Online news staffs: Where's the diversity?

[Commentary] A Pew Research Center study finds a continuing decline in newspaper readership, as well as viewership on all three cable news channels. But the report found some newsworthy signs:

• The number of people who say they get their news online at least three times a week has surpassed the number who get their news first from newspapers.
• Nearly half of readers (47%) use a cellphone or tablet computer to get "at least some local news and information."
• "Online news hires may have matched newspaper cuts for the first time."

What disturbs me is that as the news media make this major transition to fully expand onto online and mobile devices, diversity of staffing seems to be getting lost in the shuffle. Curiously, the news media remain largely white and male, even as the stories dominating the news pertain to diverse communities. That is, at least, from what we can see. Richard Prince of The Maynard Institute, a non-profit that promotes diversity in the media, reports that some online news organizations have declined to participate in an American Society of News Editors (ASNE) diversity survey. In a business that prides itself on transparency and factual accuracy, the unwillingness to supply a simple staff breakdown is troubling.