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States Newsroom Employee Census Report | 2024


States Newsroom values diversity, equity, inclusion and justice. We are committed to building a welcoming and supportive workplace that strives to best represent the variety of communities our outlets cover and where all employees feel empowered to do their greatest work.
To demonstrate our commitment to these core values, we post a public demographics report annually. The data in this report is current as of April 2024 and provides an overview of our team broken down by age, education, gender expression, race and ethnicity, sexual orientation, and other demographics. See how this year’s results compare to data from last year.

The following data is reported from an internal demographic survey administered during the first quarter of 2024. The demographic survey was sent to 220 employees, of which 196 responded (89%). The first sets of data are broken down by role; most employees are reporters and editors (92%), referred to as Editorial in this report.

AGE

Across the organization, the majority of staff is under 45 years of age (66%). Below you will find the breakdown between Editorial and Admin staff.


CHANGE FROM 2023 The percentage of staff under 45 years of age has increased in the last year (+3%)

GENDER

More people who work for the organization are women (53%) than men (44%) or genderqueer, non-binary and agender staff (2%); almost all respondents identify as cisgender (96%).


CHANGE FROM 2023 Women (+1%), Men (-1%), other gender identity (+1%); percentage of transgender staff (+1%)

RACE AND ETHNICITY

The majority of States Newsroom employees identified as white (71%); the next most common racial demographics were Bi-racial/Mixed race/Multiracial (10%), Hispanic/Latinx (6%), and Black/African American/African (5%).


CHANGE FROM 2023 The percentage of staff who identify as white has decreased in the last year (-4%). Because we changed the way we collected this data, comparisons beyond that are not exact.

SEXUAL ORIENTATION

27% of States Newsroom staff identify as LGBTQ+.


CHANGE FROM 2023 The percentage of LGBTQ+ staff has increased in the last year (+4%)

EDUCATION

Most respondents hold a bachelor’s degree or higher (91%); 24% are first-generation college students.


CHANGE FROM 2023 Increase in percentage of staff that do not hold a bachelor’s degree or higher (+5%); decrease in percentage of staff who are first generation college students (-4%)

CARETAKING

30% of respondents identified as parents or caretakers of children while 5% care for another adult.


CHANGE FROM 2023 The percentage of caretakers on staff has decreased in the last year for both children (-10%) and adults (-4%)

OTHER DEMOGRAPHICS

  • 15% of respondents live with a disability. (-2% from 2023)
  • English is the first language of the majority of States Newsroom employees (94%, no change). 9% of staff speak a language other than English (or in addition to English) at home. Of those, 76% speak Spanish/Spanglish and 24% speak another language, including Arabic, French, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese.