Job Satisfaction of Minority Journalists at U.S. Daily Newspapers
By Edward C. Pease (©1991)
Doctoral Dissertation
E.W Scripps School of Journalism
Ohio University • Athens, Ohio
CHAPTER 5—Changing Demographics of the Newsroom
A new generation of newspeople is joining the ranks of older, predominantly white newsmen. As in the larger society, some friction is an inevitable result as new perspectives are added to old.
The goal of this study is to explode some misconceptions and to confirm some hunches about journalists of color in American newspaper newsrooms. Among those misconceptions, that minority journalists give up on the business more readily than do their white counterparts (they don’t). Among the hunches, that minority journalists are more ambitious than their white co-workers in their goals to move into top management of newspapers (they are). One look at industry employment figures, and it seems clear that journalists of color must be slipping through the cracks somewhere; ask any newsroom manager – “We just can’t keep them.” Fact is, minority journalists do leave their newspapers more regularly than white journalists, but not to leave the business. They’re anxious to move up the ladder, and take advantage of their market value to climb as quickly as they can.
Twice over the past two decades, scholars have embarked on major national studies in attempts to draw pictures of the “typical” American journalist. Both Johnstone’s seminal “news people” study in 1971,1 and Weaver and Wilhoit’s update a decade later2 provided exhaustive profiles of “typical” journalists and their demographic, attitudinal, personal and professional characteristics. Both works acknowledged up-front that journalists – like people – are too diverse to generalize, but then proceeded to do so. Perhaps the best “truth” that either effort revealed was the statement in Johnstone’s final report that “journalists come from the established and dominant cultural groups in society.”3 That is – in America, at least – journalists are white and predominantly male, a conclusion that should not have required any great exertions of research.
Both Johnstone and then Weaver and Wilhoit not only confirmed that “truth” about journalism in America but drew benchmarks against which to measure later news people as well. What neither previous study did, however, was to examine in any great detail the changing demographic character of American news people, and how their increasingly diverse social and ethnic characteristics were changing American newsrooms. In the early 1970s, there were few nonwhite journalists to examine4 – not surprising that the Johnstone team found that newsrooms reflected the power structure. In the early 1980s, changes had started in the hiring of journalists of color, but they were few.
This study of the American newspaper journalist in the 1990s, like both Johnstone’s and Weaver and Wilhoit’s, draws on a national sample of journalists to examine not only who they are, but what organizational and social pressures shape their professional lives. Neither previous study could evaluate to any great degree the impact of an increasingly diverse American population on the journalistic workforce and product, nor how factors of ethnicity played in newsrooms from Peoria to Pasadena. This study, while not attempting the kind of complete demographic profile of American newspeople that was the core of the two earlier works, has as its goal an understanding of the attitudes of newspaper journalists toward their work and their careers. Further, this study, while comparable in some aspects to the earlier two, seeks more fundamentally to examine and evaluate how the newspaper workplace accommodates a workforce more representative of the diverse society in which newspapers function.
If, as the Johnstone study concluded, news and newspaper content is “ultimately what newsmen make it,”5 then an understanding of how news and newspapers in America are changing may be gauged by how those “newsmen” have evolved in the 1990s. Many of newspeople of the 1990s are quite different from those of the 1970s and even the 1980s; America’s new newspeople are joining the ranks of the older, predominantly white, newsmen, and – as in the larger society – some friction is an inevitable result as new perspectives are added to old.
WHO THEY ARE: Characteristics of newspaper journalists in the ’90s
In the early 1980s, the “typical” U.S. journalist was a married white Protestant male, 32 years old and politically middle-of-the-road;6 but Weaver and Wilhoit acknowledged the limited usefulness of such a description. A similar listing of characteristics might be made of the “average” newspaper journalist participating in this study, but why? Many U.S. newspaper newsrooms have changed radically over the past decade, as women and people of color have joined the white males who still dominate the industry, but many other newsrooms haven’t changed much at all. In 1991, 52 percent of all American newspapers still employ no minorities on their news staffs; other newsrooms, however, contain great ethnic diversity.7 Averaging the characteristics of all newspaper newspeople would yield an unappetizing and generally useless pudding; this study, while reporting in numerical terms who U.S. newspaper journalists are, is more interested in examining what they think and how the perceptions of the new generation of newspaper journalist may clash with those of the old.
