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Edwina Blackwell Clark I knew I wanted to become a part of management, |
The Road to Business
Even when she was on the editorial side, Edwina Blackwell Clark was studying demographics, trying to convince higher-ups of the benefits of diversity. Fortunately, as her job title now switches, her dedication to diversity will not.
By Edwina Blackwell Clark
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fter 16 years of editorial grooming, I’ve decided to move onto the business side.
The years in the newsroom have been good. The Dayton Daily News has allowed me to bring my diverse perspective to news coverage. Once, after attending a Multicultural Management Program, I led a newsroom plan to broaden our pool of news sources in an effort to make our coverage more reflective of the wider community. My goal was to educate the news staff about the importance of mainstreaming more minority voices into the fabric of our everyday coverage.
It could have been awkward. The people I was trying to convince had much higher titles than mine. But I realized pretty quickly that it wasn’t enough to just tell people that diversity was the right thing to do. I needed to give them an objective reason. So I made the case, based on demographics and readership statistics, that diversifying our coverage was a business necessity. We weren’t doing anybody any favors. It was an effort to stem readership declines.
As head of the newsroom-wide Mainstreaming Committee, we posted good examples of diversity on the bulletin boards and provided consultants to help train the news staff in diversity issues. We brought in a local Native American to talk about the coverage in his community. Again, we tried to help people develop a diverse source list.
I got into this business, in part, because someone took the time to talk with me and ask if I had ever considered a career in newspapers. That person was Booker Izell, now vice president of community affairs and workforce diversity for the Atlanta Journal and Constitu-tion. Over the years, Booker became my mentor, my supporter and certainly my friend.
It was my relationship with Booker that convinced me of the value of long-term associations between young people and their mentors. So last year, while working with our intern program, I instituted an extensive mentoring component. The primary focus of our intern program is to develop homegrown minority talent. It has had a definite impact on our minority hiring. Several former interns are now on our full-time news staff, while a few have gone on to our online partner, Cox Interactive Media, and some have taken positions with other newspapers. Many more work for us year-round on a part-time basis. The program has given us a definite advantage in terms of finding young minority talent.
Building a support system has helped our interns succeed. I fully expect that, in time, these new journalists will continue to build a working environment where differences matter. Their diverse perspectives will be needed as newspapers continue to try to compete in this changing cultural environment.
A few years ago, I began to focus on my long-term future. I knew I wanted to become a part of management, have a voice in issues I wanted to address. The question was where. I looked at the pipeline for newsroom management positions and decided there could be different opportunities on the business side. I knew a couple of people who went from editorial to business, so I was fortunate to have that exposure. In December 1998, after four long years of night school, I received my MBA. Now my job as the Dayton Daily News’ new product marketing manager is to find ways to promote our product to build readership and circulation.
Although I did not choose to move to the business side of the paper for diversity reasons, I do bring those important issues with me. I can see that the business of diversity can and should involve more than product or staffing solutions. Market positioning, product promotion and distribution play a key role. Small efforts help. It may be as simple as including a popular urban contemporary or jazz radio station in your ad campaign. I’ve got a lot to learn. But I know there are marketing opportunities, even as we pursue our larger target markets in the suburbs.
Last week, 10 local high school students toured the paper. We have a mentoring relationship with them, and some were paired with business-side people. It’s great that they are being exposed to those jobs at an early age. I know it helped me.
e-mail address is eblackwellclark@coxohio.com.