Radio World has sought to broaden our contributor family during my tenure as editor. We have not always been successful at it, but it has been my goal.
It’s my belief that we owe it to readers and advertisers to always be seeking new and diverse industry views and voices to present. I feel we do a good job of this in our opinion pages and choice of topics to cover, but that we need to do better in our writer pool.
Never has it seemed more important than in this year of fresh and urgent discussion about the issues of race and opportunity in our society, including but not limited to the Black Lives Matter movement.
So I want to make you aware, first, that I welcome outreach from all prospective writers who have technical radio interests. And second, that Radio World and our parent company Future plc are deeply committed to fostering a transparent, diverse and inclusive workplace and freelance environment, and that people of color and other minorities are strongly encouraged to apply for such writing opportunities.
If you have an interest in writing about radio engineering, technology and products, write to me at radioworld@futurenet.com.
You should also know what our parent company has committed to.
Future issued a statement on Twitter in June: “To stay silent is to be complicit. We believe that #BlackLivesMatter. We stand with communities across the U.S. who are angry and in pain. We’re going to play our part as a plc and do better.”
The company, under its dynamic leader Zillah Byng-Thorne, committed to diverse representation in our original and stock photography. It issued diversity targets for contributor spending, ensuring that writers and creatives of color have a voice across its portfolio. It committed to further investment in training about inclusiveness and diversity, from the way it recruits to how our team members interact with one another.
It also is supporting the latest PSA from Love Has No Labels with donated media, digital and social support. And it gave $1 million of advertising space across its brands to organizations supporting Black Lives Matter.
We want the Radio World community to be as vibrant and inclusive as possible. Thanks for being part of it.
