Chron editorial writer Pati Poblette, in a column this morning (March 20), notes that her paper and others in the Bay Area don’t have the same percentage of non-white newsroom personnel as the population they serve. And she said that in her experience at four different Bay Area newspapers, she’s seen the effect a “non-diverse” staff has on the news: “I sat in countless meetings pitching stories from different ethnic communities at tables filled with all white males. Each time I’d hear the words: ‘Why does that story matter to our average reader?’ But all I really heard was ‘Why would a white male from a middle-to-upper class community care?'” She points out that the New York Times is planning to hire a “diversity officer” and that it’s time for other papers to follow suit.