I don't want Jay Harris to be the issue. Within days of his resignation, Mr. Harris said he received about 100 e-mails from around the world, expressing support. And he still receives supportive messages. The most heartening thing was the acknowledgement from colleagues, journalists and readers recognizing the importance of the issue. People were really concerned about this.
Journalists are concerned.
But Mr. Harris remains optimistic about the future of the industry. He said he hopes the newspaper industry will recover economically. There was a measure of relief that the worst possible considerations were going to be avoided. What this is all about in the end is to keep the newspaper whole and to serve the Silicon Valley community. Mr. Harris, who helped create the original ASNE diversity survey in 1978, was disappointed to see a decline in the percentages of minority journalist in U.S. newsrooms and what it implies about the quality of newspapers.