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Guild: Gender, Race Pay Gaps Nearly Gone

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In Newsrooms, “Still a Small Tilt in Merit Pay to Men”

Rich Holden, Diversity Champion at Dow Jones, Let Go

Al Jazeera America Lays Off Dozens in Restructuring

White House Press to Honor Black Reporter Once Barred

Obama’s LBJ Speech a Reminder of Gap in Perceived Progress

Anchors “Lock Horns” on Responsibility for Deportations

Lisa Ling to Join CNN in Prime-Time Shakeup

Journalists Meeting Becomes Memorial to Chuck Stone

Short Takes

In Newsrooms, “Still a Small Tilt in Merit Pay to Men”

The pay disparity between men and women that grabbed the attention of the White House and Capitol Hill this week has nearly vanished from newspaper newsrooms, Bernie Lunzer, president of the Newspaper Guild, Communications Workers of America, told Journal-isms on Friday.

“Likely still a small tilt in merit pay to men, but otherwise your statement is correct,” Lunzer said by email. His declaration also referred to differences in pay among the races.

President Obama said Tuesday, “Today, the average full-time working woman earns just 77 cents for every dollar a man earns…in 2014, that’s an embarrassment. It is wrong.” However, Glenn Kessler, who writes the Washington Post “Fact Checker” column, said the figure was suspect.

“The president must begin to acknowledge that ’77 cents’ does not begin to capture what is actually happening in the work force and society,” Kessler wrote Wednesday, citing calculations both above and below 77 cents.

Regardless, Obama signed a memorandum that would prompt federal contractors to disclose what they are paying their employees, and an executive order that would prevent federal contractors from retaliating against employees who choose to discuss their compensation.

On Wednesday, Senate Republicans blocked legislation meant to close the pay gap between men and women. Supporters of the bill, called the Paycheck Fairness Act, “say it would bring transparency to worker pay by making it illegal for employers to penalize employees who discuss their salaries and by requiring the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to collect pay information from employers,” David S. Joachim reported for the New York Times.

In November, the National Women’s Law Center said “the wage gap is even larger for many women of color working full time, year round, as African-American women are paid only 64 cents, and Hispanic women only 54 cents, for every dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men. . . .”

According to Lunzer, those broader statistics are no longer applicable to newsrooms. “The days of women being stuck in features and making less in the scale” are long over,” Lunzer messaged. “So on its face it is likely that most issues of stated compensation probably look fair.

“Where we see merit data, it appears that men still continue to capture more.

“The biggest issues now likely go to hiring and employment generally. That is to say, anecdotally it appears that as newsrooms have lost substantial numbers, those remaining are whiter and more male. Part of that may be related to less part-time work and less flexibility in scheduling, at least when it comes to women who seem to value that more.

“We have committed as a union to not let seniority and layoff provisions hammer diversity. We’re not prepared to let management make all the decisions, but we have bargained language that allows diversity to still be a major consideration.”

Asked what accounted for the closing of that pay gap in newsrooms, Lunzer replied, “Great strides were made in the 70’s and 80’s as regards getting one straight scale for reporters and in many cases that was the same scale for the desk. Prior to that there was a lot of differentiation for features writers and other so-called ‘soft’ news.

“The other major thing to change was the understanding that women could handle any beats that men could handle, even cops. As you look around there have been some truly remarkable women cops’ reporters.”

The Women’s Media Center, which released “The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014” last week, was not as definitive. “We’re not aware of any studies that compare newsroom salaries of men and women,” Julie Burton, president of the center, said through a spokeswoman. “Our Women’s Media Center Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014 report, however, shows that men dominate the media and hold the majority of decision-making positions. Women comprise 36 percent of all newsroom jobs and account for only 34.6 percent of supervisors. It’s unlikely that the media industry is untouched by the gender wage gap. The Women’s Media Center supports all efforts to call attention to equal pay for equal work in all industries.”

Presidents of the journalist of color organizations said they had conducted no studies on compensation or did not respond to an inquiry.

Rich Holden, Diversity Champion at Dow Jones, Let Go

Rich Holden, who for years has helped high school and college journalism students as a teacher and as executive director of the Dow Jones News Fund, was let go by Dow Jones, and his position eliminated, Holden told Journal-isms on Friday.