The 1,328 respondents in this study work for a randomly selected sample of daily newspapers ranging in average weekday circulation from 55,000 to well over 1.3 million and employing from 44 to more than 800 newsroom journalists. Scores of other newspapers all over the country are represented through responses to mailings to a random sample from the membership lists of the four major minority journalist associations. As described in the “Methods” chapter, beyond the scientifically random sample of both white and nonwhite respondents drawn from the 27 daily newspapers surveyed, extra efforts were made to augment the number of minorities in the study to get a fuller and deeper understanding of the attitudes of journalists of color in American newsrooms. For this reason, the proportion of minority respondents in this study – about one-third – is considerably higher than in either the newspaper industry or the U.S. population.
Table 5 describes the racial profile of this study’s respondents. About two-thirds of respondents are white, 15 percent are black, almost 10 percent Asian American and 8 percent Hispanic or Latino. Less than 1 percent of respondents are Native Americans.
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TABLE 5: Survey Respondents by Race
All African Hispanic/ Asian Native
White Nonwhite American Latino American American Total
Number 871 500 197 106 131 12 1317
% of minorities -- 100 44.2 23.8 29.4 2.7
% of total 66.1 15.0 66.1 8.0 9.9 0.9 100%
N=1317; Missing = 11
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In all other demographic characteristics, these respondents are reflective of industry averages.8 Almost 40 percent are women; three are younger than 21 and a handful are over 65, but almost half are in their 30s. A few had just started their newsroom careers and others have been in newspapers three decades or more, but almost 40 percent have 10 to 20 years in the business. Almost 50 percent are reporters, a bit below the national norm.9
These results also show that the newsroom population of the 1990s is much more highly educated than in the past. Almost all of respondents – 92 percent – graduated from college, up sharply from earlier industry figures and the findings of the 1970s and 1980s studies.10 Nearly three of every five college graduates in the current study is a journalism major and 16 percent also completed graduate degrees.
Journalists’ Age, Gender & Race
When Weaver and Wilhoit profiled U.S. journalists in 1982-83, women made up barely one-third of the newsroom and less than 4 percent were minorities.11 As Johnstone had pointed out 11 years earlier, those who control society’s mass communications tend to share the social power structure’s resistance to the assimilation of minorities.12 Although newsrooms – and certainly publishers’ offices and corporate newspaper boardrooms – still tend to reflect the white power structure in the 1990s, some perceptible and measurable changes in both personnel and attitudes now are at work in American newspapers. The proportion of women in the newsroom has risen by about 10 percent in the past decade, and the percentage of minorities in the newsroom has about doubled since 1982.13 With these demographic shifts come attitudinal changes and pressures on the status quo both in the newsroom and society to approach many things differently.
Not only are more of newspaper staffs in the 1990s women, but they’re also still a lot younger than the national average; in 1991, the Daily Planet of Superman fame has a lot more Jimmy Olsons than Perry Whites, or even Clark Kents, for that matter. In 1982-83, Weaver and Wilhoit prompted some concern in the industry with their finding that the proportion of young journalists – 25 to 34 – was growing at nearly twice the national average while the number of journalists over 45 was dropping sharply.14 The concern was that the industry was losing some of its best personnel, who were leaving the profession after about 20 years to pursue more lucrative and less stressful occupations.
As Tables 6, 7 and 8 show, this trend identified in the early ’80s continues into the ’90s. In 1982-83, almost 45 percent of American journalists were between 25 and 34 years old15; today, 42.5 percent of newspaper journalists are 26 to 35. And the sharp drop-off of journalists after their mid-40s found in the earlier study seems to be repeated here; one of every five newspaper journalists in 1991 is in his or her 40s, but just one in 14 is 50-something.
Newspapering has long been known as a young-person’s game, for a number of good reasons. “The pay is bad, the hours are lousy and it’s very stressful,” an Asian American female metro reporter in her early 30s said. “It’s good early career for young adults, a fun way to make a living during your adventurous 20s.” Apparently many journalists find in their 40s – as a white male desk editor in his early 40s commented on this survey – “It’s not for the faint-hearted.”
