Americans. Yet those words—that all are created equal—remain aspirational.
The Institute for Journalism Education was born out of this aspiration, of the struggle to ensure all segments of our society are fairly, accurately, and equitably represented. This applies not only to the halls of Congress, but to the pages and screens of our journalistic institutions.
Long before the ubiquity of “DE&I” initiatives and Black Lives Matter marches, Washington Post journalist Robert C. Maynard recognized that white men dominate America’s media organizations. Declaring “We must desegregate this business,” Maynard and eight other journalists founded the institute to train and lift up journalists of color. Robert Maynard’s ineradicable legacy as a true pioneer was solidified when the organization he helped create was posthumously renamed the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education.
Amplifying voices
The Institute’s flagship program, the Maynard 200 Fellowship, is about building a new and lasting legacy for entrepreneurs, leaders, and storytellers of color who will shape the future of journalism in America. What we are seeing across journalism right now is a modern-day Civil Rights Movement for journalists of color.
In response, we must foster substantive power, belonging, and agency within the institutions that tell the stories of our society and our world. Through Maynard 200, the institute aspires to empower journalists of color to lead and grow organizations to have cultures of belonging. These leaders will help ensure that media organizations continue to serve our democracy. To do so, they must accurately represent the minds, souls, histories, and perspectives of all Americans.
Like many organizations, we’ve had to pivot following public health protocols due to the ongoing recovery from the global Covid-19 pandemic. That means that, for the first time, Maynard 200 will hold an all-digital training component to serve more than 40 diverse media professionals as fellows across the country. The program provides them with tools to elevate their own digital voices through panels, dialogues, and events.
Diversity and equity
For decades, Maynard has been the standard-bearer of aspiration and expertise in its primary mission of making newsrooms reflect America. It has led the re-envisioning, and advancing, of what it really means to be “diverse.”
In fact, Maynard has flipped the prevalent DE&I convention upside down, by bringing equity to the forefront. Without equity, diversity is only performative. By focusing on equity, Maynard has forged a longstanding record of training and advancing individuals from a varied diaspora of racial and ethnic communities throughout newsrooms and media organizations across the country.
Maynard conceived the “Fault Lines” framework for facilitating honest discussion about highly charged issues, through an understanding of how people with different perspectives can view something in completely different ways. In other words, the way we perceive the world and experience each other is filtered by our own backgrounds and experiences. Thus, diversity of perspectives produces a strength greater than the sum of each individual alone.
We belong
And, as a result of Maynard’s framework, a new narrative has emerged: the necessity and power of belonging. It is not nearly enough for organizations to check a diversity box with new hires. The perspectives and backgrounds and ideas that each individual brings to the table must be fully absorbed into the culture and decision-making of the organization itself. Inclusion alone is surface-level; inclusion can be as empty as toleration. But when you belong, you can feel it. And the implications can be felt in the work you produce.
For the Maynard Institute, pursuing belongingness is about far more than mere integration. Belonging creates the kind of atmosphere where people of color can feel empowered and entitled to bring their full selves into the newsroom, including their history and their perspectives, rather than feeling pressured to contort themselves to fit existing narratives.
Maynard 200 is the institute’s answer to the breakdown in the pipeline of training and jobs for journalists of color. In the wake of the Great Recession, years of progress were decimated in a matter of months. The ongoing public health crisis vis-a-vis the pandemic, America’s widening racial disparities, and the division and hate provoked by the Trump administration have only increased the urgency and salience of Maynard’s cause.
Writing a new story
Repairing all of this damage requires institutions of journalism to be active participants in the dismantling of structures of systemic racism—rather than the enablers of inequity and oppression.
Media organizations can be part of the solution. From the stories they tell, to the sources they use, to the framing of what is news and who is newsworthy, the media is a powerful component in our nations racial reckoning. We believe that strong diverse leadership is critical for this to occur. And so, with this year’s Maynard 200, we renew our commitment to supporting the growth and equity for future media leaders. And it is our belief that these leaders will make an impact that will resonate across all sectors of American journalism and media.
Last summer’s Black Lives Matter movement served as a catalyst for change in the workplace. Ignited employee voices and their frustrations filled Slack channels and social media postings. As more and more people shared their work (and life) experiences, it became clear that businesses needed to examine their internal culture and take action.
