McGruder award winners selected
Posted 10/13/2005 10:54:00 AM

The Honolulu Advertiserand the Argus Leader of Sioux Falls, S.D., have been named winnersof the fourth annual Robert G. McGruder Awards for Diversity Leadership.

The two newspapers willbe honored for outstanding leadership in newsroom diversity at a Thursday, Oct.27, luncheon at the Associated Press Managing Editors association (APME) conventionin San Jose, Calif.

The awards are given byAPME and ASNE in partnership withthe Freedom Forum, which provides the funding. Each honoree receives $2,500and a sculpture representing leadership.

“The Freedom Forum is pleasedthat newsroom diversity efforts are thriving in states as different as Hawaiiand South Dakota, and in papers as large as The Honolulu Advertiser andas small as the Argus Leader. We hope these smart and strategic leaderswill inspire others nationwide,” said Charles Overby, chairman, chief executiveofficer and president of the Freedom Forum.

The winners represent communitiesat both ends of the diversity spectrum.

People of color make upmore than 75 percent of the population in The Advertiser’s circulationarea. “The ‘aloha spirit’ is not a slogan for tourists, but a description ofthe qualities that matter in Hawaii,” Publisher Michael Fisch wrote in his nomination.

At the newspaper, 53 percentof the professional staff and 48 percent of the managers -- including all theassistant managing editors -- are people of color. Awards judge Gilbert Bailón,publisher and editor of Al Día in Dallas, noted that the newsroom employspeople of color throughout the organization.

Rick Rodriguez, executiveeditor of The Sacramento (Calif.) Bee and an awards judge,said, “I’m struck by the numbers -- by what they have been able to achieve.There’s a real commitment to retain and build the staff.”

The Argus Leadercovers a mostly white population. While people of color make up 6.4 percnetof the population of the newspaper’s circulation area, the percentage of minorityjournalists at the newspaper is twice that.

Both the Argus Leaderand The Honolulu Advertiser make developing their own employees a priority.

The Argus Leaderhelps to organize and run the annual Native American Newspaper Career Conferenceat Crazy Horse Memorial in South Dakota that introduces Native high school andcollege students to journalism. Publisher Arnold Garson, as chairman of theSouth Dakota Newspaper Association's minority-affairs committee, has overseenconference planning since its inception in 2000. The newspaper also hosts internsfrom the Freedom Forum’s American Indian Journalism Institute at the Universityof South Dakota, and some staff members serve as teachers for the institute.

The Advertiser, ledby Editor Saundra Keyes, looks to its internship classes for potential full-timeemployees and has provided mentoring that helped newsroom clerks move into professionalpositions.

"The Honolulu Advertiseris more than making good on its mission to ‘provide a voice for all of the community,’”said Suki Dardarian, an awards judge and deputy managing editor/metro of TheSeattle Times. “The mission permeates everything it does. Its staff is amongthe most diverse in the nation -- in a community that is rich in diversity.And the staff's appetite to learn more about that community, explore the nuancesof that diversity and improve its coverage is impressive.”

Awards judge Calvin Stovall,executive editor of the Press & Sun-Bulletin in Binghamton, N.Y.,noted that the content of both newspapers was outstanding.

The Advertiser providedcomprehensive coverage of a ruling by an appeals court that the admissions policyof Kamehameha Schools to give preference to students of Hawaiian blood violatedfederal civil rights laws. The newspaper also pays close attention to the detailsof content. It ensures diversity in its weekly Ohana (family) page, and it changedfont styles to include diacritical markings in Hawaiian words. “A column weadded this Spring to explore the wildly popular Korean soap operas includesfrequent reflections on how the programs incorporate traditional Korean values,”Fisch wrote.

In the Argus Leader’snomination, Garson and Executive Editor Randell Beck wrote: “We believe stronglythat the inclusive environment we have created in our newsroom has helped fostera culture that aggressively covers issues but also seeks out opportunities forexplanatory journalism that informs readers and helps them understand how ourstate’s diversity affects their lives.”

The newspaper haswritten about overcrowding and related health problems on South Dakota reservationsand about the increasing number of women moving into tribal leadership positions.The editorial page provided a community forum to debate the merits of a proposalto halt the flow of refugees into the city. In 2003, the newspaper publisheda yearlong series of special sections about the status of Native Americans 30years after the uprising at Wounded Knee.

“Other newspapers can learnfrom the Argus Leader’s work to build relationships with groups whosevoices traditionally have not been heard in their newspapers,” Stovall said.“Native Americans hear their voices and see their faces in the Argus Leaderand know that the newspaper will cover important issues about them and of interestto them.”

Other nominees were:

(over-75,000 circulationcategory)

• Margaret Bernstein, reporter, The Plain Dealer, Cleveland
• Douglas Clancy, assistant managing editor/administration, The Record, Bergen County, N.J., and the Herald News, West Paterson, N.J.
• Daily Herald, Arlington Heights, Ill.
• Democrat and Chronicle, Rochester, N.Y.
• Greg Moore, editor, The Denver Post
• Otis Sanford, managing editor, The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, Tenn.
• The Mercury News, San Jose, Calif.
• The News-Press, Fort Myers, Fla.
• The Star-Ledger, Newark, N.J.

(under-75,000 circulationcategory)

• Alan English, executive editor, The Times, Shreveport, La.
• Charles Pittman, senior vice president/newspapers, Schurz Communications
• Kathy Spurlock, executive editor, The News-Star, Monroe, La.
• Wausau (Wis.) Daily Herald
• York (Pa.) Daily Record/Sunday News

Judging the competitionwere: Bailón, UNITY: Journalists of Color board member; Dardarian, APME vicepresident; Susan Ihne, 2004 winner and executive editor, Asheville (N.C.)Citizen-Times; Bennie Ivory, 2004 winner and executive editor, TheCourier-Journal, Louisville, Ky.; Kate Kennedy, director/partnershipsand initiatives, Freedom Forum; Rodriguez, ASNE president; Sharon Rosenhause,ASNE Diversity Committee chair and managing editor, South Florida Sun-Sentinel,Fort Lauderdale; and Stovall, APME Diversity Committee chair.

Past winners of the McGruderawards are:

• 2004: Bennie Ivory, executive editor and vice president for news at The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Ky., and Susan Ihne, then executive editor of the St. Cloud (Minn.) Times

• 2003: Charlotte Hall, then vice president/planning, Newsday, Long Island; and the Greeley (Colo.) Tribune

• 2002: Don Flores, executive vice president and editor, El Paso (Texas) Times; and Jim Strauss, publisher, Great Falls (Mont.) Tribune

The Freedom Forum, basedin Arlington, Va., is a nonpartisan foundation dedicated to free press, freespeech and free spirit for all people. The foundation focuses on three priorities:the Newseum, the First Amendment and newsroom diversity.