Newsroom employment up slightly

The percentage of minorities in newsrooms totaled 12.79 percent, a decline of .47 percentage points from a year ago, according to the American Society of News Editors, which has conducted a census of professional full-time journalists since 1978.

This is the third consecutive year that the percentage of African-American, Asian, Latino, and Native American journalists has declined in U.S. newsrooms.

The number of professional journalists rose from an estimated 41,500 in 2009 to 41,600 in 2010, according to ASNE’s most recently completed census of online and traditional newspapers. American daily newspapers lost 13,500 newsroom jobs from 2007 to 2010.

In the most recent ASNE census, minority journalists declined from 5,500 to 5,300.

“At a time when the U.S. Census shows that minorities are 46 percent of the U.S. population, newsrooms are going in the opposite direction. This is an accuracy and credibility issue for our newsrooms,” said Milton Coleman, ASNE president.

“The slight decline in minority newsroom representation may be small, but is part of a disturbing trend that we need to reverse,” said Ronnie Agnew, co-chair of ASNE’s Diversity Committee.

Click on the headline to see the ASNE report