A project of the Task Force on Minorities in the Newspaper Business, this multicolor booklet offers newspaper decision-makers the key numbers and methods needed to assess critically their approach to minority households and organizations. Specifically, the booklet is an up-to-date demographic analysis of key trends among minority groups up to the year 2000: their educational prospects and their occupational outlook in the newspaper industry, their status as consumers, their increasing economic impact and their significance in specific newspaper markets. Sections are as follows: (1) Minorities Count: National Population Trends; (2) Gaining Ground: Education and the Minority Work Force; (3) Minority Markets: Income and Consumer Spending; and (4) How to Use Demographic Data, giving specific step-by-step plans on how to estimate the potential circulation increase in a minority market segment, establish a reasonable market-based minority hiring strategy, and find and use demographic data on minority consumers in a newspaper market. Successful approaches used in newspapers throughout the United States are profiled throughout the booklet. (SR)