“Industry layoffs affect people of color disproportionately and destroy the gains we have made during past years,” said Rafael Olmeda, president of UNITY: Journalists of Color, in a statement calling on journalism organizations to summit this summer to help preserve the fundamental value of diversity in news coverage and newsroom staffing.

Despite UNITY-led efforts to influence minority retention rates, America's newsrooms became less diverse in 2008 according to the annual newsroom census from the American Society of News Editors (ASNE). The biggest losers were blacks and Asians, who experienced newsroom employment declines of 13.6 percent and 13.4 percent respectively. Overall, newsroom employment declined 11.3 percent.

“It is disheartening that the vision articulated by ASNE is still such a distant goal after years of benchmarks, committees and commitments,” Olmeda concluded. “We appreciate ASNE's continued diligence in reporting these results annually and urge them to partner with us on concrete steps to reduce the enormous gap between the reality and the vision. We need to act now.”

UNITY: Journalists of Color is a strategic alliance comprised four national associations advocating news coverage about people of color and representing more than 10,000 journalists of color.