Tackling Diversity   

The St. Petersburg Times appoints former Clearwater bureau City Editor Sebastian Dortch to the newly created position of diversity officer.

The St. Petersburg Times names Clearwater bureau City Editor Sebastian Dortch its first diversity officer. "It transcends race," says Dortch. "It's not 'Let's get a bunch of African Americans to fill different slots.' What we're interested in is people who are different, maybe a physical disability, maybe people with language skills we don't currently have, different philosophical positions than we're used to at the Times." And he's not just talking about the newsroom. Dortch, 38, the paper's former national editor, says he'll be assessing every department, making sure that readers and suppliers better reflect the general population. "We want to make sure that we are also being relevant for people who might be a little bit poorer than our normal demographic, make sure we are going out and developing younger readers so that we will be relevant in 15 years," he says. The goal is to create a model for the industry, as companies such as Toyota and Kodak have done. "Why can't a newspaper be in the forefront of this effort?" he asks. "We're going to be out there trying to break new ground."