I came across a few really interesting articles this week, concerning racial and gender diversity in digital media & tech companies. The first article highlighted BuzzFeed — our favourite outlet for random facts, celebrity quizzes, and “WTF” news — and highlighted that it had caught up to The Washington Post in terms of racial diversity. This week, BuzzFeed released numbers on the diversity of their workforce. Some highlights include:

• BuzzFeed’s newsroom has gone from 75% White employees down to 69%
• The percentage of female managers at BuzzFeed increased from 52% to 58%, making women the “dominant gender” in BuzzFeed’s managerial positions
• Asian-Americans make up about 12% of the employees working on both editorial and branded content for BuzzFeed Motion Pictures

Images from BuzzFeed.

You may be thinking, “But this sounds like an HR problem. Why are you writing about it??”

In our marketing classes, we learn that all activities of the business can contribute to brand image, from finance to operations to CSR. So, even if it’s an HR matter, diversity in the workplace (especially when openly disclosed, as in BuzzFeed’s case) can make a difference in the way people perceive a company.

International Business Times did a report earlier this year that compared various media companies (digital and traditional) on their diversity in the workforce. Traditional media companies (Washington Post, Newsday, Houston Chronicle, New York Times, etc) seem to be just as diverse, if not more, than new-age digital media companies (BuzzFeed, Mic, International Business Times, etc). However, one main issue was that many of these companies do not even publish their diversity numbers!

Image from International Business Times.

As firms increasingly recognize that top talent can lie outside of the “regular ol’ pool” of applicants (ie. white males), I anticipate that this should become more of a priority for companies to balance out racial and gender diversity, and show off how diverse their workforce is. In the words of so many companies nowadays, “Diversity in the workforce is just good business.”

References:

• James, B. (2015, October 20). BuzzFeed’s New Diversity Numbers Show Digital Media Giant Has Caught Up With The Washington Post. Retrieved from http://www.ibtimes.com/buzzfeeds-new-diversity-numbers-show-digital-media-giant-has-caught-washington-post-2149176
• Peretti, J. (2015, October 20). How Diverse is BuzzFeed in 2015? Retrieved from http://www.buzzfeed.com/jonah/diversityatbuzzfeed2015#.ebZQdo6KxZ
• James, B. (2015, August 17). How White And Male Are Digital Newsrooms? New Media’s Old Diversity Problem. Retrieved from http://www.ibtimes.com/how-white-male-are-digital-newsrooms-new-medias-old-diversity-problem-2056843