Numbers are up, but many staffs lack diversity: forty-four percent of newspapers report they have no minorities in any part of the newsroom. (Diversity or Opinion).

Ten years ago, Lee Salem, then editorial director of Universal Press Syndicate, told the National Association of Black Journalists how hard it was to place black columnists without "credentials" or a "public image" in syndication.

"One of the problems we run into is that many op-ed page editors tend to put people and ideas they represent into boxes," Salem said in the NABJ Journal story headlined, "Papers Pass Up Black Columnists."

In 2002, says Salem, now the syndicate's executive vice president and editor, "I wish I could say that we're improving, but I can't. There's less space for op-ed writers, as more pages are going toward locals--the professor at a junior college who spent three weeks in Iraq and now is an expert on the Mideast. And they want distinct categories: 'I have a conservative, I don't need another: 'I have an African American, I don't need another.'"

No one knows exactly how many people of color are working on editorial boards these days, but the number is increasing. African Americans, Latinos, and Asian Americans are editorial page editors and op-ed editors as well as editorial writers and columnists. The NCEW Diversity Committee's admittedly incomplete informal count, developed by word of mouth, has identified about 80 editorial page professionals.

There is obviously a long way to go. The American Society of Newspaper Editors annual survey, which put the percentage of journalists of color working at daily newspapers at 12.07%, also reported that 422 newspapers, or 44%, responded that they had no minorities in any part of the newsroom.

The people I know on editorial pages are generally happy. They agree with Betty Baye of The Courier-Journal in Louisville, who says, "It is crucially important for people of color to be on editorial boards, not just to write diversity stories, of course, but also to help white editorial writers see, if they cannot, possibly a different perspective on everything from foreign policy to the economy."

But many worry that some papers may have a "one-black" (or other person of color) rule--not just in the selection of columnists for a given day, but on the editorial page staff itself They see the difference between the conservative writers of color whom some pages choose to run and others, who win prizes at the NABJ convention, who are seen more in the mainstream of black thought. And they question the expectations an editor might have of the writer of color.

These colleagues want to be free to write on any subject: "One of the things I like about the [Wall Street] Journal," says Jason Riley of that newspaper's editorial board, "is that I wasn't expected to be the 'black' writer. It wasn't assumed I was going to be trotted out to speak about race.

On the other hand, most don't want their racial bona fides minimized. One of the liveliest panel discussions at the NABJ convention in 2001 was one called "A Journalist's Dilemma: Do I Write Too Often on Black Issues?"

Syndicated Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts, not scheduled to be on the panel, found a way to join it because, he said, he felt so strongly about the issue. Why is knowledge of racial issues not regarded as a specialty, as are the economy and defense, he and the others asked. Are whites asked if they write too much about "white" issues?

"We need to be seen as commentators who see the world from a unique prism," says Metro columnist Stan Simpson of The Hartford Courant.

But those arguments assume that editorial writers of color are at the table.

Just recently, said Marisa Trevino, an NCEW member who freelances in Dallas-Fort Worth, she was told by an Oklahoma op-ed editor that "in all likelihood we would never run one of your columns."

"When I pressed him as to why--was it the quality of writing, or because I didn't live in the state?--he implied that Latinos were not their main reading audience," Trevino said. "Op-ed editors have such a great opportunity not only to showcase diverse opinions but also to introduce segments of society to one another."

Says David Person of the Huntsville Times in Alabama: "Editorial page editors need to look around them. Most boards are predominantly composed of white men. Even among the most fair-minded, this won't lead to much original thinking. Diversity isn't a threat or an intellectual compromise. It's one of the main methods for keeping newspapers honest."

Diversity doesn't happen by accident. "It has to be purposeful," says Lewis Diuguid, columnist and vice president at the Kansas City Star, whose editorial board has two African Americans and recently added a column by a Latino to the op-ed page.

"What do we get from this variety?" asks Wayne Dawkins of the Daily Press in Hampton Roads, Virginia, who believes strongly that editorial pages must be diverse in race, gender, age, and of course, points of view. "Lots of reader interaction' he answers. "The volume of reader mail has increased from regular writers, and [we have] many new readers."

NCEW is doing its part with its Minority Writers Seminar, which began in 1996. About 25% of those who attended the first five seminars are now writing editorials or columns professionally, including Alberta Brooks, Leroy Chapman, Gary Clack, Shanna Flowers, Deborah Locke, Doug Lyons, Gloria Padilla, and Enrique Rangel, to name a few.

And if we can find a way to do it, NCEW would like to conduct its own census of editorial pages, to find out just how diverse our pages are and to measure our progress year to year.

'Happiest Place on Earth'

I like to quote from the American Society of Newspaper Editors, which commissioned a study called "The Newspaper Journalists of the '90s," published in 1997. It found that "on almost every measure of opinion or attitude, the editorial writers are more upbeat than their newsroom colleagues. In fact, if everyone were as content with their jobs as editorial writers, America's newsrooms might challenge Disneyland for the title of 'Happiest Place on Earth."'

How stimulating it would be it be if our pages were among the most diverse as well.

NCEW member Richard Prince is chair of the Diversity Committee A former editorial writer, he works part-time as an assistant foreign editor at The Washington Post. E-Mail him at [e-mail]