• Newspapers must make about 1,300 new minority hires this year to increase newsroom minority employment one percentage point.

• Compared to non-minorities, in general minorities seeking jobs at daily newspapers are less likely to have majored in journalism, taken internships or worked on college papers, and their grade point average is lower than whites’ who apply.

• Newspapers hire similar proportions of the minority and non-minority print journalism majors, even though a slightly lower proportion of minority print journalism majors apply to newspapers for jobs.

Numbers hired. Although the percentage of minorities hired for their first full-time jobs is impressive, the number of first-time-in-the-newsroom minority hires has hovered around 600 — too small to have much impact on the percentage of minorities in the work force as a whole, which now numbers 54,700 journalists. The table below indicates that the net gain in the number of minorities added to the newsroom work force has averaged 220 persons per year and has never exceeded 400. There was no gain at all in 1997.
 
 

At the beginning of 1999, the 55,100 work force includes 6,400 minorities, or 11.55 percent minorities. If the number of minorities were to be increased by one percentage point, to 12.55 percent of the workforce (assuming that the total number of employees remained at 55,100), minority employment would stand at 6,915, a net gain of about 500 minorities.

But to achieve this a one-percentage-point gain, newspapers would have to replace about 760 minorities, who would be expected to leave the newsroom, given the current 12 percent turnover rate in the newsroom. Thus, newsrooms would have to make about 1,300 minority hires during 1999 to raised the level of minority emplyment by one percentage point. To maintain a one-per-centage point increase for 10 years, the newspaper industry would have to hire about 2,000 minorities per year by the year 2010.

What’s happening at journalism schools?

The University of Georgia journalism school surveys indicate that 750 minority print journalism majors graduated in 1997, the most recent year for which data is available, along with about 4,450 non-minority print major graduates.

A greater proportion of minorities are enrolled in broadcast studies than in print journalism. Only 13.1 percent of the 1996-97 minority graduates were print journalism majors, compared to 17.2 percent of the non-minorities. Some 35.4 percent of the minority grads were broadcast majors, compared to 22 percent of the non-minorities. Overall, the best students in terms of grade-point and test-score averages still choose print journalism.

Becker’s data indicate that 24.2 percent of minority grads (all majors) in 1997 sought jobs at newspapers, compared to 19.9 percent of whites. And the data show that six months after graduation 18.9 percent of the minorities who sought work at daily newspapers had not found jobs, while 6.4 percent of the non-minorities who sought work with daily newspapers had not found jobs. At least a part of the explanation is the lower proportion of minority job seekers who majored in print journalism, had internships, or worked on their college newspapers.

An analysis of the data regarding those graduates who sought jobs at daily newspapers indicates that minority grads are less well prepared than non-minorities.

• Nearly half of the non-minorities (47 percent) who sought a daily newspaper job had a newspaper internship, compared to slightly more than a third (35.4 percent) of the minority applicants.

• More than two-thirds (67.2 percent) of the non-minority grads who sought a daily newspaper job had worked for the college newspaper, compared to less than half (44.3 percent) of the minority applicants.

• Nearly half of the non-minorities (49.1 percent) who sought a daily newspaper job were print journalism majors, compared to less than a third (28.2 percent) of the minorities.

Print journalism graduates. Newspapers primarily recruit print journalism majors for newsroom jobs. The University of Georgia data indicate that journalism schools graduated 5,145 print journalism grads in 1997. Of print journalism graduates, 20.6 percent sought daily newspaper jobs in 1997, compared to 24 percent in 1988.

There were 720 minorities among the 5,145 print journalism grads in 1997 (14% of the graduates).

The University of Georgia data indicate that the minority print journalism grads were less well prepared to compete for newspaper jobs than were their white counterparts:

• 57.1 percent of the minorities had taken internships, compared to 62.9 percent of the whites.

• 26.6 percent of the minorities had an A average, compared to 33.7 percent of the whites.

• 63.3 percent of the minorities had worked for a college newspaper, compared to 74.8 percent of the whites.

• 77.8 percent of the minority print journalism graduates who were offered a job at a daily newspaper had taken an internship, compared to 79.1 percent of the whites.

• 16.6 percent of the minorities had an A average, compared to 35.6% of the whites.

• 66.7 percent of the minorities had worked for a college newspaper, compared to 84.3 percent of the whites.

Six to eight months after graduation, however, white graduates from the class of 1997 were somewhat more likely to be employed at a daily newspaper than were minorities (27.2 percent of the whites, compared to 24.2 percent of the minorities). Possible explanations are (1) fewer minorities than whites accepted offers from daily newspapers; or (2) minorities left their positions sooner than whites.

These statistics support former ASNE diversity director Veronica Jennings’ impression that many of the minority juniors and seniors she met at the ASNE job fairs lack strong experience as interns or in the collegiate press. Many come from schools that have scarce resources. Campus newspapers in many instances are not published on a regular basis. Part of the problem may be that no one guides the students regarding the importance of internships and how to get them.

