Making a more diverse, inclusive, and equitable newsroom at Insider: Q&A with Insider's Managing Editor of DEI, Fritzie Andrade
Last fall, Insider hired Fritzie Andrade into a newly created role on the editorial leadership team, Managing Editor for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Fritzie joined Insider with 15 years of experience as a journalist and has worked throughout her career to make newsrooms more diverse and to support those underrepresented in the industry, especially people at the beginning of their careers. Learn more about Fritzie’s background and role at Insider in this Q&A.
Please introduce yourself! Take us through your background, how you got started at Insider, and how long you’ve been here.
My background is in journalism, though I arrived to it a little later in life. I actually studied theater at NYU! I pretty quickly realized that a life of auditions and long bouts of unemployment wasn’t something I had the stomach for and eventually fell into theater criticism and writing. In my late 20s, I decided to go to grad school for journalism, mostly because I didn’t want to work in an office. During that time I started writing for The New York Sun (now defunct) and eventually landed an internship at The New York Times in the video department. In the years that followed I worked at NBC, Rodale, went back to The New York Times, VICE, Gawker Media, and, most recently, New York Magazine. I’ve worked mostly in video and in running video departments, but also did photo editing, breaking news coverage, and even ran a travel vertical for a time. I guess you could say I’m a writer/editor/producer hybrid.
You joined Insider with 15 years of experience as a journalist. Is this your first DEI-focused role? How has it differed from what you were doing at previous jobs?
Yes and no. While it’s the first time I’m specifically being paid to exclusively think about DEI from a newsroom standpoint, it’s work I’ve been doing in the background for many years. Like so many other members of underrepresented groups in newsrooms (or any industry, really), I was frustrated with how slow things were changing. I started out by joining ERG groups and as I moved around in my career, I eventually started leading DEI groups aimed at holding leadership accountable and forcing change in the workplace. As is the case with most employees who do this type of work, it was on my own time and always in addition to my regular job. Over time. I started to wonder how much more I could accomplish if DEI work was my full-time job. When I saw the posting for this role at Insider, I immediately knew it would give me the opportunity to find out without having to sacrifice the journalistic elements of my career.
Take us through a typical day in your life at Insider.
I wish there was such a thing as a typical day! A lot of what I do involves working with our newsroom employees on anything from work challenges to help guiding their careers. A lot of times I’ll be asked to join editorial brainstorm meetings or to help review a story. I work with leadership quite a bit to keep them informed of any major occurrences in the news cycle that we might want to be extra attentive to or to alert them about frustrations in the newsroom. Overall, I’m here as a resource for anyone who needs it. That takes on new forms daily.
How is your team structured? What other teams do you work with within the organization? Do you have plans to add other members to your team in the future?
One of the things I love about my job is I’m not limited to one team or department. Since I’m a resource for the whole newsroom, I’ve been able to get to know people throughout the company. I don’t have any direct reports, but I work very closely with everyone on the managing editors team, which, in my opinion, is one of the most talented and empathetic teams of any of the newsrooms I’ve worked in. DEI is a pretty big job, though. In reality, it’s EVERYONE’s job. But yes, we have talked about what expanding my team might look like, but no immediate plans at the moment.
How has your role grown and evolved since you started at Insider?
The job is evolving almost daily, but I think when I first started, I thought the job would be more research and implementation heavy. Over time it’s evolved to be much more about the staff and helping them navigate and improve the newsroom. It’s actually been fascinating and has left me feeling like every newsroom should have a version of this job. When it comes to DEI matters, a lot of people aren’t comfortable discussing them or confronting and addressing challenges. Just by virtue of being here, people have a clear place to direct their questions and concerns. In turn, I can often expedite action because I have a direct line to leadership. But I will say it involves building a deep trust with the people who work here, especially since the topics that come my way aren’t always easy.
What have been some of the coolest or most memorable projects you’ve worked on so far?
We started a partnership with Dillard University, which is an HBCU in New Orleans. It really allowed us to rethink what a fellowship could look like and how we can better set recent grads up for success. In a lot of ways the pandemic has been great for expanding where we hire from. All of a sudden you don’t have to live within proximity of one of the Insider offices to work here. Our two fellows from Dillard have been here about three weeks and have really hit the ground running and published quite a few stories.
What’s next on your to-do list at Insider? Can you share any big projects that you’re working on or planning for in the coming months or years?
Most of what I’m working on is coming up with ways that we can have better community and support systems for the underrepresented members of our newsroom. This includes career development programs, but also how we reward and account for the many ways that certain staff members go above and beyond the scope of their jobs to contribute. I can’t say much more than that right now, but all great things!
If you weren’t at Insider, what would you be doing?
Hard to say! I have a toddler now, which has dramatically changed how I work, but I think in my dream-post-pandemic life, I’d go back to travel and style reporting, but with the new perspective of having a tiny human tag along. I spent a good chunk of my career traveling around the world and loved every minute of it. It’s something I hope to share with my daughter one day.