NBCUniversal News Chief Ups Diversity Goal

Cesar Conde, the new chairman of NBCUniversal News Group, outlined a workforce goal of 50% diversity on Tuesday, telling employees that as “a news organization we have a unique responsibility to reflect the country and all of the communities we serve,” Deadline reports.

“The NBCUniversal News Group is not going to wait for change to happen and just react to it.  We’re going to lead,” he said in a video to employees on Tuesday. “As a news organization, we have a unique responsibility to look like and reflect all of the people of the country we serve.”

Cesar Conde

He said that the goal is for 50% of the news organization employees to be women and 50% of their total workforce be people of color, with plans to boost recruitment and education programs and to invest in more documentaries and investigative content focusing on communities of color. The 50% goal is long term, with no exact date set to reach it, but he said that progress would be reported publicly every year.

Conde said that the workforce of the entities he oversees – NBC News, MSNBC and CNBC – is 26.5% diverse.

“That’s better than most in our industry – but it is not good enough,” he said. The workforce currently is 8% Black, 8% Hispanic, 8% Asian, 2% multi-racial and less than 1% Native American. When it comes to gender, he said that their workforce is nearly 50% women.

He said that the goal will be to increase diversity in front of and behind the camera and to “earn the trust of every community in America that relies on us for exceptional journalism.” he said.