FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 7, 2020

NABJ Applauds NBC’s Fifty Percent Diversity Challenge, Implores All Media Companies to Adopt

WASHINGTON ⁠—The National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) applauds today’s announcement by NBCUniversal (NBCU) regarding its aggressive diversity initiative. If fully implemented, as publicly outlined, NBCU’s “Fifty Percent Challenge Initiative” will be perhaps the most comprehensive diversity initiative in the media industry.

“NBCU’s stated goals of having 50% of the news organization’s employees be women and 50% of its total workforce be people of color is a direction all media companies, including legacy and digital operations, should adopt and embrace. We implore these companies to ensure that their goals include hiring Black middle and senior managers,” said NABJ President Dorothy Tucker.

The announcement came from Cesar Conde, chairman of NBCUniversal News Group. Although there is strong evidence that NBCU is considered a leader in some diversity areas (when compared to other media companies), the action by Conde is an indication that there is much more work to do in the diversity arena.

NABJ looks forward to future dialogue with NBCU and other media organizations that will focus on ways to help them reach their diversity goals.

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Media Contact:

press@nabj.org