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TABLE 6: Respondent age and race
Whites Minorities All
<21 n="1304;" x2="90.438;" p=".0000" style="font-weight: bold;">TABLE 7: Journalists’ ages by gender and race, in percentages
All White Black Latino Asian Totals
M F M F M F M F M F N %
>21 0.3 -- -- -- 1.0 -- -- 1.0 -- -- 2 0.2
21-25 4.5 8.8 14.3 7.1 11.9 8.3 5.3 13.3 11.1 14.9 82 6.3
26-30 15.1 23.1 11.8 17.9 19.8 31.3 34.2 20.0 14.3 35.8 237 18.2
31-35 22.2 28.0 20.8 27.7 24.8 27.1 22.4 30.0 30.2 29.9 317 24.3
36-40 22.5 22.1 42.8 22.7 22.8 22.9 17.1 30.0 27.0 11.9 291 22.3
41-49 22.3 13.3 26.0 17.2 12.9 10.4 15.8 3.3 12.7 4.5 248 19.0
50-59 9.5 2.9 11.6 4.1 5.0 -- 3.9 3.3 4.8 1.5 91 7.0
60+ 3.4 1.4 4.5 2.0 2.0 -- -- -- -- 1.5 35 2.7
Totals 799 489 558 296 101 96 76 30 63 67 1288
% 62.0 38.0 43.3 23.0 7.8 7.5 5.9 2.3 4.9 5.2
N=1304; Missing observations = 24
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Even at the largest American newspapers, where one would assume more experience would be needed to land jobs, the percentage of minority journalists under 30 is two-and-a-half times that of whites (see Table 8). On reflection, however, it may not be so surprising that so many young minority journalists already work for larger U.S. dailies. Most of whatever recent progress has been made in the recruitment and hiring of journalists of color in American newspapers has been led by the country’s biggest dailies.
Overall, young journalists dominate the business, especially at the smaller papers. One-third of the newsroom staffs in the smallest circulation category – 50,000 to 100,000 – are under 30, compared to 16.5 percent at the papers in the largest circulation category. And when race is taken into account, a wider gap appears, as Table 8 shows; the percentage of minority staffers under age 30 at all circulation levels is about twice that of whites. At the 50,000-to-100,000 level, for instance, half of all minority journalists are 30 or younger, compared to 29 percent of whites; at the 500,000-plus circulation level, 23 percent of minorities are 30 or younger, compared to less than 10 percent of whites.
TABLE 8
At the other end of the age scale are white journalists, primarily males. Minority journalists, since they are younger, are more likely to occupy the lower rungs of the newsroom hierarchical ladder, while white journalists – particularly men – are more likely entrenched in more senior positions, a sure formula for frustration and resentment.
Newsroom Jobs & Departments
Table 9 shows the break-down of respondents into five newsroom job categories. About half of these journalists are reporters, below the national norm of 57 percent,16 but the proportions in other job categories are in line with the most recent other industry figures.17 Within these categories, minorities are more likely to be reporters; whites are more likely to be supervisors and desk editors. The “Other” classification includes graphics, library and systems and miscellaneous other newsroom jobs. About 35 percent of all newsroom staff work in the general news-editorial department, and the proportion of whites and nonwhites here is about even, although the minority proportion in the city/metro department is significantly higher (see Table 10).
TABLE 9
Whites dominate in the sports and features departments. The “Other” newsroom departments include business and wire desks, special projects and other specialty reporting departments, newsroom systems and library.
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TABLE 10: Newsroom departments by race, in percentages
Whites Minorities Total
News-Editorial 35.0 37.0 377 35.6%
City/Metro desk 12.7 22.2 167 15.8%
State-Region 1.4 1.2 14 1.3%
Editorial Page 3.1 3.5 34 3.2%
Sports 12.7 8.7 121 11.4%
Features 14.0 6.1 121 11.4%
Photo 7.6 8.5 83 7.8%
Graphics 3.9 2.9 38 3.6%
Other* 11.1 11.1 117 11.1%
Totals 715 343 1058
% 67.2% 32.2%
N=1058; X2=30.21; d.f.=7; p=.0002; Missing = 270
* Other category includes business, specialty beats, systems, library, etc.
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Patterns of who’s doing what job and at what level become clearer in Tables 11 and 12, however, which break down newsroom positions and departments by both race and gender. Table 11 also indicates that women in the newsroom are most likely to be reporters or copy editors, as are minorities (see Table 9). Although these positions are certainly essential to the newspaper’s function – the foot soldiers of the daily press – they may also be positions relatively low in prestige, pay and power. More than two-thirds of all newspaperwomen occupy these jobs, compared to 58 percent of all newspapermen. Combining gender and race variables further widens this gap – three-quarters of African American women, 97 percent of Latino women and 78 percent of Asian American women are reporters or copy editors, compared to 57 percent of white men.
