The Post released a (long overdue) diversity report today. Darryl Fears prefaced it with this note to the newsroom:

A report on diversity in The Washington Post will be released today on The Source, shortly after noon. One year in the making, it examines several issues: minority representation, newsroom culture, minority retention and job postings. Each section concludes with recommendations for changes and improvements.

The report was completed in December by a small group of your colleagues, then shared with the executive editor, Len Downie, the managing editor, Phil Bennett and the deputy managing editor, Milton Coleman, for a discussion on its findings and on sharing its findings with the staff. An introductory letter signed by Len, Phil and Milton is included with the report.

Feel free to ask questions, make suggestions, criticize, challenge and otherwise react to the report. But before doing so, please read it. The names of your colleagues who participated in the report are included within it. To save you a little work, Darryl Fears and Keith Alexander organized the effort. The committee chairs are Keith Alexander and Anne Hull (Newsroom Culture), David Fallis and Sara Goo (Minority Retention) and Stephen King and Justin Blum (Job Postings). Inquiries from inside the paper can be directed to them. Inquiries from outside the paper can be directed to Darryl and Keith.

Thank you for your time. It is our hope that this report will be a resourceful tool in our ongoing effort to better cover the diverse community around us.

Analysis and a summary to come…but you can read the entire .pdf file here.

Download file.