When the nation’s news organizations were flush with money at the turn of the century, newsroom diversity was a top priority at a number of media companies. They spent millions of dollars on internships, entry-level jobs and training.
Newspapers at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) became a gold mine for talent, expanding the abilities of HBCUs to recruit and formally train students for jobs that in past decades usually went to White students who reported for the plethora of campus papers and news outlets at traditionally White institutions.
Papers like The Meter at Nashville’s Tennessee State University, The Spartan Echo at Norfolk State University in Virginia, The Famuan at Florida A & M University and The Hilltop at Howard University in the nation’s capital helped fill the growing demand for minorities in the media, producing students with good writing skills and providing formal training to aspiring photographers and cartoonists.
Providing journalism education, HBCUs were able to get their students employed, regardless of whether the newspaper and school administration were in sync. Scores of journalists, who have avoided layoffs and staff cutbacks, now work for local and national news organizations across the nation.
Today, the landscape for HBCU campus newspapers is dramatically different.
Newspaper journalism education is losing students as more students with interest in communications are pursuing degrees in multimedia journalism or degrees in marketing, advertising and public and government relations. Campus newspapers are being increasingly pushed aside as institutions focus more and more on digital and social media training for job-bound students.
On the jobs front, newsroom employment of Blacks and other minorities — slowly inching up since the issuance of the page-turning Kerner Commission national report on civil disorder 50 years ago — has taken a nosedive. Budget cutters have demoted the importance of newsroom diversity, once considered a core responsibility, according to a number of educators and recruiters.
