Minorities at Newspapers Found to Be Only 8% of Newsroom Staff

Blacks and other racial minorities constitute 16% of the work force of American newspapers but only 8% of the news and editorial staffs, according to the American Newspaper Publishers Assn.

The ANPA survey, made public Wednesday, also said that 37% of the papers’ employees are women. In the nation’s overall work force, minorities constitute 21% and women 47% of the total.

The study suggested that the newsroom was the place in a newspaper plant where minorities were least likely to be found. Ten percent of newsroom employees were members of minorities, and, when clerical and administrative workers were subtracted, the number dropped to 8%, ANPA spokesman Joe Lorfano said.

That finding approximates the results of an annual survey conducted by the American Society of Newspaper Editors.

In April, the 1988 ASNE survey found that blacks, Latinos, Asian-Americans and American Indians constituted 7.02% of newsroom employees, a slight increase from the 6.56% level in 1987 but a sharp increase from the 3.95% in the survey’s first year, 1978.

About 1,000 Responses

The ASNE survey was based on responses from 1,092 of the approximately 1,645 daily newspapers published in the United States. In the ANPA study, responses came from 546 of the 1,443 daily newspapers that were sent questionnaires.

The study was the first industry-wide attempt to determine the number of minorities and women on newspaper staffs in all departments, said Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, chairman of the ANPA and publisher of the New York Times.