The Philadelphia Inquirer is committed to becoming a diverse, inclusive, equitable, and anti-racist organization by evolving how it operates through its culture, coverage of the news, and service to the community. To accomplish this, The Inquirer is approaching this critical work in a manner that is sustainable through investments in its journalism, workplace culture and talent, and community relations.
We are building an inclusive culture, grounded in anti-racism and equity, that fosters a sense of belonging for all at The Inquirer. At every level of the organization, we seek equitable representation of people from marginalized and under-resourced communities.
We are working to ensure equity is centered in how The Inquirer approaches journalism. We seek to consistently address systemic racism and other forms of oppression through inclusive, actively anti-racist coverage that reflects, serves, and is informed by all communities.
We are taking action to build trust with marginalized and under-resourced communities through active listening, asking for feedback, and sharing transparently about our progress on DE&I. We seek to ensure members of these communities feel seen, reflected, and valued in what The Inquirer covers.
‘If there is skepticism of what we have done,
or what we can or will do, we have earned that as well. We recognize that the
judgment of our efforts will not be based on the promises
we make, but on the actions we take, and the policies and practices we put in
place to improve our journalism.”
Publisher and Chief Executive Officer, The Philadelphia Inquirer
‘If there is skepticism of
what we have done, or what we can or will do, we have
earned that as well. We recognize that
the judgment of our efforts will not be based on the
promises we make, but on the actions
we take, and the policies and practices we put in place to
improve our journalism.”
Publisher and Chief Executive Officer, The Philadelphia Inquirer
‘If there is skepticism of what we
have done, or what we
can or will do, we have earned that
as well. We recognize that
the judgment of our efforts will not
be based on the promises
we make, but on the actions we
take, and the policies and practices
we put in place to improve our
journalism.”
Diversity, equity, and inclusion are core to how we operate at The Inquirer. We began this work amid our national reckoning over social justice in summer 2020 and the impact of a racist headline. We committed then to becoming an anti-racist organization, beginning with commissioning Temple University to conduct an independent audit of our editorial content. You can read the full report here, but in short, we had — and continue to have — work to do on our culture, coverage of the news, and service to the community. Since then, we have taken clear steps to improve.
Here is some of the work we’ve prioritized:
Inquirer for All (Inq4All), made up of more than half our newsroom and other Inquirer employees, is leading our transformation to produce more inclusive, actively anti-racist coverage.
Focusing on revamping our recruitment and hiring efforts to be intentionally inclusive, actively mitigate bias, and increase the representation of women and people of color across the company.
Setting goals around representation, hiring, employee experience and culture, and training. Since March 2021, we have been reporting quarterly on our progress to all employees to help hold us accountable.
Training our employees on identifying and mitigating bias, racial trauma, inclusive leadership, and inclusive language.
Launching the Communities and Engagement Desk to address the longtime neglect and misrepresentation of marginalized communities in
Philadelphia by foregrounding editorial and experiential content that is community-centric and empowers people to take action.
A More Perfect Union, a special project looking into the roots of systemic racism throughout institutions founded in Philadelphia, starting with an examination of The Inquirer, “Black City. White Paper.” by Wesley Lowery.
Our Inquirer for All (Inq4All) work began in 2020 with an obvious but difficult acknowledgement: The Philadelphia Inquirer, in its coverage and in its Newsroom, has too often enabled and institutionalized systemic racism. Nearly 100 employees began convening through working groups and a Steering Committee aimed at transforming The Inquirer into an anti-racist organization. We recognize that to achieve this, we need:
Inclusive, actively anti-racist coverage that serves and is informed by and reflective of all communities.
A transparent, collaborative, and iterative policy-making process that works to ensure these changes take hold and endure, and offers clear guidance and frameworks for problem-solving.
The ongoing Inq4All work has resulted in several positive changes that have been implemented and embraced, including an Anti-Racist Workflow Guide that provides a framework for centering our stories thoughtfully and in consideration of our diverse audiences; a Content Consult Slack channel, where our journalists seek feedback on sensitive stories from peers with varied backgrounds and lived experiences; and an Up for Review policy to consider requests to remove from search engines older stories that are causing undue harm to people mentioned in them.
At The Philadelphia Inquirer, we are dedicated to ensuring information is accessible to all, through our journalism and also through our product and design practices.
We work to create a user-friendly and inclusive experience on our website, app, newsletters, e-Editions, and other digital products. We strive to ensure perceivability, operability, and understandability in every feature we build.
Our approach aligns closely with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA set forth by the World Wide Web Consortium, including:
As a news organization, we have a responsibility to provide information to the public. By improving accessibility, The Inquirer ensures that all people can more easily access this information and stay equally informed. We embrace this as an ongoing responsibility, and continue to invest as we learn.
Should you encounter any difficulties accessing our content on our website, newsletters, or app, please don’t hesitate to contact us at 215-222-2765 or via email at accessibility@inquirer.com.
Critical to our work is creating a diverse workforce with a culture that collaborative, creative, inclusive, and actively anti-racist. We seek to empower all our employees, foster a sense of belonging for all, and encourage teamwork. We offer benefits and programs to support the culture we want to build:
As a part of our commitment to creating and maintaining a positive, inclusive workplace, The Inquirer supports several employee resource groups (ERGs).
The Inquirer has adopted a dynamic and flexible hybrid work policy. In-person connections are critical to collaboration and building community, and we also value the importance of work-life balance.
All employees participate in ongoing DE&I learning to build their knowledge and expertise, with an emphasis on how DE&I concepts impact and apply to their day-to-day work.
The Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Corporate Equality Index has been used as a national benchmarking tool that measures organizations’ progress towards equitable and inclusive practices and policies for LGBTQIA+ staff for over 20 years.
Key contributors to the Inquirer’s score are the company’s inclusive healthcare benefits, workplace protections, and inclusive culture practices such as an active Employee Resource Group, internal education and best practices, and community outreach.
The Inquirer helps develop high school and college students with an interest in journalism and other media skills through two specialized programs:
As a part of our commitment to creating and maintaining a positive, inclusive workplace, The Inquirer supports several employee resource groups (ERGs).
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