300 of Color Lost Newspaper Jobs

An estimated 2,400 journalists left newsrooms in 2007 through a
combination of buyouts and layoffs, and nearly 300 of them were
journalists of color, the American Society of Newspaper Editors
reported on Sunday.

"Since 2001, newsrooms have lost an estimated 3,800 professionals, a
6.7 percent decline. But the largest loss came last year," the ASNE
said in reporting its annual diversity census.

"The percent of minority journalists working at daily newspapers grew
minimally to 13.52 percent from 13.43 percent of all journalists,
according to ASNE," a news release said as the society opened its
annual convention in Washington.

The figure had risen to 13.73 percent in 2006. The organization first
set a goal of reaching parity with the percentage of people of color
in the general population by 2000, then by 2025. In 2006, the general
population percentage was 34 percent, according to the census bureau.

In a conference call as ASNE prepared to release its figures, the
presidents of the associations of black, Hispanic, Asian American and
Native Americans, plus their umbrella Unity organization, unanimously
agreed that there is no way the industry will reach parity by 2025 at
the rate it is going, Mark Fitzgerald reported Sunday for Editor &
Publisher.

-Journal-isms