Newsrooms are starting to understand they need to make accessibility more than an afterthought. Editors are positioned to propel much needed change — even one story at a time.

Over the next few weeks, you’ll see a series of guest columns that are a little different than our usual offering. As promised, we solicited and received commitments (not predictions) from journalism leaders. We’re excited to publish these thoughts and promises made by our fellow leaders, allies, and rebels — of all colors.

Managing as a person of color has its own burden when dealing with the dynamics of the workplace. Often overlooked, is the extra weight of culturally based family obligations that are a part of our daily lives.

DEI Coalition members talk about allyship in practice, acknowledging power dynamics, and building trust

We’ve been funded for 2022! Newsroom leaders: We want to hear what you’re *actually* going to do next year to help journalists of color thrive.

PART 2 OF 2: When it comes to writing about mixed and multiracial people, it is critical to understand the historical context behind the terms, learn how to speak to sources and write about them, and examine any bias throughout the journalistic process. In this article, we are going to introduce guidelines for reporting on mixed-race populations.

PART 1 OF 2: When it comes to writing about mixed and multiracial people, it is critical to understand the historical context behind the terms, learn how to speak to sources and write about them, and examine any bias throughout the journalistic process. In this article, we are going to review an abbreviated history of mixed-race people in the United States.

The Stanford School Enrollment Project is a collaborative project that collects and normalizes school enrollment data from dozens of states, creating a dataset that didn’t exist before. Here’s how you can use the data to report on your community.

Part of an occasional series offering feedback for journalism as an industry, through observations from news nerds who have recently left the field and still love it.

Meetings belong to participants, too: overcoming tech barriers and snackable next steps

We need to fundamentally rethink the ways we report election results. Many of our maps and practices—from early calls to “trends” in vote share on election night—are confusing if not outright deceptive. The question isn’t “how do we optimize for speed, accuracy, and volume?”, it’s “how do we make sure our practices improve democracy instead of just observing it.”

How to prioritize people who are participating on their own time

The iterative, user-centered methods we use in product development make a lot of sense for content, too. Instead of pressing publish and hoping audiences like what we’ve produced, it asks us to have deep, ongoing conversations with those readers, viewers or listeners from the outset, de-risking our work by grounding it in an understanding of people’s needs.

Whether you’re developing a newsroom-wide strategy for connecting with audiences or you’re looking to quickly find sources for a single story, network mapping allows you to identify what you’re seeking to connect with audiences about, who cares about that topic and how you can reach them.

When I worked in newsrooms, one of the most frequent complaints I heard was about needing to go to too many meetings and therefore not being able to get your work done. But the problem has never been with meetings themselves — but rather whether the people calling the meeting effectively used the time and placed real value on other people’s time.

Leaders of color are dealing with a double standard: To be considered successful, you must be twice as good. To be a genuine leader, you must show people you aren’t perfect, and have things you’re working on, setting an impossible bar to more achievable heights.

Focusing on logistics, emotional labor, welcome and support, safety, and membership review

Part of an occasional series offering feedback for journalism as an industry, through observations from news nerds who have recently left the field and still love it.

If you’ve already posted your job description, you might be too late to get the truly diverse pool of applicants you were hoping for.