TABLES 11 & 12
ASNE reports that 85 percent of newsroom executives are male; 96 percent are white.18 This survey confirms this well-established fact, that white men have the supervisory jobs, although there are high proportions of Latino and Asian men as desk editors. As Table 12 indicates, the sports department is male – dominated by both white and black men, there are practically no women. The features department is female, with women – especially white women – outnumbering men three-to-one. A large proportion of minorities and white women work in the metro department, the front-line troops in local and community news coverage and general assignment. Many Asian American men are photographers.
Many of these patterns hold true across circulation levels, as Tables 13 and 14 show, although job distributions between whites and nonwhites is fairly even at the largest newspapers (see Table 13). At the smaller papers especially – 50,000 to 100,000 – whites hold the vast majority of desk and supervisory jobs, as they do at the 250,000 to 500,000 level. Table 14 reinforces the impression of the sports and features departments as very much dominated by whites across all circulation levels, despite the indication in Table 13 that more equity in job classification seems to exist at the largest papers in the sample; high percentages of nonwhites continue to occupy rank-and-file reporting positions in the general news and metro departments, especially at larger papers.
TABLES 13 & 14
“Job-Hopping” and Newspaper Career Length
Since white males in the newsroom tend to be older, it comes as no surprise that many of the newcomers to newspaper journalism are people of color. When the Institute for Journalism Education undertook the first comprehensive examination of issues affecting retention of minority journalists in 1984-85, one of the bits of conventional wisdom the study debunked was that minority journalists were “notorious job-hoppers.” That “wisdom” had ascribed minority journalists’ lack of upward mobility within newspaper organizations to the fact that, as a group, they tended to change jobs more often than whites, and so had less seniority when promotions came around. Minority respondents in IJE’s “Quiet Crisis” study, in fact, had worked for fewer newspapers, on average, than had the study’s white respondents. An obvious implication was that some other factor was keeping minority journalists from achieving upward mobility in newspaper organizations, if it wasn’t their propensity for job-hopping.19
This study, replicating part of the “Quiet Crisis” research, confirms that finding, but proffers some additional evaluation. As Table 15 shows, there is no great difference between white journalists and journalists of color in terms of how many times they have “job-hopped.” The largest cluster of both white and nonwhite respondents say they have worked for three or four newspapers; in fact, more white respondents have worked for five or more newspapers than have nonwhite respondents. But the fact that 15.2 percent of white men said they had worked for five or more papers undoubtedly could be explained by their age; longevity in the business obviously would translate into job switches.
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TABLE 15: Number of newspapers worked for, in percentages
Whites Minorities Total
This is the first 17.0 15.6 218 16.5%
Two 26.7 26.0 350 26.5%
Three/Four 43.0 45.8 581 43.9%
Five or more 13.3 12.6 173 13.1%
Totals 879 443 1322 100%
66.5% 33.5%
N=1322; X2=1.04; D.F.= 3; p=.7918 (NS); Missing Observations = 6
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TABLE 16: Years’ experience in newspapers, in percentages
Whites Minorities Total
<1 n="1325;" x2=" 124.06783;" p=".0000;" observations =" 3" style="font-weight: bold;">TABLE 18: Length of employment at current newspaper, by race, in percentages
Whites Minorities Total
<1 n="1327;" x2="92528;" p=".0000;" missing="1" style="font-weight: bold;">Educational Attainment of Newspaper Journalists
In 1971, Johnstone reported that about 40 percent of journalists were college graduates;22 a decade later, Weaver and Wilhoit found the graduation rate had climbed to more than half.23
A 1981 study of 489 journalists at eight U.S. daily newspapers found that 64 percent of newsroom professionals had bachelor’s degrees; another study of 83 Gannett Company newspapers and seven Gannett television stations in the same year found 70 percent of journalists had completed undergraduate degrees.24 Stephen Hess’s 1978 study of Washington, D.C., reporters found 92.8 percent with bachelor’s degrees.25
The most recent industry figures, part of the 1987 ASNE Changing Face of the Newsroom study, show that 85 percent of newspaper journalists are college graduates,26 but more than 92 percent of the respondents in this study say they graduated from college. Two-thirds of these were journalism majors, compared to Weaver’s 40 percent in 1982-8327 and double Johnstone’s finding of 34 percent.28
This trend of journalists to have prepared for their careers in what formerly were considered disparagingly as “trade schools” is another major factor in the changing character of American newsrooms. Much of the newspaper industry’s old guard – particularly in the Northeast and along the Eastern Seaboard – entered the newsroom after having completed college training or degrees in English, history or political science. Illustrative of this old-school mentality is the comment of a white male columnist in his late 60s, working a major Eastern mainline paper: “I share the general amusement/contempt for journalism schools,” he wrote. “Reporters should go to real schools, study real subjects – law, history, language.”
This study indicates that the trend identified by Johnstone and Weaver and Wilhoit is decisively away from that mind-set, although it obviously still exists in some corners of the newsroom. As Table 21 shows, minority journalists in the 1990s are just as likely to have completed college as whites – 93 percent to 92 percent – and significantly more likely to have majored in journalism, 65 percent to 55 percent. These findings may be an artifact of whites’ higher median age; older journalists are less likely than younger colleagues to have studied journalism, as both the earlier studies and the comment from the white Eastern columnist indicate.
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TABLE 21: Journalists’ educational attainment by race, in percentages
Whites Minorities %
Graduated College 92.0 93.2 92.4a
College Grad Journalism Major 55.6 65.4 58.9b
Attended Graduate School 27.6 29.8 28.0c
Earned Graduate Degree 15.8 16.6 16.1d
Grad Degree in Journalism 9.8 15.5 11.7e
a N=1302; X2=.407; d.f.=1; p=.5135; Missing = 26
b N=1158; X2= 8.21350; D.F.=1; p=.0042; Missing = 170
c N=1028; X2= .56351; D.F.=1; p=.4529; Missing = 300
d N=958; X2=.148; d.f.=1; p=.7001; Missing = 370
e N=276; X2=1.56; d.f.=1; p=.2116; Missing = 1052
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In 1971, Johnstone found that 10.5 percent of journalists had had some graduate-level training, and 8.1 percent said they had completed graduate degrees.29 In 1982-83, 8.7 percent of Weaver and Wilhoit’s respondents said they had attended graduate school and 11.1 percent had completed graduate-level degrees.30 In the 1990s, the growth of graduate-level education among journalists has sharply accelerated. Almost 28 percent of the respondents in this study said they had attended graduate school, almost three-and-a-half times the level reported in 1982-83. Of those who attended graduate school, 16.1 percent said they had earned graduate degrees, double the 1971 rate and almost 50 percent more than in 1982-83. And nearly three-quarters of those current newspaper journalists who say they have completed graduate degrees say they are in journalism and mass communication.
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TABLE 22: Journalists’ educational attainment by race and gender, in percentages
Percentage of All Journalists Who Are College Graduates: 92.4%
All White Black Latino Asian
M W M W M W M W M W n
91.0 94.8 90.8 93.2 87.1 90.6 94.7 96.7 90.5 100.0 1203a
Percentage of All College Graduate Journalists Who Majored in Journalism: 53.5%
All White Black Latino Asian
M W M W M W M W M W n
56.5 62.1 57.2 57.2 56.8 77.0 70.8 75.9 56.1 56.7 709b
Percentage of all Journalists with Some Graduate School: 27.6%
All White Black Latino Asian
M W M W M W M W M W n
26.7 30.1 26.7 29.7 26.7 27.1 28.9 30.0 36.7 38.8 372c
Percentage of All Journalists Earning Graduate Degrees: 16.1%
All White Black Latino Asian
M W M W M W M W M W n
15.8 16.2 16.7 14.9 11.9 16.7 17.1 20.0 17.5 20.9 214d
Percentage of All Journalists with Graduate Degrees Who Majored in Journalism: 72.9%
All White Black Latino Asian
M W M W M W M W M W n
54.8 70.6 47.6 63.6 66.7 65.2 55.0 85.7 50.0 68.0 156e
a N=1302; X2=12.032; d.f.=7; p=.1498; Missing = 26
b N=1158; X2=27.476; d.f.=7; p=.0006; Missing = 170
c N=1028; X2=23.139; d.f.=7; p=.0032; Missing =300
d N=958; X2=25.964; d.f.=7; p=.0011; Missing = 370
e N=276; X2=9.282; d.f.=7; p=.2331; Missing = 1052
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Breaking down these responses by race and gender indicates that those in the newsroom most likely not to have finished college are both black men and women and white men, but those without college degrees still make up only 13 percent or less of these groups (see Table 22). At the other end of the scale, 100 percent of Asian American female respondents say they graduated from college; however, they also are least likely to have majored in journalism. It is interesting to note that minority journalists’ educational attainment is at least equal to that of their white colleagues, who, as has been discussed, are of higher median age and thus would have had more time to have attended graduate school. One might surmise that the new generation of newspaper journalists, so many of whom are minorities, see educational attainment as a necessary tool in their career advancement.
