The Bookseller.com

22nd August 2008

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Discussing diversity

04.07.08 Hannah Davies

Last year a Diversity in Publishing Network survey revealed that fewer than 4% of people working in editorial and senior roles within publishing are from ethnic minorities, and the prevailing perception of industry is that it is dominated by the white middle class. A year on, The Bookseller asks three publishing professionals, currently working to improve levels of diversity, whether anything has changed and what still needs to be done. (For recorded  highlights of the roundtable, click on the videos below).

What are the current levels of diversity in the publishing industry?

Suzanne Ashley (SA): The data Skillset currently has says that 6% of ­people working in publishing in the UK are from non-white groups, compared to 7% across the whole of UK industry. So while there is not a significant difference compared to the rest of industry, what is a major issue is that when you break it down by region, it is disproportionate because much of publishing activity is located in London and the southeast—areas that have a higher proportion of residents from ethnic minority backgrounds. In London alone, 27% of the population are from non-white groups, compared to 7% across the rest of the UK.

Dele Fatunla (DF): At Pearson, as well as other organisations, we would have to agree that we are not representative of the diversity of the areas we work in. London is possibly the most culturally diverse capital in Europe, yet when you walk off the streets and get into publishing companies, they don’t reflect that at all.

What are the factors behind the publishing industry being predominantly white?

DF: The issue is not that the industry is predominantly white; re­alistically, it will always be that way because that is the society we live in. What we have to ask is why don’t we have more people from diverse backgrounds working in publishing and why is it difficult to retain them? There is definitely a cultural problem in terms of nurturing ­people and keeping them on while they are developing in the early stages of their career. We need to foster a culture that is more open and able to include people.

Beth Callen (BC): It is about ­people not knowing about publishing as a possible career choice or people holding certain assumptions about it. Random House just commissioned a small piece of qualitative research to look at these perceptions, and what came across was that people view publishing as a closed shop, predominantly because of the lack of transparency in the recruitment process and word-of-mouth recruitment.

SA: Low pay is a major factor, owing to the costs of living in London and the southeast, where the industry is primarily based. Unless you have a wealthier background that can subsidise you, you are going to struggle, and from my experience in publishing, we lost people specifically because of that.

Why is it important to change this situation?

DF: A total of 23% of people in higher­ education are now from diverse backgrounds, so that is a big group you want to be catching. We are competing with every other industry in the country to do so.

BC: Having a diverse workforce will drive creativity and make your company more likely to appeal to a more diverse range of authors and, ultimately, more diverse readers, which is what we are all trying to do.

Furthermore, the more inclusive a workforce, the more included people feel they are in their company, which in turn makes people more productive and more likely to stay.

SA: When you work in London and walk out on the street, it is com­pletely multicultural, then you step into your office and it is predominantly white, so there is a slightly disjunction with the real world—the “ivory tower” effect maybe. There is also a commercial reason to do this—you need people inhouse who can understand the potential market.

What initiatives have publishers introduced to promote diversity—have they worked?

DF: Pearson started a serious and focused diversity programme in 2001. One of our aims was to raise the industry profile of diversity, and we have definitely done that. Pearson heads up a monthly forum for companies across different industries to talk about diversity and ways to take the agenda forward, including practical things that can be done.
In terms of our own diversity, our initiatives have made a difference. We set up the Pearson Diversity Summer Internship Programme in 2001. Successful applicants from ethnic minority backgrounds come in for six to eight weeks and get paid to take part in business projects and learn what publishing is really about. We have gone on to employ many of our interns. What any internship programme can do is level the playing field, and I would really like to see more publishers doing that.

Arts Council England (ACE) has been organising publishing traineeships since 2005 to tackle the under-representation of ethnic minorities. What is good about the initiative is that smaller companies such as Saqi Books are getting involved.

BC: Random House has taken part in the [ACE] scheme for two years running. I think it was a really good thing to show that diversity was on the agenda and that different ­bodies in the industry wanted to work together on the issue.

