Retention in focus after diversity drops

ASNE to take a hard look at why, during a strong year of hiring for new minority journalists, more minorities left the newsroom than entered it

By LaBarbara Bowman

We are victims of talent theft. Talented journalists are leaving newsrooms at a time when the best and brightest reporters, editors, and copy editors are the hardest to replace. We are paying in money and accuracy.

The number of minority journalists working at daily newspapers fell from 6,665 to 6,563 in the past year even though newsrooms hired more first full-time minority professionals in 2000 than in any of the past 10 years.

The overall decline in minority numbers — from 11-85 percent to 11.64 percent — was the first in the 23 years The American Society of Newspaper Editors has conducted its annual census of newsroom employment. The principal reason: an unusually large number of minority journalists left newsrooms.

“It is not rocket science. It’s about treating people well, treating them with care, with sensitivity, with respect,” said Gregory Favre, recently retired vice president, news, The McClatchy Co.

“It’s about helping them learn and grow. It’s about trust and about understanding that giving goes both ways. It’s about meeting expectations and keeping promises and celebrating successes, even the small ones. It’s about not being afraid to invest emotionally in people,” said Favre, who is now the Distinguished Fellow in Journalism Values at Poynter Institute.

The ASNE board has launched a multiyear initiative to study newsroom management and practices as they relate to retention. The first step will be to conduct quantitative research this year to establish why minorities are leaving; whether their reasons for leaving differ from whites, and whether or not certain actions and behaviors by top and middle managers can help create a working environment more conducive to attracting and retaining minorities.

Results of the research will be reported to next year’s convention and will be the basis for development of a plan to help newspapers increase retention of minorities.

“This research will help us understand the concerns and issues that may be pushing minorities out of the business,” said Carolina Garcia, managing editor of the San Antonio Express-News and this year’s diversity committee chair. “We also hope that it will help us develop strategies as an industry and as individual newsrooms on how to keep the best and brightest minority staff.”

Retention Measurement

Editors hired nearly 600 minority journalists into their first full-time newsroom job in 2000, the fourth highest number of new hires since ASNE started keeping this number and highest since the 1991 census. But at year’s end, 698 minority journalists had left.

“Since 1994, newspaper journalists of color have left the industry at nearly twice the rate of white journalists,” according to Newsroom Diversity, Meeting the Challenge, a report issued by the Freedom Forum in April 2000. “Among journalists of color the annual average departure rate since 1994 has been 7 percent, compared with 4 percent among whites,” according to the report.

Why did recruiting get so tough?

Shrinking workforce of young workers. Within four years, for the first time in American history, older people will OUTNUMBER younger people by 813,000. By 2020 that gap will jump to 16,377,000 more older people than younger ones, according to the U.S. Census.

The numbers are as follows:

(in thousands)

2004 2020

20-29= 37,420 42,867

55-69= 38,233 59,244

Aging Baby Boomers. Baby Boomers who have kept newsrooms awash in talent since the 1970s start retiring in 2011 if not before. They start turning 59 in 2005. The bulk of Generation Y is now in elementary school so it will be 10-12 years before we see a large infusion of workers into the labor market.

Small Gen X. birthrates fell in the late ‘60s and early 1970’s. If people aren’t born, they can’t work for us 20-25 years later. In 1990, 18 to 24 year olds represented 10.6 percent of the population. In 1999 they fell to 9.4 percent and will remain there in 2004.

25-34 year olds, in 1990 were 17.4 percent of the population. They fell to 14.8 percent in 1999 and will remain there in 2004.

Historically low unemployment rates. The unemployment rate in April rose to 4.5 percent from 4.3 percent in March, The rate had been in the range of 3.9 to 4.1 percent from the fall of 1999 until the end of 2000. The unemployment rate hit a 30-year low of 3.9% in April 2000.

The new career theme: change jobs often. John Epperheimer, a former San Jose Mercury News editor turned consultant on workplace issues, says there is more to turnover than a worker shortage. It is symptomatic of a basic change in the relationship between workers and employers, according to an April 2000 story in Editor & Publisher.

“We obviously have to do a better job in the industry when it comes to retention. I believe a critical first step is communication between managers and employees to understand what is expected by management and what is desired by the employees,” said Phil Currie, Gannett’s vice president/news.

“The follow-up has to be to help meet those expectations in an effective and realistic way.”

Cost of turnover

On average, hiring a new employee costs about four times the amount of the departing worker’s salary, according to David Teplow, founder and president of Employal of Weston, MA. in a May 2000 story in Presstime Magazine entitled: It’s cheaper to keep them.”

Direct costs: advertising and recruiting.

Indirect costs: time spent on interviews and negotiations, increased work for other employees, employee separation activities — conducting exit interviews, processing termination, discussing failed counter-offers.

For newspapers it can also mean a reduction in accuracy because new employees must get to know the community, issues, the players, the towns and the streets.

Beverly Kaye and Sharon Jordan-Evans, in their book Love ‘Em or Lose ‘Em put the cost of replacing key people at 70 to 200 percent of the person’s annual salary.

Why do people leave?

Lack of opportunities. Lack of training. Lack of appreciation. That’s according to Fernando A. Fleites, Gannett Co. vice president of human-resources development.

The root cause of much of this: Bad managers.

“Talented employees need great managers. The talented employee may join a company because of its charismatic leaders, its generous benefits and its world-class training programs, but how long that employee stays and how productive he is while he is there is determined by his relationship with his immediate supervisor.” First Break All the Rules, Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman.

Buckingham and Coffman based this conclusion on in-depth interviews by the Gallup organization of over 80,000 managers in over 400 companies.

The diversity issue

“If we have people of color in management, and they express a view that differs from the standard newsroom views shaped initially and still most often in a white, male culture, then that view should be heard and, often, acted upon,” said Currie of Gannett.

“If a person makes suggestions that are only listened to politely and never followed up on, it won’t be long before that person will look for and move to a different environment.”

Bowman is ASNE’s diversity director.