Larry Graham: Changing the Narrative for Your Career

You Can Build A Strategic Framework For Your Newsroom Future, Says DPI Founder Larry Graham. As the industry continues to evolve, Larry Graham of the Diversity Pledge Institute offer solid advice for journalists of color playing the long game.
by Madeleine Sherer, National Press Foundation
When it comes to overcoming high career stakes, Larry Graham recalls an article he once read by Robert “Scoop” Jackson, a columnist for ESPN. In that piece, Jackson wrote that despite there being well over 300 Black players in the NBA, there were only four Black sports news editors across the country.
“He was talking to a room full of high school students, because I think, at the time, there were maybe ten Black sports columnists, and he was one of them. And he had this line where he tells all these kids, ‘You have a better chance of making it in the NBA than you do of doing what I do,’” Graham said.
That statistic resonated so strongly with Graham that he printed out the number five and put it on his desk. “And that was the goal, is to become a Black sports editor at a major metropolitan newspaper,” he said.
Graham shared that memory during the June 2024 virtual training for NPF Widening the Pipeline fellows, as he prepared to participate in the annual Institute for Nonprofit News conference in Los Angeles. He was there in his current role as founder and executive director of the Diversity Pledge Institute, a nonprofit dedicated to helping minority journalists.
Graham eventually achieved his goal, becoming the sports editor for The Fayetteville Observer. Later, he would also work as the general NFL editor for ESPN, and then the executive sports editor for The San Diego Union-Tribune. Now he is the founder and executive director of the Diversity Pledge Institute, a nonprofit dedicated to helping minority journalists. He advised Widening fellows about how to pursue the career they want.
The difficult questions: Asking for raises and promotions
“You want to make it so that you-not guilt them into it-but put them in a position where they have to say ‘yes’. It’s either that or you may end up leaving, and if you’re in a toxic newsroom anyway, get the hell out of there. Don’t forget, your mental health is invaluable,” Graham said.
“So I tell folks, ‘Hey, figure out your floor and your ceiling. Find out the jobs that you can apply for and get that job at that level, at that salary.’ Find out what that is, but then also know what’s the aspirational, what’s the one that you’re going for,” Graham said.
What DPI has to offer
DPI offers a multitude of resources for journalists, focusing on people of color and members of the LGBTQ+ community.
“In launching DPI, the goal was to provide folks with free training, mentorship and support,” Graham said. “So for individual to individual journalists, we’re free help and helping them figure out how to negotiate salary, how to navigate white spaces, how to manage financial leadership, how to negotiate a severance.”
It also helps employers improve diversity within their organizations by educating them on how to best attract and maintain a diverse workforce.
Speaker: Larry Graham,, Founder, Diversity Pledge Institute
Summary, transcript and resources: nationalpress.org/topic/larry...
The Widening the Pipeline Fellowship is sponsored by the Evelyn Y. Davis Foundation and Lenovo. NPF is solely responsible for the content.
This video was produced within the Evelyn Y. Davis studios.