Half of the sources I quoted this year for @business were women. That’s 337 in total, or about one a day. Unfortunately, it's an anomaly in journalism & something I've failed at miserably in the past. Here’s how I got there & why I believe it improved my reporting:
You’ve probably heard the refrain for years: Reporters don't quote enough women & POC. Business journalism is even worse, chalked up to disparities in the finance industry. It wasn't until this January, when I reviewed my own work, that I discovered the gravity of the problem.
Last year, just 13% of sources I quoted (62 in total) were women. I was appalled. Here I was thinking & talking about diversity on a daily basis, yet my own work didn't hold up to snuff.
My colleagues @lineoyamada, @justin_villamil and I began assembling a list of prominent women sources on our beat. Our list quickly grew to more than 200.
It turns out, there were dozens of female hedge fund managers, CIOs, emerging-market strategists, etc. who we rarely, if ever, quoted. Neither did our competition. Yet we interviewed their male colleagues repeatedly. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
We cultivated these relationships. Bloomberg launched a New Voices initiative to provide 1:1 media training for women executives. Soon it became a virtuous cycle. We'd share our sources with @BloombergTV colleagues like @JennaDags and she'd get them on the air, or vice versa.
With the help of our colleagues in Bloomberg Data, we created screenings to find the best performing emerging-market funds. Quite a few were led by women. We interviewed them & brought many of them into our office for editorial boards. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
We didn’t quote them because they were women. We quoted them because they were the most qualified to answer our questions on a given topic, yet somehow got overlooked in the past (or were not given permission to speak with media). bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
The main takeaway: There’s some initial legwork in finding new sources. But that is, after all, our job. Diverse sourcing is about far more than numbers. It gives you a competitive advantage over your competition & leads to more interesting and higher impact stories.
Over time, it becomes second nature. You don’t have to think about diverse sourcing. It’s as ingrained in the story process as the nutgraph, lead quote or fact-checking process. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Next year, I intend to look deeper at source diversity in other ways – racial, ethnic, geographic, etc. and to reflect more on this podcast episode by my friends @karenkho & @jordynjournals. Curious to hear how other reporters have approached these issues. canadalandshow.com/podcast/is-bus…
Something I forgot to mention: At the end of every month, I sent a memo to my managers, who were supportive of the efforts, detailing improvements, setbacks and observations related to source diversity. This kept us accountable & sparked conversations across our team.