Note in particular in Tables 21 and 22 that minorities overall are more likely than whites to have completed graduate degrees; minority women especially have the highest graduate completion rates. A generation or two ago, the high school diploma was considered a basic minimum for employment; later, the bachelor’s degree became a the entry card to join the workforce. It is possible that journalists in the 1990s – especially journalists of color – are beginning to see graduate work as a means of giving themselves an edge on others with whom they are competing.
Sixteen percent of all newspaper journalists in this sample completed graduate degrees, but Table 23 shows that among both white and nonwhite journalists working at the largest newspapers in the sample, that percentage jumps to almost one-quarter. Further, the proportion of both white and nonwhite journalists with graduate-level training at the largest papers is about twice that of journalists at the smallest papers in the sample, indicating that the perception of graduate school benefits to career advancement are not just perceptual, but real.
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TABLE 23: Journalists’ educational attainment by race and circulation size, in percentages
Percentage of College Graduates: 92.4%
250,000- 100,000- 50,000-
500,000+ 500,000 250,000 100,000 n
W M W M W M W M
93.5 92.5 93.3 92.1 91.1 92.4 90.6 100.0 1203a
Percentage of College Graduate Journalists Who Majored in Journalism: 53.5%
250,000- 100,000- 50,000-
500,000+ 500,000 250,000 100,000 n
W M W M W M W M
41.6 60.8 61.7 67.4 58.9 71.3 65.3 75.6 709b
Percentage of All Journalists with Some Graduate School: 27.6%
250,000- 100,000- 50,000-
500,000+ 500,000 250,000 100,000 n
W M W M W M W M
45.2 46.8 37.4 35.4 35.1 35.6 26.1 21.6 372c
Percentage of All Journalists Earning Graduate Degrees: 16.1%
250,000- 100,000- 50,000-
500,000+ 500,000 250,000 100,000 n
W M W M W M W M
24.8 23.0 16.3 13.0 15.4 16.2 9.3 6.5 214d
Percentage of All Journalists with Graduate Degrees Who Majored in Journalism: 11.7%
250,000- 100,000- 50,000-
500,000+ 500,000 250,000 100,000 n
W M W M W M W M
46.2 56.8 50.0 53.8 43.6 51.3 52.3 67.0 156e
a N=1158; X2=27.476; d.f.=7; p=.0006; Missing = 170
b N=1158; X2=34.491; d.f.=7; p=.0000; Missing = 170
c N=1028; X2=23.139; d.f.=7; p=.0032; Missing = 300
d N=958; X2=25.964; d.f.=7; p=.0011; Missing = 370
e N=276; X2=9.282; d.f.=7; p=.2331; Missing = 1052
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Some Conclusions About Newspaper Demographic Trends
So what do these figures show about the changing demographic character of American newspaper newsrooms in the 1990s? Overall, journalism is still a profession for the young – most of those in the newsroom are in their 30s, and those journalists lasting into their 40s increasingly are at risk as they approach 50. For reasons ranging from satisfaction to stress to burnout to salary, after 20 years on the job, newspaper journalists start thinking about doing something else. That means that – as the Boston Globe’s Monty Montgomery wrote in a column in 1980 – younger journalists may start visiting their older colleagues more frequently, “taking your pulse and respiration rate to see if you’re likely to create a job opening in the near future.”31 These results indicate that there is a good chance of more job openings higher on the ladder in the near future.
Also implicit in these demographics is the potential for friction between a rising, younger generation of journalists of color and whites in the newsroom, who are older and more entrenched, on average. Although the numbers aren’t yet there, the proportion of younger journalists among minorities outstrips whites, which means that more will be qualified for those mid- and upper-level newsroom positions when the older whites now occupying them leave or retire.
