Last Updated: April 12, 2000
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WASHINGTON — The number of minority journalists working at daily newspapers
grew in the past year by a third of a percentage point moving from 11.55 percent
to 11.85 percent, according to the 2000 newsroom employment survey issued by
the American Society of Newspaper Editors. This marks the largest percentage
increase since the 1995 survey.
Meanwhile, the percentage of women in daily newsrooms stands at 37.12 up from
36.88, according to the ASNE report. Women represented 34 percent of all newsroom
supervisors, the same percentage as last year. This is the second year that
ASNE has counted the number of women working at the nation's daily newspapers.
Overall newsroom employment grew by 1,100. It totaled 56,200 in the 2000 survey,
compared to 55,100 in the 1999 survey. This is the largest increase since the
1996 survey. The number of minorities in the work force increased 300 to 6,700,
according to the ASNE survey. This represents the largest increase in minority
newsroom staffing since the 1995 survey.
"We are pleased with the progress newspaper newsrooms are making, but far from
satisfied. While these are the best gains in some time, they are far from where
we must be," said ASNE President N. Christian Anderson III, publisher of The
Orange County Register, Santa Ana, Calif.
Diversity Committee chair Wanda Lloyd said: "We've spent the past year developing
initiatives to move these numbers up faster in the future. We need the industry
to support these initiatives. I'm optimistic about more progress in the near
future." Lloyd is managing editor/features, administration and planning for
The Greenville (S.C.) News.
While minorities grew across the board, black journalists as a percentage of
the work force of newsroom staffs dipped slightly.
ASNE has tracked the growth of minorities in daily newsrooms since 1978 when
minority journalists comprised 4 percent of the total newsroom workforce (1,700
out of 43,000). The survey is a tool ASNE uses to measure the success of its
goal of having the percentage of minorities working in newsrooms nationwide
equal to the percentage of minorities in the nation's population by 2025.
Currently, minorities make up 28.4 percent of the U.S. population and will
grow to an estimated 38.2 percent by 2025, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Detailed findings of the 2000 newsroom employment survey:
Racial/ethnic groups: This is a breakdown of newsroom staffs by minority
group:
|
Asian Americans |
Blacks |
Hispanics |
Native Americans |
2000 |
2.35 (1,321) |
5.31 (2,984) |
3.68 (2,068) |
0.52 (292) |
1999 |
2.29 (1,264) |
5.36 (2,953) |
3.46 (1,905) |
0.44 (241) |
Internships and first-time hires: The percentage and number of minority
interns rose slightly while the percentage and number of first-time minority
hires fell. Of nearly 2,800 interns reported hired in the 2000 survey, 880 (31.42
percent) were minorities. In the 1999 ASNE report, there were 855 or 31.13 percent.
First-time minority hires declined nearly a full percentage point, going from
18.72 percent (586 people) in 1999 to 17.74 (561) in this year's report. The
percentage of new minority hires has generally declined since 1994.
Supervisors: Nine percent of all supervisors were minorities, while
19 percent of all minorities were supervisors, about the same percentages as
last year. That means nearly 91 percent of all supervisors are white, while
25 percent of whites are supervisors.
Newspapers with no minorities: This number continues to slowly improve.
Of the newspapers participating in the survey, 368 papers — 39 percent — had
no minority staffers compared to 40 percent last year and 42 percent the preceding
year.
Where do minorities work: Nearly two-thirds of all minority journalists
work at papers with circulations exceeding 100,000.
"We intend to keep the issue center-stage and to keep reminding ourselves that
diverse newsrooms are essential to serving diverse communities," said Charlotte
Hall, incoming chair of the Diversity Committee. "The committee looks forward
to helping guide major new initiatives to increase the pipeline of journalists
of color. At the same time, we are very concerned about retention and need to
attack that problem vigorously." Hall is managing editor of Newsday, Melville,
N.Y.
Highlights from the survey of women
-
Women on daily newspaper staffs total 20,876 up more than 500 from the
previous year. Of those 3,095 or 14.8 percent are minorities. Job categories:
22 percent of women are supervisors, 21 percent are copy editors, 49 percent
are reporters and 8 percent are photographers. The breakdown for men: 25
percent are supervisors, 18 percent are copy editors, 43 percent are reporters
and 13 percent are photographers.
-
Of the newspapers participating in the survey, only one percent have no
women, down from 2.3 percent last year. The newspapers have less than 10,000
circulation.
-
Where do women work: Women continue to make up nearly 40 percent of the
staffers at both large and small newspapers. Women are more often found
in papers with less than 10,000 circulation. Here women make up nearly 44
percent of the staffs.
Benchmarks to measure progress
Next year ASNE will start measuring the industry's progress in minority hiring
and promotion against benchmarks adopted by the ASNE board in September
1999. The comparisons, to be reported every three years, will alert the industry
to whether it is on target to meet the 2025 goals.
The 2001 benchmarks:
Overall minority employment |
13.5 percent |
Interns |
32.6 percent |
Supervisors |
11 percent |
Number of papers with no minorities |
350 |
Number of newspapers that have achieved parity with their community |
58 |
Increasing diversity in U.S. newspaper newsrooms has been a primary ASNE mission
for the past 22 years. The Society has been an industry leader in helping newspapers
better reflect their communities. It serves as an information clearinghouse
and provides career information to journalists just starting out. The Society
sponsors a variety of initiatives and projects, including job fairs which are
directed at young journalists of color, and an online Talent Bank, where editors
can find candidates for internships and entry-level positions.
Census procedures
For the 2000 ASNE newsroom employment census, 953 of 1,451 daily newspapers
responded to the survey, representing 65.7 percent of all U.S. dailies. The
2000 census is based on Dec. 31, 1999 employment data reported by daily newspapers.
The survey data are projected to reflect all daily newspapers in the country.
Editors participating in the survey agree to publish the percentage of newsroom
employees who are minorities. A list of newspapers
with their percentages follows the summary and tables.
The data from newspapers that returned the survey are used to project the numbers
for non-responding newspapers in the same circulation range. An ASNE follow-up
test of non-responding newspapers found their employment of minorities closely
resembles newspapers in their circulation categories that respond to the survey.
The survey figures reported above are weighted in this way to reflect all daily
newspapers. ASNE has implemented internal monitoring procedures to ensure the
consistency and credibility of the employment data. Moreover, because the survey
procedures remain constant each year, the ASNE census provides highly reliable
year-to-year comparisons.
The American Society of Newspaper Editors, with 900 members, is an organization
of the main editors of daily newspapers throughout the Americas. Founded in
1922, ASNE is active in a number of areas of interest to top editors with priorities
on improving the diversity, readership and credibility of newspapers.