WASHINGTON — The number of full-time journalists working at daily newspapers continues to fall while the number of minority journalists inched up nearly a half of a percentage point to 13.42 percent in 2004. Since the economic downturn of 2001, newsrooms have lost a net of more than 2,200 journalists while the number of minority journalists has increased.

These are among the key findings from the 28th annual newsroom census of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, which also revealed that 2004 marked the second straight year of an overall decline in newsroom professionals. Major reasons for this slippage were buyouts and layoffs at some of the nation’s largest newspapers.

Minorities had a net increase of 700 since 2001 resulting in a nearly half of one percentage point increase for the fourth straight year. Asians lead this increase but all minority groups saw growth.

Editors are increasing their hiring and retention of minority journalists at a time when diversity in the U.S. grows at historic rates. But newsrooms are not changing quickly enough for the industry to achieve its goal of parity of newsrooms with their communities by 2025.

From 2001-2005:

“It is always good to go forward especially at a time when demographic change is such a powerful factor in our communities,” said ASNE president Karla Garrett Harshaw. “Because of those changes, we need to measure our progress by full percentage points, and not fractions. We simply must move more urgently. It can be done."

Milton Coleman, chair of the ASNE Diversity Committee said, “The rainbow of newsroom diversity has become so much richer, with the increases among Asians, Hispanics and Native Americans. This is good. At the same time, the trend among black journalists is increasingly worrisome, as the numbers have grown only marginally. The trend is disturbing. We need to figure out what's going wrong and address it immediately.”

Highlights of the 2005 survey:

Supervisors: Minorities account for 10.8 percent of all supervisors in newsrooms. Twenty percent of all minorities are supervisors, the same as last year and a one percentage point increase since 2001.

Newspapers with no minorities: The number of newspapers responding to the ASNE survey with no minorities fell to 347. That means that slightly more than 60 percent of daily newspapers responding to the survey have minority staffers. The majority of the newspapers with no minority professionals have circulations of 10,000 or less and serve small communities. The number of newspapers responding to the survey with no minorities stood at 422 five years ago.

Where do minorities work: Since 2000, the percentage of minorities working at the country’s largest newspapers, those exceeding 500,000 circulation, has remained virtually unchanged and now stands at 18.4. Since 2000, the percentage of minorities working at newspapers from 250,001 to 500,000 has grown from 18.3 percent to 20.7 and those at newspapers from 100,001 to 250,000 has grown from 13.6 to 15.8 percent.

Other findings:

Internships: The number of minority interns increased by nearly a hundred to 948 or 33.2 percent of all interns hired in Summer 2004. This is the largest number of minority interns since 2001.

Women: The percentage of women in daily newsrooms increased slightly to 37.54 percent. This percentage has gone up and down since 2001 when women made up 37.35 of newsroom professionals.

Minority women account for 17.20 percent, up from 16.27 percent, of the women journalists in newsrooms last year. Five years ago, minority women represented 14.28 percent of newsroom journalists.

Men: Men now total 33,814 a net decrease of 203 from last year. Minority men number 3,783 up from 3,733 last year. Five years ago, minority men numbered 3,555 and represented 6.03 percent of newsroom journalists.

Job categories: 65.2 percent of all supervisors are men. They are also 58.8 percent of all copy editors, 60.1 percent of reporters and 72.6 percent of photographers.

ASNE’s Diversity Mission

Increasing diversity in U.S. newspaper newsrooms has been a primary ASNE mission since 1978. 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 aspiring journalists. The Society sponsors and coordinates a variety of initiatives and projects, including job fairs directed at young journalists of color and seminars for editors on the changing demographics of the U.S.

ASNE’s initial survey in 1978 revealed that minority journalists comprised 3.95 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 31.7 percent of the U.S. population.

Census procedures

For the 2005 ASNE newsroom employment census, 926 of the 1,413 daily newspapers responded to the survey, representing 65.53 percent of all U.S. dailies. The census is based on 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 nonresponding newspapers in the same circulation range. An ASNE follow-up test of nonresponding 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 about 750 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.