This is the third annual report detailing LAist (Southern California Public Radio) staff demographics as self-reported. LAist collects and shares this information as part of an ongoing commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion at the organization.
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This report was prepared by Alyson Clary, who works with the APM Research Lab.
The following information is based on an optional survey sent in December 2023 to the entire LAist staff and freelance or contract employees. Of the 164 active employees, 153 — or 93% — completed the survey, as did 23 freelance or contract employees. Note: LAist does not currently have a baseline number for active total freelance or contract employees for comparison, but there is a goal to track that going forward.
Keep in mind the values below do not always sum to 100%; that’s due to rounding, unavailable data, or the option to select more than one response. The survey is separate from the data used by Human Resources; that data is more limited and is collected at the time of an employee’s application to work at LAist.
Several patterns emerged from the data. Notably, the majority of full-time staff, across job categories, have been at the organization for five years or fewer.
Although there is racial diversity across job categories and staff levels, the greatest racial or ethnic diversity was reported by staff who did not identify themselves as a supervisor or manager.
Race and Ethnicity
Forty-three percent of LAist staff who responded to the survey identify as non-Hispanic white alone. If you include staff who identify as white in combination with another race or ethnicity, the proportion increases to 53%. Twenty-seven percent of staff identify as Latinx or Hispanic, alone or in combination, and 24% of staff identify as Asian, alone or in combination.
Seven percent of staff identify as Black or African American, either alone or in combination. Five percent or less of staff each identify as Middle Eastern or North African, or American Indian or Alaska Native, alone or in combination.
The biggest difference between the race and ethnicity of LAist staff compared to L.A. County residents are the proportions of each who identify as non-Hispanic white alone and Hispanic/Latinx.
Twenty-nine percent of L.A. County residents identify as non-Hispanic white alone. This is roughly 14 percentage points lower than the proportion of LAist staff who identify as non-Hispanic white alone.
Nearly half of L.A. County residents, 49%, identify as Hispanic/Latinx. This is 22 percentage points higher than the proportion of LAist staff who identify as Hispanic/Latinx.
The proportion of staff who identify as Asian, alone or in combination, is higher than the proportion of L.A. County residents who do so, 17%. Roughly 10% of L.A. County residents identify as Black or African American, alone or in combination, and 3% identify as American Indian or Alaska Native, alone or in combination.
Among the freelance or contract team members who completed the survey, 56% identified as non-Hispanic white alone. That proportion increases to 65% when you include freelance staff who identify as white in combination with another race or ethnicity. Twenty-two percent of freelance or contract employees identified as Asian, alone or in combination, and 13% identify as Latinx or Hispanic.
Less than 5% of freelance or contract employees, each, identified as Middle Eastern or North African, or American Indian or Alaska Native, either alone or in combination. No freelance or contract employees identified as Black or African American, alone or in combination.
Race and Ethnicity by Job Categories and Tenure
The race and ethnicity of supervisors or managers, including the 12 respondents who identified themselves as executive-level staff, somewhat reflects the overall staff demographics around race and ethnicity. Half of supervisors or managers identify as non-Hispanic white alone. Roughly 7% of supervisors identify as Black or African American, alone or in combination, and 5% or less of supervisors identify as American Indian or Alaska Native, alone or in combination.
The primary difference among supervisors or managers compared to the race and ethnicity of staff is a larger proportion of supervisors identify as Asian, 28%, compared to a smaller proportion who identify as Latinx or Hispanic, 19%. However, when it comes to executive-level staff, a larger proportion of them identify as Hispanic/Latinx than Asian, while the majority identify as non-Hispanic white alone.
Among staff who are not supervisors or managers, 39% identify as non-Hispanic white alone. If you add those who identify as white in combination with another race or ethnicity, that proportion increases to 52%.
Thirty-two percent of staff who are neither supervisors nor managers identify as Latinx or Hispanic, either alone or in combination, and 21% identify as Asian, alone or in combination.
Roughly 7% of non-supervisors or managers identify as Black or African American, alone or in combination, and 5% or less of staff who are not in a supervisory role, each, identify as American Indian or Alaska Native, or Middle Eastern or North African, alone or in combination.
When it comes to race of staff by tenure at the organization, the cohorts of staff who have been at the organization for six to 10 years and more than 10 years are currently both majority white. The cohorts of staff who have been at the organization less than one year and between one and five years, however, are currently both majority Black, Indigenous and other people of color (BIPOC).
Gender Identity
Women are well represented among LAist staff and freelance or contract employees. Sixty-one percent of staff identify as women and 35% identify as men. Five percent or less of staff identify as either transgender or nonbinary, or both. An additional 16% of staff identify as cisgender either in combination or alone.
Among freelance or contract employees, 70% identify as women and 30% identify as men, and an additional 9% identify as cisgender.
Pronoun use largely coincides with the gender identity breakdown. Fifty-nine percent of staff use she/her pronouns, 34% use he/him pronouns, and 6% of staff use they/them or other pronouns.
