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BuzzFeed: Five ways we plan to become more diverse

Jessica Guynn
USA TODAY

SAN FRANCISCO -- BuzzFeed took a rare step for a news organization on Wednesday by releasing statistics about the diversity of its workforce and pledged to step up hiring of underrepresented minorities.

The Buzzfeed app on an iPhone 5.

About 75% of BuzzFeed employees are white, 11% are Asian, 6.5% are Hispanic, 3.6% are black and 3.3% are two or more races.

BuzzFeed's editorial ranks are a bit more diverse. About 73% of employees are white, 10% are Hispanic, 7% are Asian, 6% are black and 3.8% are two or more races.

BuzzFeed is following the example of leading technology companies from Google to Facebook which have begun to disclose the racial and gender make-up of their work forces. The results have been sobering: Most companies are overwhelming white, Asian and male.

Unlike many of those companies, BuzzFeed has achieved gender parity with 51.6% men.

"Diversity in BuzzFeed's editorial operation isn't a side project or special initiative. It's core to how we operate and how we hire," Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith said in a blog post.

BuzzFeed wants to make its culture more inclusive to reach more readers, hire the best people and make sure it's covering the "biggest stories in the country and the world," Smith said.

BuzzFeed outlined the five things editors should do when hiring:

1) Understand the beat or field hiring in
2) Insist on a diverse pool of serious candidates
("The final interview round should never just be several straight white men.")
3) Look for opportunities to make hires that increase the diversity of readership
4) Tap new networks
5) Create own pipelines

The effort comes as the percentage of minority journalists has remained between 12% and 14% for more than a decade, according to the American Society of News Editors.

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