Holden, 64, had been with the fund since October 1992 and with Dow Jones for 41 years, working for 19 years as an editor at the Wall Street Journal in New York and The Asian Wall Street Journal in Hong Kong.

According to a bio, among his positions at the Journal were copy editor, day news editor, night news editor, copy desk chief, national news production manager, financial editor and senior editor overseeing recruiting, hiring and training. He has served on the advisory boards at schools of communication at Howard University, the University of Arizona, Rutgers University and Lincoln University in Pennsylvania.

The Dow Jones News Fund sends college undergraduate and graduate students to work as sports and news copy editors, multimedia editors and business reporters at news organizations as paid summer interns.

“In this time of Twitter and sound bites, it’s easy to resort to clichés like ‘change maker,’ ” Dori J. Maynard, president of the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, messaged Journal-isms. “In the case of Rich Holden that is not a cliché, it’s a description. Through his work with us, the Dow Jones News Fund and other journalism organizations, Rich truly helped to change the industry. We will miss having a staunch ally at the Dow Jones New Fund, and will always be grateful for the work he did with us.”

Frank O. Sotomayor, a co-founder of the Maynard Institute, added that Holden “has made an immense contribution to U.S. journalism and to increased diversity in the news media. The Maynard Institute was fortunate to have his services as a senior faculty member at the Editing Program for many years. He was a brilliant program teacher and a loyal friend to all. At the News Fund, he supported urban journalism workshops for decades, helped strengthen scholastic journalism and extended the scope of college internship programs. Hundreds of journalists today can trace their start in journalism to Rich and the programs he developed. We salute him and thank him.”

Holden said he was given two weeks’ notice that his job would end on April 1. “There’s a lot of work with organizations that I didn’t have an opportunity to do before,” he said by telephone. “I enjoy working with the kids. We don’t do well, but we do good,” he said of the News Fund. He called the Fund one of the few remaining journalism organizations “that puts an emphasis on minority kids.”

Colleen Schwartz, director of communications for Dow Jones, told Journal-isms by telephone, “We don’t comment about personnel issues. The fund will continue its efforts as strong as they’ve ever been.” Linda Shockley, the fund’s deputy director, will keep her title, Schwartz said.

Evelyn Hsu, senior director, programs and operations at the Maynard Institute, said of Holden by email, “His generosity went beyond the sessions he led on, among other topics, math for journalists. For our program directors and faculty he was a counselor and wise advisor. Nothing flustered him. On top of everything, he would then take everyone out for dinner! I hope Rich will continue to teach and to serve as a mentor to young journalists. Journalism is smarter and more diverse because of him.”

Al Jazeera America Lays Off Dozens in Restructuring

Dozens of staffers were laid off Friday at Al Jazeera America, including Bernie Ritter, a senior producer in the sports department, and Julio Ricardo Varela, a digital producer for the social media program, “The Stream.”

“Al Jazeera America, which launched last August with nearly 850 employees and 12 news bureaus in the United States, has laid off dozens of employees as part of restructuring,” Erik Hayden reported Friday for the Hollywood Reporter. “The channel is disbanding its sports unit and scaling back its social-media-driven show The Stream from a daily show to a once-a-week program.

” ‘The majority of people affected were freelancers and many of the staff either came from the sports group or from The Stream,’ Dawn Bridges, executive vp corporate communications, tells The Hollywood Reporter. . . .”

Neal Scarbrough, hired last summer as senior executive producer for sports programming, told Journal-isms that he was likely to be reassigned. Other surviving sports journalists of color include anchors/reporters Michael Eaves, John Henry Smith and Ross Shimabuku, he said by email.

“Today was a tough one for us as Aljazeera down-shifts its focus on Sports. We assembled a talented and versatile team, and over the last few months they did great work,” he said by email. “This newsroom remains the most diverse environment I have worked in. Today’s story is about a business decision affecting the Sports unit. But going forward good sports stories about diverse subjects will still find their way on air at Aljazeera America.”

Ritter was the only African American among 11 layoffs in sports, Scarbrough said. He called Ritter “a pro’s pro as a producer. He will do great wherever he lands.”