Discrepancies between men and women and between whites and nonwhites in the newsroom hierarchy undoubtedly will continue to generate resentment, particularly as the younger journalists of color become more seasoned and experienced. Newspapers interested in keeping their most talented young staffers should consider the data regarding journalists’ longevity in their current jobs. On the one hand, ambitious and talented young reporters who leave for opportunities at other papers are not lost to the industry, but that may be small condolence to the papers that lose them and have to start over again in training anew. On the other hand, that cycle is part of the nature of newspapers and newspaper journalists.
• • •
NOTES: CHAPTER 5 – Changing Newsroom Demographics
1. John W.C. Johnstone, Edward J. Slawski and William W. Bowman, The News People: A Sociological Portrait of American Journalists and Their Work. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1976).
2. David H. Weaver and G. Cleveland Wilhoit, The American Journalist: A Portrait of U.S. News People and Their Work. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986).
3. Johnstone, et al., op. cit., p. 26. See also Weaver and Wilhoit, op. cit., p. 22.
4. Five percent of the respondents in the Johnstone study were black or Hispanic. See Johnstone, et al., ibid., pp. 26 and 198. But according to data from the American Society of Newspaper Editors, just 4 percent of the newsroom workforce in 1978 was minority. For comparison with 1982-83, see Weaver and Wilhoit, ibid., p. 23. See also, Clint C. Wilson II and Felix Gutierrez, Minorities and Media: Diversity and the End of Mass Communications. (Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage Publications, 1985), pp. 159-160.
5. Johnstone, et al., op. cit., p. 188.
6. Weaver and Wilhoit, op. cit., p. 12.
7. American Society of Newspaper Editors, 1990 Newsroom Employment Survey. (Reston, VA: American Society of Newspaper Editors, 1991).
8. See ASNE Human Resources Committee, The Changing Face of the Newsroom: A Human Resources Report. (Reston, Va.: American Society of Newspaper Editors, 1989); American Newspaper Publishers Association, Minority Opportunity Committee, “Industry Employment Survey Report,” June 1, 1990.
9. The ASNE reported in 1987 that 57 percent of newsroom employees are reporters, writers or editorial page writers. Changing Face of the Newsroom, op. cit., p. 119.
10. In 1982-83, Weaver and Wilhoit found 50.3 percent of respondents had graduated from college; the Johnstone team found the figure was 39.6 percent in 1971. In 1987, 85 percent of the respondents to ASNE’s study were college graduates. Weaver and Wilhoit, op. cit., p. 47; Johnstone, et al., op. cit., p. 200; Changing Face of the Newsroom, op. cit., p. 119.
11. Weaver and Wilhoit, ibid., p. 23.
12. Johnstone, et al., op. cit., p. 26.
13. Weaver and Wilhoit, op. cit., p. 23; Changing Face of the Newsroom, op. cit., p. 27; ANPA employment report, op. cit.
14. Weaver and Wilhoit, ibid., pp. 17-23.
15. Ibid.
16. Changing Face of the Newsroom, op. cit., p. 119.
17. Ibid.; ANPA, op. cit.
18. Changing Face of the Newsroom, ibid., p. 17.
19. Ellis Cose, The Quiet Crisis: Minority Journalists and Newsroom Opportunity. (Berkeley, Calif.: Institute for Journalism Education, 1985), pp. i, 6.
20. ASNE, Achieving Equality for Minorities in Newsroom Employment: ASNE’s goal and what it means. (Rochester, NY: American Society of Newspaper Editors, 1986).
21. Weaver and Wilhoit, op. cit., p. 99.
22. Johnstone, et al., op. cit., p. 200.
23. Weaver and Wilhoit, op. cit., pp. 46-47.
24. Judee K. Burgoon, Michael Burgoon and Charles K. Atkin, The World of the Working Journalist. (NY: Newspaper Advertising Bureau, 1982), p. 122.
25. Stephen Hess, The Washington Reporters. (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 1981), p. 165.
26. Changing Face of the Newsroom, op. cit., p. 119.
27. Weaver and Wilhoit, op. cit., pp. 41,46-48.
28. Johnstone, et al., op. cit., p. 200.
29. Ibid., pp. 30-31, 34-35, 200.
30. Weaver and Wilhoit, op. cit., pp. 46-48.
31. M.R. Montgomery, “Newsworthy Employment,” Boston Globe Sunday Magazine, May 20,1980, p. 3.
• Chapter 6.
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