In a public comment submitted to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) on Aug. 19, the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN) objected to the agency’s proposal to eliminate the EEO-1 report, which requires employers with more than 100 employees to file demographic data.
In addition to helping companies recognize barriers in their own hiring and promotion practices, the report allows journalists to identify companies where discriminatory outcomes may result even without intentional bias.
INN’s comment states:
The Institute for Nonprofit News (INN) is a selective membership organization of more than 500 independent, nonprofit news organizations committed to high standards for public service and investigative journalism. INN’s members employ more than 3,200 journalists across the United States.
We are writing to express our firm opposition to the proposal to eliminate the EEO-1 report, given its critical value and proven track record as an essential tool for public-interest journalism.
For example, Reveal with the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) used EEO-1 filings to report on the lack of diversity at major tech companies. CIR‘s multi-year FOIA litigation ultimately forced release of EEO-1 data for over 19,000 federal contractors, enabling researchers to document and prove that industry and geography alone cannot account for existing racial gaps in management.
This transparency is a two-way street: The EEO-1 mandate is standardized across industries, requiring filings from any employer with 100 or more workers, including large newsrooms, broadcasters, and wire services. The same mechanism that let CIR investigate diversity patterns at tech companies is also one of the few viable tools capable of uncovering discrimination patterns within the new industry itself.
As a journalism organization that believes in protecting the public’s right to know, INN is particularly concerned that eliminating the report would compound a pattern of changes starting with an Executive Order in April 2025 that have made it difficult for members of the public to identify and pursue disparate-impact liability cases through agency enforcement, rather than costly private litigation.
The comment period is open on regulations.gov until Aug. 24 at 11:59pm ET.
