Economist editor: Less than 1% of our staff is black

The Economist editor-in-chief Zanny Minton Beddoes responded to a Medium post calling out the magazine’s lack of racial diversity by stating less than 1 percent of its staff is black and that “black people are under-represented” at the publication, reports Mark Di Stefano of BuzzFeed News.

Di Stefano reports, “Minton Beddoes, the magazine’s editor-in-chief, replied directly to Sule and circulated the email to the magazine’s staff.

“In the email obtained by BuzzFeed News, Minton Beddoes thanked Sule for the blog post and claimed the Economist needs ‘to hire from the deepest talent pool possible.’ She also admitted the London-based publication had a problem with underrepresentation of black staff.

“‘Our 230 editorial staff include people of 22 different nationalities and have a fairly even gender balance,’ Minton Beddoes wrote. ‘But as you will see from the numbers, black people are under-represented at The Economist compared with whites and Asians.

“‘That is something we are conscious of and that we keep in mind when hiring. Like you, we recognise that we could do better and are striving to do so.'”

Read more here.