At Random House, what we have got much better at is establishing partnerships with local schools by holding careers mornings, talking in assemblies, having the kids in to visit us to show them how we produce and sell a book, and running workshops. It is about increasing their awareness of jobs that are out there, and giving the children access to role models in jobs. It is a strand of our community work that I would like to grow.

What needs to be done to encourage further progress across the industry?

SA: There is a definite need for a co-ordination role, whether it be an Arts Council/Decibel project or the Publishers Association. There is plenty of good stuff out there already happening, but it is about how to bring it all together. It is also about lobbying for funds to make things happen.

DF: It would be good to have a body within the industry that can take a lead on having a voice on diversity—perhaps the Diversity in Publishing Network [DIPNet] could play a greater role. It also needs to be an industry-wide activity and attitude to recruitment. Having said that, one of the things that works most effectively in terms of diversity is having somebody specifically responsible for diversity strategy within organisations, which is something more companies should be doing.

BC: I think companies need to be aware that it is not just about spending lots of money and having huge programmes to promote change. It is about small, simple steps. It is about making people from ethnic minority backgrounds aware of the different careers that are available within publishing and to try and get this information to people earlier on in their lives—not just at university.

SA: I agree we need to engage ­people at an earlier age to let them know that it is a viable career. Publishers are predominantly graduate recruiters, and there are a number of very well established feeder routes from higher education to publishing, often from certain universities. At the moment we just sit there and accept this, but we need to be plugging in at a lower level and in more diverse areas to raise awareness in a much broader base of the population.

BC: The advent of all things digital is a positive opportunity for us to touch as wide a group of people as possible. It is a chance to go not just down the traditional routes of advertising for candidates.

DF: I think it would be helpful for us to look to other industries and learn from them.

SA: Definitely, and Skillset can help as we work with other creative industries that are already doing practical things. For example, we sit on the Radio Industry Diversity Group, and it has secured funding for a project worker to take forward a number of effective strategic objectives.

How will your own companies be moving forward from here?

SA: Publishing only came into Skillset’s footprint in early April, so there is lots we can do from now. We will be looking at what already works and seeing if we can add anything in terms of lobbying government, helping to develop initiatives, securing funding and helping to communicate what the industry wants.

BC: Random House will be expanding its programme with local schools, as we have found it to be very beneficial. We will be looking much more at how we manage our online presence to reach a broader group of people—using some of the social media we already use in our marketing departments. Also, we need to look at how we can best use work experience as a channel to increase diversity.

DF: One of the things that is important for Pearson is to keep doing the initiatives we are doing—the internships and traineeships—and hopefully expand them, so we can offer them to more people. The main aim is for us to keep diversity on the agenda in the publishing industry.

BC: The initiatives we have started­ will take time to have a visible impact—so we need to keep doing them even if we don’t see a great sea-change immediately.

DF: The important thing to stress is that it is not entirely a numbers game. What is crucial is for people to feel that there aren’t any barriers for people from ethnic minorities to work in publishing.

 

Suzanne Ashley is publishing sector manager for Skillset. She liaises and communicates with the publishing industry on skills development, including diversity and equality of opportunity. She was previously a publishing consultant and visiting lecturer at City University, which is offering a publishing diversity scholarship for 2008. She has also worked in publishing companies including Continuum and Routledge/Taylor & Francis.

Dele Fatunla is the diversity communications officer for Pearson PLC. He is responsible for internal communications on diversity across Pearson and is involved in running its diversity programmes including the diversity summer internship and “Getting into Publishing”, an annual open day aimed at graduates from ethnic minority backgrounds. He graduated from the School of Oriental and African Studies with a BA in African studies and politics.

Beth Callen is HR project manager at the Random House Group, overseeing learning and development. Her role includes a focus on strategic recruitment and promoting diversity, both internally through process improvement and externally through raising awareness of the publishing industry. Before joining, she worked in various HR roles in an international environment and has a research background in intercultural communication.

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