The 2026 Canadian Newsroom Diversity Survey is now OPEN.
Responses are due by March 17, 2026.
To see a list of newsrooms that have participated, check out our thank you page.
The survey was sent to the editor-in-chief, or their equivalent, at radio, television, digital, and print outlets across the country.
If your newsroom has not received a survey and would like to participate, please send an email to survey@caj.ca.
FAQ
We ask that you submit data that is accurate as of December 31 of the previous year. If you have some other specific date since the last survey that you use for data collection, we will accept that as well.
No, we ask that whatever information you provide at the time of submission is not changed unless there is an error in the data.
The top three journalists in your newsroom would be the three most senior executives in your newsroom. These could include, but are not limited to, senior producer, publisher, editor in chief, chief executive officer or managing editor. If your newsroom does not have three people in management roles, for example if you are a one person newsroom, please submit data for however many managers you have.
All survey results and survey materials will be made available in both English and French.
If possible, we ask that you fill out separate surveys for each newsroom. However, submitting one survey for multiple, related newsrooms is permitted, and there is no maximum number of newsrooms you re allowed to submit for. We now have a spreadsheet format option for media outlets filling the survey out for multiple newsrooms. Please contact survey@caj.ca for more information.
There is widespread consensus around the need for Canadian media to reflect the society it serves. But addressing representation, or lack thereof, in the industry requires that we measure the level of diversity in newsrooms across Canada.
Prior to launching this national survey project in 2021, efforts to track the collection of this kind of data were sporadic and incomplete. As an industry that demands transparency and reports on the diversity of government bodies, public agencies, and private-sector organizations, data about diversity in Canadian media is critical to ensure fair and equitable employment opportunities for journalists. These efforts are especially vital as diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) initiatives are under attack south of the border. Accurate and expansive data surrounding diversity and inclusion can show newsrooms how to better reflect the voices of the communities they serve.
The CAJ spent three years consulting with survey design experts, international partners that conduct media diversity surveys in their countries, and Canadian organizations and individuals in Canada that have studied the diversity of our country’s media ecosystem. The NLA, which has conducted a survey in the U.S. since 1978, provided invaluable support in designing this survey.
This annual survey is designed to be easy to fill out. It asks for information that most Canadian media organizations have already collected or that they typically collect during hiring. The information is also easy to collect if it’s not already available.
The survey showed that white journalists are overrepresented, particularly in supervisor and full-time positions. We learned that 83.7 per cent of supervisors are white, compared to 61.1 per cent of interns.
To learn more about the 2025 diversity survey, read the full report on our website or visit our interactive website page
This survey is made possible through the support of numerous generous partners including the News Leaders Association and the Fédération professionnelle des journalistes du Québec. The Canadian Race Relations Foundation has generously provided another three years of funding to continue the important work of the survey. Qlik continues to provide data analysis and visualizations for the survey reports as well as the interactive website.
The survey was sent to the editor-in-chief, or their equivalent, at radio, television, digital, and print outlets across the country. For transparency, a PDF copy of the survey text is publicly available.
If your media outlet did not receive the survey and would like to participate, please email survey@caj.ca.
The categories are adapted from a Statistics Canada model. This model is used by many newsrooms which collect data on the race and gender of their employees when hiring.
We have diverged from the Statistics Canada model in instances where the categories are not only incorrect but could generate misleading results. For example, Statistics Canada doesn’t offer “non-binary” as a potential gender category, instead only offering the options “man” and woman”. There are two other changes: 1) APTN advised that the use of the term Aboriginal as categorized by Statistics Canada is outdated and should be changed to Inuit, Métis, First Nations (status or non-status); 2) The Canadian Association of Black Journalists asked that “Haitian” be flagged as an example in the “Black” category not the “Latin” category and that “South and Central American” be changed to “Afro-Latino”.
As an organization representing working journalists the CAJ knows how busy media workers are. That’s why we are giving newsroom leaders until March 17, 2026 to send in responses.
The numbers at the newsroom level will be made public for all outlets that have six or more full-time employees. For example, the number of women on staff compared with the number of men on staff will be disclosed. For outlets with fewer than six full-time employees, a breakdown at the newsroom level will not be disclosed, but data from these outlets will be included in the aggregate results.
Short answer questions will only be disclosed in aggregate, anonymized form for all outlets, regardless of employee number.
Only CAJ staff and volunteers working on the survey, along with our partners at Qlik, will have access to the non-public data. It will not be made public under any circumstances.
No. Many newsrooms already collect this data. For those that do not, the Canadian Human Rights Act states that it is not a discriminatory practice to collect information relating to a prohibited ground of discrimination so long as the information is being collected to combat discrimination.
If you have further questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us at survey@caj.ca.