Gender Identity by Job Category
The same majority-women pattern appears across all job categories to a greater or lesser extent.
Among employees in non-supervisory or non-managerial roles, 64% of staff identify as women compared to 33% as men. This shifts slightly among supervisors and managers, including executives, 57% of whom identify as women and 39% identify as men.
Five percent or less of staff identify as transgender or nonbinary alone or in combination; no supervisors or managers identify as such, including executives.
Sexual Orientation
Three-quarters of all staff who completed the survey identify their sexual orientation as straight. Eight percent of staff identify as queer. An additional 7% of staff, each, identify as gay and bisexual. Three percent or less of staff chose to write in a response, and the same proportion chose not to provide any answer.
This pattern appears across job categories. Roughly 75%, each, of non-supervisors and supervisors identify as straight. Among non-supervisors, 21% identify as gay, queer or bisexual, and that percentage rises to 24% among supervisors.
There is proportionally even greater sexual diversity among executives. Two-thirds of executives who completed the survey identify as straight and one-third identify as gay, queer or bisexual.
These overall proportions also hold for freelance or contract employees. Roughly three-quarters of freelance employees who completed the survey identify their sexual orientation as straight. Nine percent of freelance employees, each, identify as queer and bisexual. Five percent or less of freelance employees identify as lesbian, and the same proportion chose to write in their response.
Staff tenure by sexual orientation follows a similar pattern to staff tenure by race. The two recently hired cohorts have greater diversity of sexual orientation than the two cohorts of staff who have been at the organization longer.
Roughly one in four staff members who have been at the organization five years or less identify their sexual orientation as gay, bisexual or queer.
For staff who have been at the organization for six or more years, roughly one in six identify their sexual orientation as something other than straight.
Content Staff
Diversity, in myriad forms, is important across and within staff levels. Content staff, however, often have a large impact on presenting diverse perspectives to their audience because they are the public-facing segment of the organization. As such, we analyzed the diversity among content staff members, of whom 76 — or 50% — completed the survey.
The racial and ethnic breakdown of content team members roughly follows the same pattern as staff who are not supervisors or managers. Forty-six percent of people identify as non-Hispanic white alone. Twenty-six percent identify as Latinx or Hispanic and 18% identify as Asian, alone or in combination. (It is likely that a large proportion of contract or freelance employees would be considered content team members. Since that group was not asked to identify their role at LAist, we did not include them in our calculations.)
The gender identities of content staff roughly follow the gender pattern of all staff, with the majority of content staff identifying as women. One notable difference between content and non-content staff is that content staff have a larger portion that identify as transgender or nonbinary.
Content staff are also more likely than non-content staff to identify with a sexual orientation other than straight. In particular, 30% of content staff identify as queer, gay, or bisexual.
Finally, content team members, like staff overall, tend to be newer hires. For example, 18% of content staff who completed the survey have been at the organization for one year or less, and 49% have been there between one and five years.
Religion
Fifty-eight percent of full-time staff who responded to the survey provided information about their religious affiliation, a question offered for the first time on this year’s survey, and 61% of freelance or contract employees. The APM Research Lab condensed the open-ended answers from survey respondents into four general categories.
Nones — a group consisting of those who responded none, agnostic, atheist, secular or a variation on these — make up the largest group of staff who chose to answer this question. Roughly 28% of staff identified themselves in a way that placed them in this category. Following this category, 22% of staff identified their religious affiliation as Christian.
A slightly larger portion of freelance or contract employees identified as Christian than the portion who identified as nones.
Eight percent of staff identified as Jewish and 17% of freelance or contract employees.
Finally, 3% of staff and 4% of freelance or contract employees identified with another religious affiliation — including, Hindu, Muslim and Sikh. Due to small sample sizes, data for categories with few respondents were suppressed to preserve anonymity.
More about the respondents
Fifty-four staff who completed the survey are supervisors or managers, and 99 are not in that role. Among the 54 supervisors or managers, 12 are executives.
Half of staff who responded to the survey identified themselves as part of the content division; among them, 34% are supervisors or managers and 66% are not.
Fifteen percent of staff are in development, the next most frequent role behind content production, followed by 8%, each, in administrative roles or operations. Seven percent of staff work in digital products.
The data shows a substantial number of relatively newer hires, those who have been at the organization five years or less, across all staff levels. Nearly two-thirds of all staff who completed the survey fall into this category. Breaking that proportion into more detail, 11% of staff have been at the organization six months or less, and 10% have been there between six months and one year. Finally, 47% of staff have been there between one and five years.
Nearly 16% of staff have been at the organization between six and 10 years, and 10% of staff have been at the organization between 11 and 15 years.
Half of executive-level staff who answered the survey have been at the organization for five years or less, and nearly 60% of supervisors or managers, which includes executives, have been at the organization for five years or less. Among staff that are not in a supervisory or managerial role, 69% have been at the organization five years or less, and 21% have been there for one year or less.