AEJMC Trailblazers of Diversity Interview with Wanda Lloyd
- Introduction
- Lloyd gives a background of how she was introduced to journalism. She took a journalism class in high school that led to her becoming the editor-in-chief of the school newspaper. When applying to college, her parents gave her a choice of attending Savannah State University or Spelman College. She decided on Spelman College.
- Spelman didn't have a journalism program so Llyod majored in English.
- In 2009, she was the co-editor of The Edge of Change: Women in the Twenty-First-Century Press. She wrote a chapter on civil rights and community values. She reads an excerpt from her chapter.
- She was the deputy Washington editor for the Los Angeles Times.
- Her career started as an editor. In her junior year of college, she took classes at Clark Atlanta University. The journalism program had just started there.
- At the end of her junior year, she applied to an internship with the Dow Jones News Fund. She chose the copyediting route and was sent to Providence, Rhode Island.
- She says her parents supported her during this time. She did three weeks of training at Temple University.
- Edward Trayes told Llyod she was going to be the only African American at her internship. He had a "frank" conversation with her to prepare her for the Providence newsroom.
- She worked at The Washington Post and USA Today. After, she served on the board for The Dow Jones News Fund for about 10 years.
- She challenged practices from the start of her career. She didn't know there was a black community in Providence, except for crime stories.
- After she started her full-time job, the Human Resources manager introduced her to another African American employee. Through her, she learned about the black community of Providence.
- At USA Today, she learned more about diversity overall. She held a variety of positions at USA Today, where she says she was able to make a difference.
- She calls USA Today an inclusive publication. There was a focus on diversity in hiring and content. One of the "rules" was that there had to be diversity on the top half of the front page. She said this was a struggle for a lot of people.
- She mentions Al Neuharth, John Quinn and Cathie Black. They all talked about the importance of diversity at every level. She says this lured her to the publication.
- She talks about working in Greenville, South Carolina and Montgomery, Alabama. Her job was to bring diversity and Gannett projects. It wasn't a difficult transition.
- There were some issues, though. She once had to talk with a features reporter about the importance of diversity.
- In Greenville, there was a transition she made about having mugshots of arrested people on the front page. Most of these mugshots were of black people. She changed it to where mugshots were not used in the paper.
- Another thing she did was rent a bus and take the entire staff on a tour of the city. Most of them had never visited the traditional black community.
- She is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists. She talks about the founding of NABJ, and a survey they performed. The survey showed the differences between black and white journalists.
- In 2000, she hosted a round table of people involved in diversity in the industry at Vanderbilt University. They did a meta analysis of a variety of surveys.
- She says there started to be more people of color in the industry, and they realized they needed to support each other. One result was the National Association for Minority Media Executives (NAMME). At one point she became chair of NAMME.
- Harry Brooks was a Gannett board member, and she would have conversations with him about the push for diversity.
- NAMME did training sessions and established a leadership academy. The goal was to bring in young people of color to mold them into future employees of the industry.
- She was the chair for the Diversity Committee of the American Society of News Editors. She also served on the board as well.
- She worked on the ASNE Census that showed stats of newsrooms. The surveys started in 1978. She talks about the diversity goals that they calibrate.
- At the Washington Post, she taught a copyediting class at the University of Maryland.
- In 1972, she got a phone call from Jack White from Newsweek Magazine. He wanted her to teach a copyediting class in the summer at Columbia University.
- She had an interview with Robert Maynard, a renowned reporter. She had to analyze the writing of the student applicants. She got the job and talks about her experience.
- Another teaching experience she had was when she stepped in for a middle school journalism teacher.
- Later, she got a call from Mary Kay Blake from Freedom Forum who was interested in her. They offered her a job on diversity.
- The organization they created was the Diversity Institute at Vanderbilt University. The program was to identity and train people of color for the industry.
- The Freedom Forum wanted to push their diversity numbers. The program was an intensive 12-week training, and after the applicants were placed in a newsroom.
- Lloyd says the 2008 recession affected the Diversity Institute, along with other factors.
- She says budgeting played a big role in her professional career. She talks about her experience at USA Today. She was promoted from deputy managing editor to managing editor for newsroom administration. She managed 5 budgets at USA Today.
- She was also in charge of recruiting for the newsroom. Through budgeting, she was able to bring people together to have conversations.
- She hosted the Corporate Women's Round Table. She was also able to sponsor events for local minority associations.
- Having conversations in the newsroom about race was also important. She brought in Thomas Kochman, an author of a book highlighting cultural differences.
- Lloyd talks about her leaderships skills. She says public speaking is a skill she acquired from leadership positions.
- She's on her third year of her third term on the accrediting committee. She likes her position because she likes to see what other universities are up to.
- She says that diversity is thought as differently at HBCUs. "It's about learning other cultures." She says their goal is think globally.
- She talks about diversity in the new age of media. "We have to make sure everybody feels comfortable in having conversations about diversity in covering diverse stories." She says there is a need for conversations on race in all spaces.
- She talks about the Greenville city leadership program. It's a way to learn the community and all levels of government. She says this was beneficial to her in the newsroom.
- She says we need to recognize gender diversity in leadership roles. "Me" time is necessary when working in the newsroom.
- Understanding how to cover issues of women is also important. One of her proudest stories was on domestic violence. This led to her holding a round table to bring awareness to domestic violence.
- Barbara Hines concludes interview.