Why diversity in content is important

May 12, 2021

Family Features adds “tags” to the free content to help editors easily find content that best fits their publications. Content categories offered include: Senior, Family/Kids, Spanish and the newly added African American categories.

CINDY LONG
Media Relations Manager | Family Features

With a goal to make it easy for editors of African American publications to scan for content to fit their publications’ demographics, Family Features added a new special interest content category to its editors site: “African American.” 

I received an email that describes exactly what Family Features’ mission was:

“I think it’s great that Family Features has created an African American category as well as highlighting Spanish content,” Jenise Griffin, publisher of the Florida Courier and Daytona Times, said.  “Since it was posted, I have been searching through it for content that would be of interest to our readers. As publisher of two Black weekly newspapers in Florida, I have been pleased with your focus on diversity.  As a user of your content for years, I can definitely see the increased inclusion of minorities in the presentation of your content.”

Statistics show the growing diversity in America. The 2020 Census resulted in 332,584,983 Americans including population rates of 18.7% Hispanic, 13.4% Black, 5.9% Asian and 1.3% American Indian.

According to Dudley L. Poston Jr., a leading demographer who examined the population data from the U.S. Census Bureau:

  1. Hispanics and other racial minorities will be the country’s main demographic engine of population change in future years; this is the most significant demographic change Americans will see. 
  2. The population will get older. Today there are more than 74.1 million people under the age of 18 in the country. There are 56.4 million people age 65 and older. Ten years from now, there will be almost as many “old folks” as there are young ones.

Family Features adds “tags” to the free content to help our editors easily find content that best fits their publications. Content categories offered include: Senior, Family/Kids, Spanish and the newly added African American categories. When creating content, Family Features’ Content Development department purposefully selects photographs that cover many of America’s populations. We recognize that your readers want to “see themselves” in your articles, and we are working hard to give these images to you.

Cindy Long is Family Features’ Media Relations Manager. She works with a network of more than 10,000 editors to help fill the food, lifestyle and home and garden sections of their newspapers, magazines and websites. She can be contacted at clong@familyfeatures.com or (913) 563-4752.