Survey: shows biggest staff drop in 30 years,

The American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) conducted a survey this year that found that newsrooms have encountered the biggest loss of jobs in 30 years and that the percentage of minorities working in newsrooms is still disproportionate to the larger workforce.

The survey found:

• U.S. daily newsrooms shrank by 2,400 journalists in the past year, a "4.4% workforce decrease that's the biggest year-over-year cut in ranks since ASNE began conducting its annual census 30 years ago.
• 52,600 people work full-time in daily newspaper newsrooms. 1984 was the last time that number has been so low at 50,400, of whom 5.75% were journalists of racial or ethnic minorities.
• Nearly 300 fewer journalists of color are working in newsrooms than this time last year.
• But due to the layoffs and hiring freezes, the percentage of journalists of color in daily newsrooms actually grew by a tiny margin, to 13.52% from 13.43% of all journalists.
• The largest number and percentage of journalists of color are black, with 2,790 or 5.3% of the workforce."
• There are 2,346 Hispanic journalists, 4.5% of newsrooms.
• Asian Americans are 3.2% of newsrooms at 1,692 journalists.
• Native Americans are the smallest minority group: 284 journalists or 0.5% of newsroom employees.
• Men still outnumber women in the daily newsroom by a 63% to 37% margin.
• Minority journalists are more likely to be reporters. Only 11.4% of supervisors are journalists of color.

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