NY Times econ reporter Casselman: Half of my 2020 sources were women

Ben Casselman

Half of the sources used by New York Times economics reporter Ben Casselman were women in 2020, he posted on Twitter.

That’s up from 42 percent in 2019.

About 20 percent of his sources were people of color, including about 17 percent of experts and 27 percent of “regular people” anecdotes.

“So overall, my source list was more diverse this year than last,” he wrote. “But worth noting that this was a very different year. I wrote far more stories (about 50% more), and the subject matter obviously changed dramatically. So I don’t want to read too much into these comparisons.”

However, Casselman argued that source diversity was more important than ever in 2020. “This is a crisis that has disproportionately affected Black and brown people and women (and especially Black and brown women). So coverage and sourcing ‘should’ reflect that,” he wrote.

I find this an important exercise and wish more reporters tracked their sources.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.