Diversity Leadership Awards For El Paso Times & Great Falls Tribune Editors.

The first Robert G. McGruder Awards for Diversity Leadership were presented today to Don Flores, editor and executive vice president of the El Paso (Texas) Times, and Jim Strauss, executive editor of the Great Falls (Mont.) Tribune.

They were honored for their outstanding leadership in newsroom diversity during a ceremony at the Associated Press Managing Editors association (APME) convention here.

The awards are given by APME and the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) in partnership with the Freedom Forum, which provides the funding. APME President Caesar Andrews and Charles L. Overby, chairman and chief executive officer of the Freedom Forum, presented the awards. Each honoree received $2,500.

“We see daily, in the programs we run and in the newspapers we read, what a difference it makes when a newsroom’s leaders act on their belief that diversity matters,” Overby said. “The Freedom Forum is proud to honor these two diversity leaders.”

“I join in applauding the hard work by Don, Jim and their staffs,” Andrews said. “I appreciate especially their willingness to push beyond superficial layers of diversity and focus on improving the journalism. This is exactly the kind of leadership the McGruder award is intended to honor.”

The awards, which recognize leadership in content and in recruiting, developing and retaining journalists of color, are named for the former executive editor of the Detroit Free Press and diversity champion. He died of cancer in April 2002.

“We believe Don’s career, especially his tenure at the El Paso Times, represents the values that were important to Bob McGruder,” Publisher Mack Quintana and Executive Editor Robert Moore wrote in their nomination of Flores, who won in the 50,000-circulation-and-larger category.

When Flores became editor of the newspaper in 1993, 43 percent of the newsroom staff was journalists of color. “It would have been easy to be satisfied with such accomplishments, but Don wasn’t,” his colleagues wrote. “He pushed recruitment efforts that targeted minorities. He implemented training programs to try to improve job satisfaction and retention efforts. He pushed hard for promotion of minorities.”

As a result, they said, journalists of color now make up 57 percent of the newsroom staff. The percentage of news managers who are people of color now is 58 percent — more than double the level in 1993.

“I look at the El Paso Times, and I see leadership,” said Suki Dardarian, assistant managing editor/metro, Seattle Times, and an award judge. The accomplishments outlined in the nomination showed a passion for diversity, she said.

Strauss was recognized in the under-50,000 circulation category.

“He doesn’t use the size of his budget or the circulation of his newspaper as an excuse for not focusing on diversity,” said Dardarian, chair of the APME Diversity Committee. “He knows in his heart that his paper must have a diverse staff if it intends to cover and reach the paper’s diverse readership, and he acts on that belief.”

Tribune Publisher Pat Thompson Frantz wrote in her nomination: “Under Jim’s leadership … the Tribune’s news stories, photos and graphics far more accurately reflect the diversity in our readership area.” She noted that he created a bureau to cover a region that is home to four of the state’s Indian reservations, and that he and other staffers regularly visit the reservations.

“Jim spent two evenings with a Native American college class on the Fort Peck Reservation (some 350 miles away) discussing news coverage and job opportunities,” Frantz wrote. “The talk was transmitted to classes on Montana’s other Indian reservations…”

Once a month, Strauss meets with all newsroom editors to talk about diversity in coverage. His newsroom also has an annual training session on diversity.

Strauss has developed a minority apprenticeship program, hires students of color for internships and has promoted minority interns into full-time jobs. His newspaper presents an annual scholarship to a Native American student attending the University of Montana.
Other nominees were:

(Over-50,000 circulation category)

— Derek Osenenko, executive editor, FLORIDA TODAY, Melbourne
— Diversity Committee, The Ledger, Lakeland, Fla.
— Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram
— Hearst Newspapers Journalism Fellowship Program Steering Committee
— Judy Pace Christie, editor, The Times, Shreveport, La.
— Kathleen Rutledge, editor, Lincoln (Neb.) Journal Star and the Lincoln Journal Star
— Lawrence Young, the late managing editor of The Press-Enterprise, Riverside, Calif.
— Mark Russell, assistant managing editor/metro, The Plain Dealer, Cleveland
— Merv Aubespin, retired associate editor/development, The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky.
— Richard Kipling, editor of the Orange County edition of the Los Angeles Times, for work in his former role as hiring editor and Metpro director
— Rick Jensen, executive editor, and Gary Graham, managing editor, the Press & Sun-Bulletin, Binghamton, N.Y.
— Rick Rodriguez, executive editor, The Sacramento (Calif.) Bee
— The Buffalo (N.Y.) News
— The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, Tenn.
— The Morning Call, Allentown, Pa.
— The Roanoke (Va.) Times

(Under-50,000 circulation category)

— Evan Miller, managing editor, The Bellingham (Wash.) Herald
— Greeley (Colo.) Tribune
— Ocala (Fla.) Star-Banner
— Poughkeepsie (N.Y.) Journal
— Randolph Brandt, editor, The Journal Times, Racine, Wis.
— Record-Journal, Meriden, Conn.
— Sarah Jenkins and Bob Crider, Yakima (Wash.) Herald-Republic
— Scott Faust, managing editor, The Californian, Salinas
— York (Pa.) Daily Record

The judges were Dardarian; Jackie Greene, director/technology, planning and fulfillment, USA TODAY; Karla Garrett Harshaw, editor, Springfield (Ohio) News-Sun; Kate Kennedy, director/partnerships and initiatives, Freedom Forum; E.J. Mitchell, managing editor, The Detroit News; Greg Moore, editor, The Denver Post; and David Yarnold, executive editor, San Jose Mercury News.

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

The Freedom Forum funds two independent affiliates — the Newseum, the interactive museum of news planned for Washington, D.C.; and the First Amendment Center, with offices at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., and in Arlington.

The Freedom Forum was established in 1991 under the direction of Founder Allen H. Neuharth as successor to a foundation started in 1935 by newspaper publisher Frank E. Gannett. The Freedom Forum is not affiliated with Gannett Co., Inc., does not solicit or accept financial contributions, and does not accept unsolicited funding requests. Its work is supported by income from an endowment of diversified assets.