Bill Boyd is an associate in leadership and management. This article originally appeared in the Sept. 1995 issue of The American Editor.

Is diversity a bottom line issue for newspapers? According to the Newspaper Association of America, it is. Arthur Sulzburger Jr., publisher of The New York Times, led a committee that looked into ways that demographic trends affect newspaper readership and advertising. Their findings, reported in NAA's new publication, "Diversity: A Business Imperative," conclude that decreasing readership and advertising can be reversed only by responding to demographic shifts, which are accelerating.

The report does three things that can help editors.

• It gives "a wake-up call" via demographic data that help you really know your market and how it is changing. The wake-up call is reinforced by examples of newspapers like the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News which was "stunned" by "drastic change in the population's ethnic diversity" even though it had conducted annual readership surveys for many years. For those who hear the wake-up call, the report provides an appendix called "Understanding Your Market: A Framework For Planning."

• It provides examples of how newspapers such as The Miami Herald, The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer, and The New York Times have responded creatively to major, rapid changes in the population of their regions.

• It shows how the changes will affect the work force and gives examples of how newspapers are meeting the challenges.

Maybe your area will not change as fast as Long Beach, Calif., where the once "almost exclusively white" population is expected to reach 47 percent Latino by the next census. But you can expect a lot of change because the American population is expected to be one-third people of color within 20 years, and 47 percent people of color by 2050. According to the report, Minnesota almost doubled its African-American population between 1980 and 1990, and Illinois is already one of the top five states for both Asian and Hispanic populations.

As you read the report, it becomes clearer how complex the situation is. Hispanics and Asians are not at all homogeneous. Even though the majority of Hispanics are of Mexican origin, the remaining 40 percent have many heritages: Puerto Rican, Central American, South American, Cuban, and several others. No Asian group is near a majority, but Chinese (24 percent) and Filipinos (20 percent) are the biggest groups, followed by Japanese, Koreans, Asian Indians, and many others.

In addition to dealing with such ethnic diversity, newspapers also will have to learn to deal with youth and aging baby boomers: In 2020 the median age of whites will be 42, but the median age of all minority groups will be 32.

Advertisers are aware of the buying power of people of color, estimated at $580 billion in 1994. Will newspapers be or be perceived by advertisers to be an effective way of communicating with a population that is younger and more pigmented each year? Latinos of all educational levels read "mainstream" newspapers at lower rates than other groups (17 percent in a 1991 survey in Long Beach), but the report says readership and advertising can be increased by changing coverage and employment practices. The report also provides examples of how mainstream newspapers can build alliances with ethnic press.

Unfortunately, one of the creative responses cited in the report, City Times in Los Angeles, has been eliminated since the report went to press. That still leaves a substantial number of ongoing models for editors to study as they decide what changes are appropriate to their areas. Creative ways of building and using a diverse staff at all levels are integral to plans for identifying "topics of particular interest to communities of color such as immigration, language, ethnic neighborhoods, impact of growth on social services, health care, education and the criminal justice system."

Also, as one anecdote in the report indicates, stories like "People to Watch" simply cannot be considered good journalistically when they include only white men and women.

The key to continued success is greater awareness of new realities and a willingness to address them creatively. Even if you already feel aware, this report will provide some eye-opening surprises just like a good newspaper.