NBC News Boss Pledges to Make Staff 50% Women, 50% People of Color – But No Timetable
NBCUniversal News Group Chairman Cesar Conde on Tuesday pledged to create a more diverse staff, setting a goal of 50% female staff and 50% people of color but without any timetable to reach that aim.
It’s not immediately clear how soon Conde hopes to reach his diversity goal. Nearly half of the news division’s 3,000 employees are women, Conde said, while 27% are people of color — among them, 8% are Black, 8% are Latinx, 8% are Asian, 2% are multiracial and less than 1% are Native American.
“As a news organization we have a unique responsibility to reflect the country and all of the communities we serve. Simply put, we aspire to achieve two concrete goals: that 50% of our News organization employees be women and 50% of our total workforce be people of color,” Conde wrote in a memo on Tuesday. “As a news organization focused on the future, we will not wait for that change to happen and then simply react. Instead, we will lead.”
*Also Read:* How Telemundo's Cesar Conde Earned NBC News' Top Job - Over Heir Apparent Noah Oppenheim
Over the next 100 days, Conde said the network’s News Group leadership would seek feedback on their “action plan and how we should hold ourselves accountable.” At the end of the 100 days, Conde said the group would convene to review “progress, potentially add to the plan and collectively decide on the key metrics to track our progress.”
A rep for NBC News did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Conde became the head of NBC News’ operations in May, succeeding former chairman Andy Lack and assuming a newly created role that oversees NBC News, MSNBC and CNBC.
Read the memo below:
New memo from NBC News chief @cesarconde_ sets a goal for representation: "that 50% of our News organization employees be women and 50% of our total workforce be people of color." pic.twitter.com/s3B5KmHz7Z
— Ben Smith (@benyt) July 7, 2020
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