Diversity Figures Prompt Call for New Approach
“Editors are increasing their hiring and retention of minority journalists at a time when diversity in the U.S. grows at historic rates. But newsrooms are not changing quickly enough for the industry to achieve its goal of parity of newsrooms with their communities by 2025,” the American Society of Newspaper Editors reported today.
“The number of full-time journalists working at daily newspapers continues to fall while the number of minority journalists inched up nearly a half of a percentage point to 13.42 percent in 2004. Since the economic downturn of 2001, newsrooms have lost a net of more than 2,200 journalists while the number of minority journalists has increased.”
From 2001 to 2005, “Newsrooms added a net of 365 Asians, 259 Latinos but only 46 Native Americans and 34 African Americans.”
However, in a year of buyouts and other staff reductions, the number of white men fell by a net 1,744 or 5.5 percent, and the number of white women declined 1,230, or 6.8 percent.
Responding to the figures, Mae Cheng, president of Unity: Journalists of Color, said in a statement, ?It is clear that ASNE will not reach its goal of achieving parity in the newsroom by 2025 as long as this remains an institutional goal and not a personal one for its hundreds of members.
?For this reason, UNITY is asking each ASNE member to personally accept the challenge of improving diversity in his or her newsroom,? Cheng continued. ?Editors need to make this a priority, perhaps even taking the dramatic step of making a majority of their hires over the next year qualified people of color to begin to finally move that needle.?
Milton Coleman, chair of the ASNE Diversity Committee, said in ASNE’s statement, ?The rainbow of newsroom diversity has become so much richer, with the increases among Asians, Hispanics and Native Americans. This is good. At the same time, the trend among black journalists is increasingly worrisome, as the numbers have grown only marginally. The trend is disturbing. We need to figure out what’s going wrong and address it immediately.?
The Unity partners also had their say:
- “The industry cannot be satisfied with this sluggish level of progress,? said Bryan Monroe, vice president-print of the National Association of Black Journalists. ?At the current rate, for editors to meet their parity goal, they must double not just their efforts, but their results.? ?Our student membership has doubled over the last five years,? said NABJ President Herbert Lowe. ?I don?t buy the argument that you can?t find talent out there. The editors just aren?t trying hard enough.?
- ?We call on the industry to work closer with each UNITY organization,? said Veronica Villafañe, president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. ?This is why NAHJ created the Parity Project two years ago and is proud of its success. We believe by creating true partnerships with media outlets, we can help the industry achieve the rapid results needed to reach parity by 2025.?
- “Until there is parity in the newsrooms — both in the workforce and in the decision-makers — we risk missing stories and missing readers,” said Esther Wu, president of the Asian American Journalists Association. “Having a diverse staff means bringing in different voices, creating a deeper understanding and connection into communities that are all too often overlooked.?
- “Many of our students don?t attend the big journalism schools and don?t enter the traditional internship programs,? said Dan Lewerenz, president of the Native American Journalists Association. ?They?re no less talented, and they?re no less dedicated ? they?re simply harder to find. That means editors need to be willing to look beyond the comfort of the familiar J-schools and internship programs if they’re going to recruit talented young Native journalists.?
In a separate statement, Lewerenz said, “ASNE points out that [the current number is] 46 more Native journalists than were identified in the 2001 survey. However, what they don’t say is that this is a decrease from last year’s 313 Native journalists, the highest number yet recorded in the survey.
“More troubling than the immediate drop is a fluctuation in the numbers that seems to indicate either an unwillingness or an inability of U.S. newspapers to retain Native journalists.
“The number of American Indian journalists working at U.S. newspapers, according to the ASNE surveys: 2005 — 295; 2004 — 313; 2003 — 289; 2002 — 307; 2001 — 249; 2000 — 292; 1999 — 241; 1998 — 256.
“These figures can only be discouraging to the growing number of Indian youth who see viable careers in the news.”
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BET Replacing “Nightly News” With Hourly Updates
Black Entertainment Television announced today it is ending “BET Nightly News” and replacing it with one-minute news briefs from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m.
The changes were portrayed today as “more fast-paced and primetime access to the major news of the day” at the network?s annual Upfront presentation to advertisers, media buyers and industry watchers to advertisers in New York.
The announcement completes a series of reductions in BET’s regular news and public affairs programming that accelerated at the end of 2002, when it canceled “Lead Story,” “BET Tonight With Ed Gordon” and “Teen Summit.”
The “BET Nightly News” average viewership fluctuated between 250,000 and 500,000 per night, depending on its lead-in, BET spokesman Michael Lewellen told Journal-isms. But, he said, “this is less about ratings and more about revamping the delivery method,” based on viewer research.
?Strategically, this new approach strengthens our news product by responding directly to the changing needs and preferences of BET viewers,? said Debra Lee, BET president and chief operating officer, in a news release.
?This includes placement of news throughout the day and in primetime, instead of limiting it to the usual late-night timeslot. We?re also going to take greater advantage of our BET.com asset which continues to be the most influential point of Internet access for African Americans. When combined with plans to expand our news specials, we?ll have news programming that?s fast, flexible, accessible and timely. There are other news coverage options at our disposal which we?re also considering, including the possibility of a weekend news magazine or analysis show.?
?News and Public Affairs have always been historically important parts of the BET lineup, and have earned numerous awards over the years. But it?s now time to enhance our delivery of that product in a way that?s more engaging,? added BET Founder and CEO Robert L. Johnson in the release. ?By no means is this a lessening of our news commitment, but instead an improvement of our overall news offering.?
Lewellen said the changes would take effect at the end of the summer and that the current “BET Nightly News” staff would be reassigned at BET and CBS, which like BET is a Viacom subsidiary.
BET Cancels Its Nightly News Program (David Bauder, Associated Press)
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