Staff Demographics (Published 2021)

The News is committed to building a diverse newsroom that reflects its readership. To track our progress and hold ourselves accountable to that commitment, we will publish our staff demographics on this page at least once a year.

The News conducted its first demographic survey in the 2018-19 school year, beginning solely with the managing board. The past two years’ surveys were sent to our entire staff. The following data comes from the most recent survey, conducted in November 2020 and April 2021 and representative of the News’ staff at the end of the 2020-21 school year. 193 staff members responded, representing roughly two-thirds of our newsroom. Yale demographic data comes from the Office of Institutional Research.

Quick Facts

  • 67 percent of our staffers identify as female and 33 percent identify as male. None of our staffers identify as non-binary or gender non-conforming.
  • 32 percent of our staffers identify as LGBTQ+.
  • 17 percent of our staffers are international students, as compared to 10 percent of Yale College and 21 percent of the University as a whole.
  • 20 percent of our staffers are the first in their families to go to college, as compared to 19 percent of the class of 2024.
  • 8 percent of our staffers are legacy students. That figure is the same for the class of 2024.
  • 61 percent of our staffers went to a public high school, as compared to 67 percent of students in the class of 2024.
  • 55 percent of our staffers describe their hometown as suburban, 37 percent describe their hometown as urban and 8 percent describe their hometown as rural.

Race and Ethnicity

Yale Daily News 2020-21 vs. Yale College 2020-21

Note: Staffers who selected two or more races are counted once in the “Two or More” category and not included in categories representing individual races. Of those staffers, 73.3 percent identified as partly white, 40 percent as partly Asian, 43.3 percent as partly Hispanic/Latinx and 26.7 percent as partly Black/African American.

Overall, 44.6 percent of staffers selected “white” on the survey, 45.6 percent selected “Asian,” 13.5 percent selected “Hispanic/Latinx” and 10.4 percent selected “Black/African American.”

Yale Daily News 2020-21 vs. 2019-20

Managing Board 2020-21 vs. 2019-20 vs. 2018-19

Note: The listed proportions in the “Two or More” category reflect the proportion of members who selected two or more races and identify with the listed race in any capacity. The total percentage of respondents on the managing board who selected two or more races was 14.4 in 2020-21, 12.2 in 2019-20 and zero in 2018-19.

Race/Ethnicity vs. Role at the News

Note: “Written Content” describes both reporting and opinion teams. “Multimedia Content” describes photo, video, data, podcast and illustrations teams. “Production” describes copy editing and production and design teams. “Long-term Projects” describes business, tech and human resources teams.

Financial Aid and Family Income

Note: Yale does not publish specific breakdowns of financial aid percentages or family income. In 2019-20, the most recent year for which data is available, 53 percent of Yale College students received financial aid, as compared to 59.5 percent of News staffers in 2020-21.