AOL’s New News Site Starts Out Color-Free

Last week the Journalism Educators Association hosted their fall national high school journalist’s conference in Washington, DC, and I was honored to host a session for a small group of young writers. Early estimates say there were more than 6,000 high school journalists from across the country attending, and their excitement was visible—a couple of Metro stops from the convention hotel I noticed groups of kids with cameras and note pads out capturing stories.

On the way to my meeting room, I passed a group of students of color working on a story about diversity at the conference. One of their interviewees said it was more diverse than she expected and she was really excited about it. I totally remembered that feeling from my days as a high school reporter, where I was often the only person of color in my classes and competitions.  In my group chat diversity came up again—clearly the issue is already on these kid’s minds.

Later that day I read in Richard Prince’s Journal-Isms that AOL’s new news site, Sphere, boasts 17 writers, none of whom are people of color. My heart fell for those kids I’d talked to just a few hours earlier, who keep hearing that newspapers are disappearing but still want to write because they love it. How sad to think that these kids could hear this news and think that now even the web isn’t for them.

When I read the AOL spokeswoman’s response to questions of the lack of diversity was “we are just starting, it’s going to be a diverse staff. It’s super early,” I went from heart broken to astounded. Your legitimate reason for not having any people of color on that list is that they weren’t in your early plans? And you’re comfortable admitting this? Is it because AOL has their Latino and Black Voices sections that they aren’t worried about diversity issues?

Those high school students looking for diversity at a conference deserve better than this.  All the kids who were there do. The pool of opportunities are slimmer than ever for traditional journalists, but if these kids still believe there is a value to their dreams, lets be wise enough to give them some role models who a) look like them and b) aren’t afterthoughts. There’s a plethora of professional news writers of color who would be awesome for Sphere’s operations, thanks to their talent and experience.

Sphere.com says its network of writers will continue to grow every week. So to AOL, if it’s not too early for you to think about diversity, let us know and we can put you in touch with some folks who might be interested.