Last Updated: June 29, 1999
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ASNE on
the move
The number of minority journalists working at daily newspapers crept
up only slightly in 1998, increasing 1.5 percent. Asian, black, Hispanic
and Native American journalists now comprise 11.55 percent of newsroom
employees, compared to 11.46 percent the previous year, according to the
1999 newsroom employment survey.
This year ASNE counted women for the first time and found that they
comprise 36.88 percent of the newsroom staffs of daily papers. Some 34
percent of newsroom supervisors are women.
According to the survey, the newsroom work force grew to 55,100 in 1998,
up from 54,700. The number of minority journalists working at the nation’s
dailies rose slightly to 6,365, from 6,270 last year and 6,100 in the previous
year.
“We wish that the number of minorities in newsrooms had increased more,”
said 1998-99 ASNE president Edward L. Seaton, editor-in-chief of The Manhattan
(Kan.) Mercury. “Newspapers can’t do business as usual any more if they
hope to present an accurate report of the increasingly diverse communities
they serve.”
The 21st annual ASNE newsroom employment census tracks overall newsroom
employment and the representation of minority journalists.
Major findings:
Racial/ethnic groups: Asian American journalists comprise 2.29
percent of all the journalists in newsrooms (totaling 1,265); blacks: 5.36
percent (totaling 2,955); Hispanics: 3.46 (totaling 1,905), and Native
Americans: 0.44 percent (totaling 240). The number of Asian American journalists
rose in 1998 while the number of blacks, Hispanics and Native American
journalists remained virtually unchanged.
Internships and first-time hires: The number of minority interns
and first-time hires basically remained unchanged, although the overall
percentages declined. Of the interns hired in 1998, 31.3 percent were minorities,
compared to 33.3 percent the previous year. The highest proportion of interns
was in 1991, at 39.6 percent. The percentage of first-time full-time hires
who are minorities fell to 18.7 from 21.5 percent last year.
Newspapers with no minorities: The number of newspapers employing
no minorities continues to decline. Of the newspapers participating in
the survey, 40 percent had no minority staffers compared to 42 percent
last year.
Circulation: The majority of minority journalists continue to
be clustered at large papers. Sixty-three percent of minority newspaper
journalists work at papers of more than 100,000 circulation.
WOMEN
Women on daily newspaper staffs total 20,325 of which 2,920 - 14 - percent
are minorities.
Job categories: 22 percent of the women in newsrooms are supervisors
while 21 percent are copy editors, 49 percent reporters and 8 percent photographers.
As for men: 25 percent are supervisors, 18 percent are copy editors, 44
percent reporters and 13 percent photographers.
Circulation categories: Women tend to be about 40 percent of
newsroom staffs in both large and small newspapers. Women are more often
found in papers with less than 10,000 circulation. Here women are 43 percent
of the staffs.
Of the newspapers participating in the survey, 2.3 percent had no women
newsroom staffers. These are all newspapers with a circulation of 10,000
or less.
In a mission statement that ASNE adopted last fall, ASNE’s board challenged
newspapers to improve minority hiring and retention so that newsrooms would
reflect the general population by 2025 or earlier. The Society calls for
benchmarks to check progress in three-year increments.
The new mission statement came 20 years after ASNE set the Year 2000
goal, which challenged newspapers to achieve diversity in their newsrooms
equivalent to the U.S. minority population by the year 2000 or sooner.
Currently, minorities represent about 26 percent of the total population,
according to the U.S. Census.
Census procedures
For the 1999 ASNE newsroom employment census, 958 of 1,456 daily newspapers
responded to the survey, representing 65.8 percent of all U.S. dailies.
The 1999 census is based on employment data reported by daily newspapers
as of Jan. 1, 1999.
The survey information is projected to reflect all daily newspapers
in the country. Editors participating in the survey agreed to publish the
percentage of newsroom employees who are minorities.
The data from newspapers that returned the survey are used to project
the numbers for non-responding newspapers in the same circulation range.
In the past, ASNE has resurveyed non-responding newspapers and found their
employment of minorities closely resemble 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.
