Percentage of minorities in newspaper newsrooms up p.

By: Debra Gersh

FOR THE FIRST time ever, the percentage of minorities in American newsrooms has hit double-digits.
While the 10.25% projected by the latest American Society of Newspaper Editors survey of minority professionals is still far from reflecting societal percentages, it does show some progress.
The 1993 report, for example, charted the second-largest annual growth since the survey began in 1978. Last year, 9.39% of newsroom employees were minorities, while in 1978, the figure stood at 3.95%.
More than half (55%) of American newspapers employ minority journalists, the first time that figure has accounted for the majority. Last year, it was 49%.
Nevertheless, only 7.1% of minorities in the newsroom are in supervisory positions, with others employed as photographers (12.6%), reporters (11.1%) and copy editors (10.7%).
Nearly a quarter (24.2%) of all first-time hires for newspaper jobs were minorities, up from 22.7% last year, while people of color accounted for 39% of all newsroom interns.
Larger newspapers tend to show the best results in percentage of minority employees, but part of this may be chalked up to retention problems at the smaller papers, which complain that when they do get minority job applicants, those hired are often quickly lured away.
One hundred percent of papers with circulations over 100,000 employed minorities in their newsrooms. As circulation declines, however, so do the minority employees; only 24% of newspapers with circulations 10,000 and under employed people of color.
More than half (59%) of minorities in the newspaper business worked at newspapers with circulations over 100,000, with the remainder (41%) working at newspapers with circulations under 100,000.
The ASNE survey is based on responses from 987 of 1,535 daily newspapers, which are then projected for the entire country.
Included with the statistical report is a list of respondents and the percentage of minorities employed by their newspapers.