Journalists at Nine’s The Age demand more diversity in hiring

Journalists at The Age are demanding management hire more non-white staff in a tussle over the lack of ­racial diversity.

A petition to The Age’s executive editor signed by more than 50 staff is the latest in a string of pushes for greater diversity in newsrooms and on screen. Picture: AFP

Journalists at Melbourne’s The Age are demanding management hire more non-white staff and ­deliver key editorial changes in the latest tussle over the lack of ­racial diversity in newsrooms.

More than 50 staff on the Nine-owned paper have signed a petition calling for im­proved racial diversity and ­the app­ointment of an indigenous affairs reporter.

Sources at Nine said the petition began to circulate in the wake of a front-page story by The Age’s state political editor, Noel Towell, about the Black Lives Matter protests, which was almost immediately corrected.

The story suggested that some ­activists at the Victorian rally had threatened police and wanted to provoke a physical confrontation. The Age, in correcting the story, noted it “fell short” of the paper’s “editorial values and standards”.

“The main organisers of the rally, the Warriors of the Aboriginal Resistance, clearly stated they had no knowledge of any threats to police,” The Age stated in its apology. But the incident has sparked concerns among staff about the lack of racial diversity in their newsroom.

The petition also noted that The Age, which employs about 170 editorial staff, had always been edited by men. It said the newsroom was concerned that “key editorial decisions” were regularly made out of Sydney and that The Age “shouldn’t be a subsidiary” of Nine’s Sydney operations.

The petition, sent to The Age’s executive editor, James Chessell, the newspaper’s editor, Alex Lavelle, and Nine’s chief publishing officer, Chris Janz, also demanded that management meet with staff over the concerns.

The Age’s sister paper, The Sydney Morning Herald, last year hired two indigenous reporters.

One journalist, who disagreed with the demands and spoke to The Australian on condition of anonymity, said the petition was being circulated by “the remnants of the juvenile left-wing faction within The Age. They are aggrieved with the idea that perhaps our editorial position should shift a little to the right. The Age’s newsroom isn’t racially diverse, but the same could be said about many newsrooms in Australia.”

A Nine spokesman declined to comment on Sunday.

The push is the latest in a string of similar moves for greater diversity in newsrooms and on screen, with ABC Insiders host David Speers apologising on Sunday for failing to include an indigenous journalist during a discussion about the Black Lives Matter movement. “We received plenty of valid criticism for failing to include an indigenous journalist on last week’s show as we discussed the Black Lives Matter movement,” Speers said. “Insiders does need to do better at bringing more diverse insights into the political debate — and it’s something we are committed to doing.”

The ABC’s former national indigenous affairs correspondent, Bridget Brennan, joined the program on Sunday, saying it was “time to change” the media landscape. “It is not good enough ­any more — particularly at this ­moment, but I would say any week — to have a panel of white people speaking about issues when there is very little experience of discrimination and racism,” she said.

Overseas, Conde Naste has also been grappling with racial inequality issues. The emergence of a photo of the food magazine Bon Appetit’s editor-in-chief, Adam Rapoport, in blackface in 2003 also brought claims of racism.

Rapoport announced his resignation last week.