Publishers were front and center, reporting on the movement. They were also widely included in the criticism. Clearly, media organizations needed to take a hard look at their diversity and inclusion practices. Many acknowledged the need for their company culture and practices to evolve.
Digiday recently published a breakdown of 12 publishers’ diversity statistics. Unfortunately, few changes emerged in publishers’ employee composition over the last six months. Evolutions are slow and often painstaking. Some say it is too little, too late, while others continue to monitor and hold publishers accountable.
Importantly, as an initial step, many publishers have begun to conduct internal assessments. The New York Times, Conde Nast, and Vice Media Group (VMG) are among those that published their findings. These companies also identified some of the actions needed to transform their company cultural. It is clear that those who have been systematically underrepresented, underpaid, and discriminated against deserve accountability, transparency, and — most importantly — action.
Accelerate the timeline
Publishers recognize the need for change. In February, The New York Times noted positive movement in its diversity statistics as compared to 2015. However, it appears that these efforts slowed and 2020 shows little improvement. The company’s full investigation finds that Black and Latino employees are still underrepresented, particularly in leadership roles. While management sees positive shifts compared to 2015, they recognize the need to implement a comprehensive plan to accelerate change.
Conde Nast’s release of ITS Diversity and Inclusion Study also notes prior diversity initiatives. They launched two employee-led community groups, Global Employee Council for Diversity & Inclusion in 2019 and Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) in 2018. Both initiatives showcase employees who are fostering inclusivity.
Separate from the report, Conde has made steps through changes in their executive team. Sixty percent of this team identify as women, 30% identify as LGBTQ+, and 30% are of a racially diverse background. Unfortunately, even with positive movement on the executive level, the report offers details on aspects of the Conde culture that perpetuate a biased racial environment. Management has identified new steps required in employee diversity, leadership, content, and training and benefits that will help combat the cultural divide.
Vice Media Group (VMG) continues their efforts to evolve and redefine their company culture. While things have changed since the reported “bro culture” and allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct circa 2017, it’s a work in progress.
VMG’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Report does find that the company is improving on the diversity front. The executive team is now comprised of 56% men and 44% women compared 68% men and 32% women in 2019. Further, BIPOC representation increased to 57% white and 43% BIPOC from 80% white and 20% BIPOC in 2019. While witnessing a few achievements, there is more work to be done.
Action plans
The New York Times identifies a four-point plan as its roadmap toward diversity and inclusion.
Incorporate explicit details on exactly how diversity, equity and inclusion tie to the company mission and values.
Increase Black and Latino representation in leadership by 50 percent by 2025.
Improve systems to improve developing people to ensure more diverse, equitable and inclusive.
Create a more diverse and inclusive newsroom.
The plans include setting clear expectations for employee behavior, new training programs for managers, and the creation of a new diversity, equity, and inclusion office. The Times also plans to establish a feedback loop where employees provide evaluations on their managers. An assumption Times states it wants to correct immediately is the idea that “there is a tradeoff between diversity and excellence.” In fact, excellence can best be achieved through diverse opinions.
Conde Nast’s plans toward cultural change go beyond their employees as it includes freelancers and content. They want to ensure that at least 50% of all candidates for open positions are from diverse and underrepresented backgrounds. They also want to include diversity in the hiring of freelancers, contributors, and photographers. Further, they have pledged that their content will reflect the topics and stories important to a diverse collection of people and communities. Finally, Conde Nast promises that 100% of their global employees will undergo mandatory unconscious bias and anti-racism training.
The Vice Media Group (VMG) is providing a new Hiring Playbook and initiated a second Pay Equity Report. The company is conducting a full review of their performance management and leadership training. The goal is to ensure there is objectivity and no bias in the process. Vice also plans to issue a new code of conduct and respect in the workplace. Details on implementation are in development.
Progress in-process
Internal examination and transparency from these media organizations marks a step in the right direction. However, action and results must accelerate. Top consulting firms, Boston Consulting and McKinsey, confirm that diverse companies result in better financial outcomes and more engaged employees.
Diversity is a win-win. Success happens when diversity acts as a business model and an integral part of the business design and workflow. Media works best when it reflects the audiences it represents. Publishers must do more than report on the problem, they need to be part of the solution — and that starts from within.
