NABJ laments lack of diversity in TV news management ranks

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The National Association of Black Journalists is calling on television group owners to do a better job of reflecting the ethnic makeup of the communities they serve when it comes to naming executives in their local newsrooms.


The 3rd annual Television Newsroom Management Diversity Census is out, and it found that only 12.6% of news staffers at 151 surveyed stations are persons of color, despite the fact that persons of color make up about a third of the general population.

NABJ reported, “Out of 815 executive producers, assignment managers, managing editors, assistant news directors, news directors and general managers at the ABC, CBS, Cox, FOX, Gannett, Hearst Argyle, Media General, Meredith, NBC and Tribune stations 713 (87.9%) are White, 64 (7.8%) are African American, 24 (3%) are Hispanic/Latino, 13 (1.6%) are Asian and only 1 is Native American. The management teams at 82 of the stations are all White.”

“It is disheartening in 2010 that four of the media companies in the report have no African American news directors and so many of the companies have no black news director in some of the most diverse cities in America,” said NABJ President Kathy Y. Times. “It’s time for African American viewers to reconsider their support of media companies that do not appreciate or make diversity a priority.”

NABJ said that NBC-owned stations were the ones with the best record. NBC Universal’s sale to Comcast is pending.