Ritter, who came to Al Jazeera from ESPN, where he was a coordinating producer, messaged Journal-isms, “I am keeping all my options open…I have a sports and news background…but also wouldn’t mind getting into media relations.”

Varela, a founder of the Latino Rebels website, said his only public comment would be his tweet, “To all my @AJAMStream @AJStream family, ¡los quiero mucho! Love you all. #Paz #Peace.”

White House Press to Honor Black Reporter Once Barred

“Harry S. McAlpin made history in February 1944 when he became the first black reporter to cover a presidential news conference at the White House,” Lesley Clark wrote Thursday for the McClatchy newspapers’ Washington Bureau.

“Time magazine and The New York Times noted the milestone. And Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who’d opened the White House doors after entreaties from African-American publishers, greeted the reporter as he made his way over to the president’s desk, telling him, ‘Glad to see you, McAlpin.’

“It was not a sentiment shared by McAlpin’s fellow scribes, members of the White House Correspondents’ Association who for a decade had denied black reporters the opportunity to attend the twice-weekly news conferences in the Oval Office.

“Roosevelt’s invite did nothing to deter them. A member of the association told McAlpin he’d share notes from the news conference with him if he didn’t attend, suggesting that in the crush of reporters moving into the room someone could get hurt.

“McAlpin ‘ever so politely declined the offer,’ and stepping into the White House broke the color barrier, said George Condon, a White House correspondent for the National Journal and a former White House Correspondents’ Association president who’s researching the group’s sometimes-checkered history in celebration of its centennial this year.

“Now, some 70 years after doing all it could to block black reporters, the White House Correspondents’ Association is looking to make amends, dedicating a scholarship for journalism students in McAlpin’s name. McAlpin, who died in 1985, will be honored at the association’s annual scholarship dinner on May 3. . . .”

Obama’s LBJ Speech a Reminder of Gap in Perceived Progress

As President Obama joined three other living presidents in marking the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act Thursday, the Pew Research Center recapped surveys showing a gap in perceptions between African Americans and whites on how much progress has been made toward racial equality.

Obama spoke at the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin, Texas, prompting comparisons between his presidency and Johnson’s.

“The historic legislation sought equal access to employment opportunity, public accommodations, public education and voting rights,” Jens Manuel Krogstad reported for Pew. “A poll conducted six years after the landmark bill became law found signs of perceived improvement: 64% of African Americans said things were ‘getting better’ for most black people compared to four or five years ago, according to a national Harris Survey.

“Fast-forward to August 2013, when just one-in-four blacks (26%) who answered a similar question agree with that statement, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted before the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington. That was down sharply from the 39% who said the same in a 2009 Pew Research survey conducted the year Obama took office as the nation’s first black president.

“In the August 2013 poll, about eight-in-ten blacks (79%) said ‘a lot’ more needed to be done to achieve racial equality, compared with 44% of whites. Some 32% of blacks and 48% of whites said ‘a lot’ of progress had been made toward racial equality over the past 50 years.

“The 2013 poll also came shortly after [the] Trayvon Martin verdict. On July 13, a Florida jury found George Zimmerman, a white Hispanic, not guilty of murder in the shooting death of Martin, an unarmed black teenager. The verdict sparked outrage nationwide. . . .”

Anchors “Lock Horns” on Responsibility for Deportations

“Activists have taken aim at President Obama for the record number of deportations during his administration,” Jordan Fabian wrote Wednesday for the Fusion network. “Is he solely to blame? Or do Republicans in Congress share responsibility? Enrique Acevedo, an anchor on Fusion’s parent network Univision, and KMEX anchor and Fusion host León Krauze took the debate to Twitter. . . . “

Journalists Meeting Becomes Memorial to Chuck Stone

On Tuesday, members of the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists turned the regularly scheduled meeting into a memorial event honoring the legacy of Chuck Stone, the legendary journalist and activist who died Sunday at 89.

“At the end of the memorial event, each member in attendance signed a memorial plaque for Stone, which will be displayed in the newsroom of the Philadelphia Daily News,” where Stone wrote a column from 1972 to 1991. “PABJ plans to memorialize Stone are in progress, including a possible Philadelphia City Council resolution honoring his impact on the city, and a special student journalism challenge & scholarship to be named in his memory,” according to PABJ Prism, a PABJ publication.

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