Voice of San Diego is committed to building an organization that reflects our community.
In 2019 Voice of San Diego established diversity and inclusion goals. These include recruiting a diverse staff and board; creating an inclusive office culture; ensuring our sources, op-ed writers and podcast guests are diverse; and understanding and engaging a wider, more diverse audience. We track these goals quarterly and discuss our progress with staff and the board. With help from readers and experts, we will hold ourselves accountable to improve every year.
In San Diego County, 43.8 percent of the population is White, 34.8 percent is Latino, 12.9 percent is Asian, 5.6 percent is Black and 1.4 percent is Native American.
Our staff of 16 is 63 percent White. We have one Black, one Latino and one Asian American staffer; three staff members identify as multiple races. Our Board has two Latino directors out of eight members – or 25 percent.
Our staff is 63 percent female and our board is 38 percent women.
Without the lived experience of some of our audience and peers, we undoubtedly miss stories and don’t notice things a more representative reporting corps would catch. We don’t interview enough people of color, in our stories or in our podcasts. Events have become a big part of our service, but they have often not attracted diverse audiences.
Each year we try to diversify our audience by hosting events in different communities throughout the county. In 2022 we hosted a member event in Barrio Logan and a portion of Politifest in Chula Vista. Both events attracted new and more diverse audiences. We’ve been publishing A Parent’s Guide to Schools in English and Spanish and presented it to parents through public libraries throughout the county. We regularly audit our website’s accessibility for people with disabilities and make enhancements.
We want to become a bigger, stronger organization that serves more people. But the largest untapped audiences, the best stories, the most striking injustices, the most inspiring tales, the best opportunities to expose problems and leadership failures may be out of our reach if we fail to improve the diversity of our team and the resulting quality and relevance of our work.
Knowing there are stories we can’t get keeps us up at night. And we won’t rest until we can.