Sarah Marcus, the DIS Director of The Daily Pennsylvanian, poses with a copy of a newspaper.
Credit: Jackson FordThe Daily Pennsylvanian, Inc. seeks to inform and drive conversation while providing enduring student experiences in journalism and leadership. In order to make sure that our work — both internally and externally — is representative and informative to the Penn community and beyond, it is crucial that we evaluate our organization and maintain our commitment to growth and learning.
During its tenure, the DP’s 140th Board of editors and managers believed that in order to accurately report about the community around us, it was crucial that the DP embraced a culture of inclusivity and belonging, and worked to have a staff consisting of a diverse range of perspectives. The 141st board is committed to continuing this mission.
The DP has collected demographic data of its community seven times before this, and published it four times previously. In other years, this report was published at the end of the calendar year it reflected data from. For this report, we are publishing it at the beginning of 2025 — not only to reflect on the initiatives conducted by the 140th board, but to include the DP’s Diversity, Inclusion, and Standards team's goals for this upcoming year.
The information in this report reflects the fall 2024 demographics of 260 members of the organization, across the DP, 34th Street Magazine, and Under the Button. The survey included both appointed and elected board members as well as general staff, who represent the majority of the company. We also polled the DP staff during spring 2024, but that data will only be referenced in situations where the fall and spring data vary drastically.
Our staff and board members are disproportionately Asian and white compared to Penn’s undergraduate population. The percentage of respondents who identified as Asian grew from 43% in the 2023 report to 48% in 2024. Additionally, the percentage of respondents who identified as white in 2023 decreased by six percentage points in 2024.
Black and Hispanic/Latino students are still underrepresented at the DP compared with Penn’s undergraduate population. The percentage of staff and board members who identified as Black decreased from 7% to 6% between 2023 and 2024. The percentage of DP members who identified as Latinx/Hispanic decreased from 9% to 3% between 2023 and 2024. This significant decrease will become the main focus for the DIS department to address during 2025 through our outreach and belonging efforts.
In order to address the lack of Black, Indigenous, and Latino students at the DP, the Diversity, Inclusion, and Standards department was added. In the spring of 2024, the department had five staffers, and in the fall of 2024, the department grew to almost 20 staffers. The growth of the DIS department is a reflection of the paper's commitment to progress.
Within the department, staffers work on projects dedicated to increasing representation both within the DP’s coverage and its staff. To specifically address the underrepresentation of Black and Hispanic/Latino students in the DP, the DIS team has begun outreach to cultural groups on campus.
The aim of this outreach is to both understand how the DP is perceived across campus, and to help us recognize where we can improve regarding our coverage.
Unlike many newsroom organizations, women are well represented on staff or in leadership at the DP. While Penn’s undergraduate population is roughly 53% women, 70% of staff respondents and 64% of board respondents identify as female.
We are proud that the DP has made progress in gender diversity over the years, but that doesn't mean that the company will stop working to ensure that it becomes an inclusive space for people of all genders.
While Penn releases the percentage of admitted students who identify as first-generation or low-income, the University does not publicly release data on the percentage of current undergraduate students who identify as FGLI. For that reason, it is difficult to determine how representative the DP is of the student body in this regard.
However, there is still a disparity between the percentage of FGLI students between our board and staff. Compared to last year's survey, the percentage of FGLI and low-income students has stayed the same for our staff, but has decreased by eight percentage points for our board members.
During 2025, DIS department staff will also focus on internal aspects of the DP to address the decrease in FGLI students in board positions at the DP. This will be through community initiatives to ensure that people aren’t restricted from applying for leadership positions because of financial responsibilities.
The number of respondents who identified as international students increased from 12% in 2023 to 16% in 2024. This number remains consistent with the percentage of Penn’s international undergraduate population.
The percentage of students who attend the College of Arts and Sciences decreased by 12 percentage points among leadership of the DP and six percentage points among DP staff. Students from the College are well represented at the DP, but we are glad that our recruiting efforts have increased the number of students from other colleges.
Penn does not collect data on religion or disability, so there are no available points of comparison for these categories. Our data is included below.
DIS Deputies Alyma Karbownik and Hailey Griffis contributed reporting.
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