Salaries. Newsroom salaries are often criticized, and starting salaries for first-time hires are indeed low. However, Becker’s study indicates that starting salaries at newspapers are higher than starting salaries in broadcast (but lower than in public relations and substantially lower than for those working in the Web environment). Becker’s salary information is obtained from students themselves, but the averages are consistent year to year, suggesting reliability.

The current median starting salary is $20,000 (1997 dollars), according to the Becker survey. Here’s a comparison of 1997 median salaries, as reported by the graduates themselves:
 

Thus median starting salaries in daily newspapers are higher (12 percent) than starting salaries in television. The starting pay in daily newspapers, however, is only 7 percent higher than the starting salaries in weekly newspapers.
 
 

Some initiatives that the industry and ASNE might consider….

Continue and expand ASNE job fairs and journalism short courses at colleges and universities. These programs are well received by everyone who participates in them.

Generate career information and guidance for students. As journalism credibility has suffered in recent years, so likely has the luster of journalism as a career. Many minority students may not understand the limited job opportunities available in broadcast, as indicated by the significant number of minority grads who seek newspaper jobs after they have majored in broadcast. ASNE’s Institute for Journalism Excellence, funded by the Knight Foundation, is exposing about 20 educators each year to current newsroom realities. The educators who participate shed their outdated concepts about newspapers. Many come to the program pessimistic about the future of newspapers and with outdated concepts about the excitement and rewards of newspaper journalism today. Oftentimes negative or obsolete attitudes rub off on students. Journalism faculty oftentimes underestimate the interest of young people in newspapers.

NAA distributes a career guide, about 10,000 copies a year. In 1999, the press run was increased to 15,000 copies. The main method of distribution is through newspapers. Member newspapers can purchase copies at $1 each ($2 each for non-members) and distribute them to local students. Or they may purchase the text of the brochure on CD-ROM ($50) and reprint it as they choose, perhaps as a tabloid insert in the paper. NAA makes copies available free to the ASNE/NAA job fairs. The extra 5,000 copies will be distributed to students through NAA’s professional affilation groups.

Examine and fine-tune scholarship and work-related programs. ASNE’s experience was that simply giving out scholarships may not have much impact on increasing the flow of young talent into newspapers. (The minority journalism associations have had similar experience with their own scholarship programs.) ASNE operated a scholarship program for about six years. The Society awarded about $50,000 a year in relatively small scholarships — $750, one-time only. ASNE awarded scholarships to high school graduates who were entering college. The Society wanted to send the message to young minorities that newspapers were interested in hiring them. Information was distributed to some 35,000 high schools, and the program may have had some effect in letting high school guidance counselors know of newspapers’ interest in minorities. Most of the ASNE scholarship winners had demonstrable interest in newspaper careers and journalism when they entered college as freshmen, but, unfortunately, somehow about half of them changed their mind by the time they graduated and went to work. Some scholarship programs today are tying scholarship aid to commitments to work in journalism. However, a group of high school students attending the 1998 Journalism Education Association convention in Washington in November expressed doubt that they would want to accept a scholarship that required making a career choice early in their academic careers.

Develop the student press, particularly at the high school level, to suggest the idea of journalism as a career. The student press has been weakened by recent court decisions and to some extent, journalism education at the high school level has been marginalized by the "back to basics" movement. The ASNE/Freedom Forum Student/Press Partners program has been well received both by the schools and the newspapers that have participated. This shows the way to reach a big number of young people with a relatively modest budget.

Expand the collegiate press, particularly at the HBCs. Students coming out of HBCs have limited opportunities to get experience on college newspapers because some schools simply don’t have student papers.

Change the way that newspapers recruit. If the current career path of moving from smaller newspapers to larger newspapers continues, bigger newspapers will be recruiting from a work force that is 89 percent white and barely becoming more diverse. Thus a major shift in hiring patterns on the part of newspapers, and perhaps change in the expectations of newsroom employees about their career paths, may be necessary if newspapers are to increase their progress in diversifying the newsroom. Among the possible courses of action are to rethink hiring practices, especially among mid-sized and larger newspapers. Some experiments at the Dayton (Ohio) Daily News and The Washington Post have been reported recently in The American Editor. These projects involve alternative approaches to hiring: tacking local minorities from high school through college and recruiting them to go to work in their newsrooms and recruiting mature workers from other fields.

Tighter job market. The job market was tighter for all employers: 78 percent of the ’97 graduates had at least one job offer on graduation, compared to 56 percent in 1988. In 1997, 81.6 percent had a job six to eight months after graduation, compared to75.9 percent in 1991. Among news/editorial graduates, 7.8 percent had a job six to eight months after graduation, while that figure was 77.1 percent in 1991.

Broadcast majors were competing for fewer jobs than print-journalism majors: there were nearly three professional journalism jobs at daily newspapers for every one job in broadcast stations (network and news service jobs not included). There are 54,700 full-time journalism positions in the newsrooms of daily newspapers, compared to 22,000 full-time jobs at TV and radio stations, according to data collected by the Radio Television News Directors Association. The radio/TV count includes clerical and technical staff, while the newspaper newsroom data do not.