Published
Wed, Dec 22, 2021, 13:55
- We've reviewed our progress in 2021 and committed a further £50,000 to Black and other minority communities in 2022.
We have committed to providing annual updates in a bid to be more transparent on the ways in which we are accomplishing and adhering to editorial targets we first set in summer 2020.
We acknowledge that this work will never be complete and we will continue to centre diversity and inclusion into all our operations, while holding ourselves publicly accountable through transparent disclosure of our work.
In December 2020, we made a number of editorial commitments to our staff and community. Our completed actions from January 1st through December 1st 2021 are as follows:
• 58 percent of our films focused on Black artists or collectives, while 52 percent of our films focused on women/non-binary artists and collectives. (Target 50 percent)
• 53 percent of all reviews focused on music from BIPOC artists or collectives, while 36 percent focused on women, non-binary and trans artists or collectives. (Target: 50 percent)
• 72 percent of our features focused on BIPOC artists and collectives, while 48 percent focused on women or non-binary artists and collectives. (Target: 30 percent)
• 69 percent of our RA Podcasts and RA Exchanges focused on BIPOC artists, while 52 percent focused on women or non-binary artists. (Target: 50 percent)
• 55 percent of our features were written by journalists of colour, while 49 percent were written by women or non-binary writers. (Target: 25 percent and 35 percent)
• We launched the four-part Re-record series, highlighting 120 important artists in electronic music, in addition to starting the monthly Black Minds Matter RA Exchange podcast series.
• We continue to onboard and work with new writers, with much of our output in 2021 coming from young freelancers.
• We committed at least £50,000 towards community partnerships benefiting Black and other minority communities. Updates on the projects we supported can be found here.
In 2022, under the guidance of our new editor-in-chief, we're spearheading a new editorial strategy with diversity and inclusion at its core. We're extending last spring's community pledge of racial equity into the daily working process and the overarching editorial ethos. This involves commissioning writers of color, writers of diasporic perspectives and writing about Black, indigenous and POC artists to continually expand RA's representation of talent.
We will continue to be transparent on the representation in our coverage and will produce a report on an annual basis on our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion page.
We will also aim to work with non-English-speaking contributors and translators to consider key stories beyond the Anglophone world. This will include more coverage of non-Western countries to widen the scope of reported scenes and regional genres, as a step towards more comprehensive, globally conscious reporting.
We will continue our financial commitment to organisations benefiting Black and other minority communities by committing at least £50,000 towards community partnerships in 2022. Updates on the projects we supported in 2021 can be found here. If you would like to discuss a project, please email [email protected] for further details.
An update on our wider company diversity and inclusion progress can be found here. This page will be updated regularly.
Our next editorial update will be published on December 1st, 2022. We will be providing a different update early in 2022 regarding some leadership and governance changes at RA.