A letter from Guru Gowrappan

Verizon Media stands in solidarity with our Black colleagues, partners and customers and we will continue to foster diverse communities and voices across all of our brands and platforms. We are launching a three-fold plan with short- and long-term actions that will help foster a more inclusive and diverse work environment; support Black-owned small businesses with sustained efforts and resources; and elevate Black voices, perspectives and content across our platforms. 

As a responsible business and as citizens of a global community, we re-commit to learning, listening and acting for equality and social justice.To that end, we have established the following actions to effect change internally and externally at Verizon Media: 

• Create and enhance opportunities for diverse talent in multiple ways, including by building out Diversity & Inclusion manager and employee toolkits; partnering with Employee Resource Groups on increasing the diversity of Verizon Media leadership, product and tech councils; and increasing recruiting resources dedicated to sourcing internal and external diverse talent. Additionally, in the U.S. all of Verizon has 100% pay equity in salary with respect to race/ethnicity.
   
• Support Black-owned small businesses by donating $5 million in ad inventory to support marketing and awareness, in addition to providing staffing and resources to help develop creative and placement of ads across Verizon Media’s ecosystem that reaches nearly 900M users per month. We are currently vetting organizations to partner with us on this commitment. Verizon Media’s donation is in addition to the $10M donation that Verizon pledged to seven social justice organizations.
   
• Continued commitment to elevate trusted content that is representative of Black voices and experiences: Verizon Media will commemorate Juneteenth across our portfolio including Yahoo, Yahoo Finance & Cashay, Yahoo News, HuffPost, AOL and more, contextualizing the history, and cultural significance of the holiday.   Additionally, Verizon Media will utilize its editorial platforms to amplify Black voices with two live events, one exclusive for employees and the other for the public:
   
• Dispelling the Census Myths, June 19 at 1:00pm ET will be a discussion around the historical importance and the community impact of the U.S. Census. This event will be livestreamed for Verizon Media employees only.
   
• Juneteenth Census Celebration, June 19 at 6:00pm ET, a live 1-hour special streamed event on HuffPost, featuring a dynamic discussion with census experts, special guests, and entertainers. This conversation will provide a historical look at Juneteenth and a panel discussion on the cultural significance of the American holiday. This event will be livestreamed for the public.

We believe that everyone deserves to be treated equally and has the right to live free of racism and oppression. The barriers that the Black community continue to face is a reality that we, as a company, will not accept. We know there is more work to be done and we are committed to being part of a long-term, permanent solution. These actions today are the building blocks to help us move the world forward for everyone. 

Sincerely,
Guru Gowrappan 
CEO, Verizon Media