Ernest Sotomayor: Diversity is not optional “and it never has been and it never will be.”

By Joe Grimm

When Ernest Sotomayor relaxes at home, he’s more likely to be holding a hammer than a book.

Sotomayor grew up on a ranch in southern Arizona, where fixing things was just part of life. He says he does some of his best thinking when he’s working with his hands.

Sotomayor is to be inducted into the National Association of Hispanic Journalists’ hall of fame this Friday.

Assistant dean for career services and continuing education at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, Sotomayor has been a newsman and a champion of diversity on many fronts.

He has been a journalist in El Paso, Dallas and New York. He has worked in print, digital and as an educator. As president of UNITY: Journalists of Color, Inc., he was a chief architect of the 2004 UNITY convention in Washington, D.C.

In every stop and every job, Sotomayor has worked for better journalism, good storytelling and diversity.

“You can’t have excellence if you don’t have a good, diverse report,” he said in a phone interview. “Half the story isn’t the truth; it’s half the truth.”

Sotomayor acknowledges recent declines in newsroom diversity and plans to attend American Society of News Editors meetings this week in advance of the NAHJ convention in Orlando to look for solutions.

“It still hasn’t become a core value for many newsrooms,” Sotomayor said. “It’s still seen as something we will work on if we get a chance. It should be seen as something as important as getting the names right or adding your numbers correctly.

“Too many mangers today think it is something this is just optional and it is not and it never has been and it never will be.”

Sotomayor and Walter Middlebrook, assistant managing editor for news at The Detroit News, worked together at Newsday. They were part of a team who shared a passion for diversity, who had been given a mandate by management and who had the support. Newsday became one of then most diverse newsrooms in the country.

Middlebrook, who plans to be at the Orlando meeting, said, “the issue is so important, we would stay after the paper got out and make plans. It was just really great to have Ernie’s kind of support.”

Sotomayor recalled that his staff in Brooklyn-Queens was “more than 50 percent diverse across the spectrum, and ranking editors reflected this. The whole staff was well versed in the issues.”

The editors who will be talking in Orlando will be trying to recover lost ground. Sotomayor said, “in the middle of the decade when things started crashing, it was pushed further to the back burner.

“To get it back on the front burner, you just have to keep drilling in to the people who run the media companies however big or small about what they should do and what they need to do address what it going on in these communities. The needs of the community are changing all the time. If the needs of the community are ignored, they will go away and the will never come back.”

Determined work is in Sotomayor’s blood. His cousin, Frank O. Sotomayor, worked for 35 years at the Los Angeles Times and is now a senior fellow at the Institute for Justice and Journalism.

He wrote, “You feel confident when Ernie is on your team and steps into the batter’s box. He’s got a focused work ethic, no doubt influenced by watching his remarkable parents manage their large rancho in Tucson. When I visited my cousin Ernie’s ranch, I was impressed by his father’s ability to grow crops, raise livestock — and work a second job. In the rancho’s master plan, every family member had assigned chores.

“Like his father, Ernie is able to focus on a specific chore while keeping his eyes on the big picture. As Unity 2004 president, he convened TV network news honchos and criticized their lack of diversity on staff and in on-air coverage. He went against his bosses at the time (Tribune officers) in opposing proposed FCC regulations. He made sure both President George W. Bush and Sen. John Kerry appeared in person at Unity 2004 conference. But he did not do it alone. He kept a strategic master plan in his head and was able to mobilize others for a common cause.”

Ernest Sotomayor, a man who works hard to fix things, said, “Beating my head against a wall has moved some walls and broken a few. You can’t commit yourself and stop doing it because the problem isn’t fixed. There are a lot of people who are working on it and they continue to beat their heads against the wall. The key is to figure out the right places to beat your head.

“Sometimes, you have to figure out a way to unlock the door and go through it. It hurts a lot less.”

Joe Grimm, a consultant and adjunct faculty member of the Freedom Forum Diversity Institute, recruited for the Detroit Free Press, Knight Ridder and Gannett from 1990 until 2008. He now teaches at the Michigan State University School of Journalism. He has run the JobsPage journalism careers site at www.jobspage.com since 1996. Questions about careers? E-mail Joe for an answer.