Dailies: big jump in women

By: Joe Strupp But minority percentage nearly the same, says survey

The percentage of women at daily newspapers continues to grow in the last decade, while minority representation remains nearly unchanged, according to a survey released last week by the Newspaper Association of America (NAA), which showed that 18% of newspaper workers are minority and 43% are women.
The study says that the percentage of minority workers remained nearly the same since 1988, when 16% were minority. But for women, the past 10 years has seen a significant increase from 37% to 43% of the newspaper workforce.
Those numbers compare to a nationwide workforce that is 24% minority and 46% women.
"The newspaper industry has made great strides toward improving the hiring of minorities and women, but there is still much work to be done," says John F. Sturm, NAA president and CEO.
The report follows a similar study released by the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) at its annual conference last month, which reported that minority employment in newsrooms had increased slightly, from 11.46% to 11.55%, during the past year.
The ASNE survey, however, tallied only minority and women journalists, while the NAA report focused on overall newspaper employees in all departments.
The NAA survey, conducted by Belden Associates of Dallas, used questionnaires mailed to publishers and human resource directors of 1,498 daily newspapers nationwide between May 28 and June 1, 1998, according to NAA officials. A total of 322 surveys were completed and returned.
The survey indicated that, among minority groups, African-Americans held the most newspaper positions, with 13%, while Hispanics took 6%, Asians or Pacific Islanders 2%, and American Indians 1%.
Newspapers with larger circulations boasted more minority representation, according to statistics. Dailies with circulation under 10,000 had only 7% minority workers, while those with circulation between 10,000 and 25,000 reported 11% and those with between 25,000 and 50,000 readers had 14% minority workers, the study shows. Newspapers with circulations higher than 50,000 average 27% minorities, while 71% of all minorities work at newspapers with more than 100,000 circulation, the survey says.
Within the newspaper, most minority employees (31%) work in circulation, followed by 28% in production, and 20% in accounting and finance. Information systems average 18% minority, while marketing/promotion/research has 17%, management and administration 16%, advertising 14%, and new media and editorial 12% each.
"If we are to achieve our diversity goals within the industry, we have to focus on the business side, where the majority of employees work," says Toni Laws, NAA senior vice president of diversity.
Although the percentage of women in newspapers has increased from 37% to 43%, the gap between white women, who make up 34%, and black women, at 10%, remains high, the study says.
"The gap between employment of white women and women of color is an area that we will be looking at closely to see if there is an opportunity to develop targeted initiatives," Laws says.
Among newspapers, those with smaller circulations show a higher level of women employees, the study says. Newspapers with circulations under 10,000 average 56% women, while those with circulations between 10,000 and 25,000 report having 52% women; newspapers serving between 25,000 and 50,000 readers have 48% women; and those with circulations of 50,000 or higher employ only 41% women.
The survey also says that 60% of newspapers have specific diversity goals and objectives, a major increase compared to the 27% who reported such goals in 1995. Fifty-six percent have non-discrimination clauses for sexual orientation in personnel policies, up from 22% in 1995, the study shows. Another 21% provide incentives to managers who meet diversity goals, compared to 18% in 1995.

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