Hispanic Journalists On the Rise p.

By: Debra Gersh

NAHJ survey shows each of the top 57 newspapers polled employed at least one Hispanic staffer in 1992; overall numbers at those papers rose by 27% from 1990
FOR THE FIRST time since the survey began in 1989, all of the top newspapers polled by the National Association of Hispanic Journalists employed at least one Hispanic newsroom staffer in 1992.
Before anyone breaks out the champagne, however, it should be noted that the survey also showed that only 14% of Hispanics employed by the responding newspapers were in managerial positions, accounting for only 2.4% of newspaper managers, and nearly three quarters (74%) of responding newspapers reported newsroom staffs that were less than 5% Hispanic.
Hispanic representation at the top newspapers ? 57 of the top 100 responded to the survey ? increased in 1992 to 634, about 4% of total newsroom personnel, a 27% increase over 1990's 509, or 3% of the total.
The 4% for the top newspapers is higher than the 2.9% for the entire industry, as reported by the American Society of Newspaper Editors.
While racial equality is increasing, sexual disparity continues.
The NAHJ survey ? co-sponsored by the National Council of La Raza and the Hispanic News Media Association of Washington ? found that of the 634 Hispanics employed by the top newspapers in 1992, 62% were men and 38% women, a slight change from the 1991 figure of 61% men and 39% women.
The 57 newspapers participating in the survey reported that they hired 1,047 new employees in 1992, an increase of 26% over 1991. Among those hires, 34% were minorities, a figure virtually unchanged from the 35% in 1991.
Whites still made up the majority (66%) of new staffers at those newspapers. About 12% were Hispanic ? up from 10% in 1991 ? 16% were black and 5.5% were Asian.
The majority (53%) of interns hired by these newspapers in 1992 were minorities, and about 10% of those were Hispanic, according to the survey.
Although they are showing gains, 37% of the newspapers surveyed said they had no hiring goals for minorities, and among the 63% who said they did have such goals, only 11% had a specific target number.
In her analysis of the dearth of Hispanic newspaper managers, newspaper surveyor Zita Arocha noted that efforts to diversify newsrooms have focused on entry-level positions and not on promoting minorities.
Among the reasons for the shortage of Hispanic newsroom managers cited by Arocha were the lack of midcareer and managerial training for all journalists; moving promising, ambitious reporters into editing positions and then discouraging them by not providing training and support; little commitment to diversifying the management team; few Hispanic managers to act as mentors; growing dissatisfaction with the profession among all journalists; and journalism's lack of prestige in Hispanic communities.
The report not only identified problems, it offered solutions.
Among Arocha's suggested strategies were identifying and tracking young Hispanic journalists with management potential and developing individual career plans for them; providing more midcareer and managerial training; placing minorities on the list of candidates for every supervisory opening; sensitizing managers to the importance of diversity; looking beyond the newspaper industry for potential minority journalists; and developing internship programs targeted at Hispanic students in high school and college.
"But regardless of what enlightened measures newspaper companies adopt to promote Hispanics into management," Arocha wrote, "it's up to individual Latinos to take risks by demanding opportunities and by accepting management responsibilities."
The report, "Hispanics in the News Media 1993: No Room at the Top," also looked at the television and radio news industry and at the under-representation of Hispanics enrolled in and teaching at journalism schools.