Minority sports reporters

Where on line may we be able to see these numbers?

 

If anyone EVER debated who makes up America's sports departments, take one long look at that study. Jesus, that's pathetic...

 

I really don't know. Maybe Jewish people have done to well for themselves in this country for anyone to think we need a break. Then again, I don't think we face some of the same stereotypes as other minorities or women do. Sure, there are bigots who hate Jewish people, but I've met plenty of people who were members of a racial majority that don't think of us being in the same boat, so to speak.

I've tried debating it a time or two. Didn't go well.

I do know that on one occasion I was told a position would be a diversity hire and specifically that being Jewish did not count and I doubt that my faith will ever help me get a job.

 

Again, where can we see those numbers on line?

 

Here it is.

First read the link.. It gives a summary
http://www.maynardije.org/columns/dickprince/060622_prince/
Here is more detail since I can post all due to character spacing

Sports Editor
According to the data that was collected within the survey period of March 6, 2006 to June 16, 2006 there were five African-American male sports editors at all participating APSE newspapers. Three of the five African-American sports editors were employed at circulation size “A” newspapers. There were a total of nine Latino male sports editors with four at circulation size “A” papers. The “other” people of color category had two male and one female sports editors. There were no Asian males and no African-American, Latina, and Asian females who were sports editors among the APSE newspapers. There were 288 white males and 15 white females who were sports editors accounting for 94.7 percent of the most important positions on the surveyed newspapers. African-Americans held only 1.6 percent; Latinos 2.8 percent and “others” less than one percent. There were no Asian sports editors.

Assistant Sports Editor
Whites held 86.9 percent of the assistant sports editor posts in the survey while people of color made up 13.1 percent. African-Americans were 5.3 percent, Latinos 5.5 percent, Asians 1.6 percent, and other people of color 0.8 percent.
White males accounted for 402 (78.4 percent) of the 513 APSE member newspaper assistant sports editors. White females held 44 (8.6 percent). There were 22 African-American male assistant sports editors (4.3 percent) while African-American females accounted for five (less than 1 percent); 15 Latino assistant sports editors (2.9 percent) and 13 Latina assistant sports editors (2.5 percent); and six Asian male (1.2 percent) and two Asian women (.4 percent) assistant sports editors. All “other” people of color included three male and one female assistant sports editor.

Columnist
Nearly ninety (89.9) percent of America’s columnists are white. White males held 249 (83.6 percent) of the total 298 columnists and white females accounted for 19 (6.4) percent. There were 22 African-American males (7.4 percent) and only one (.3 percent) African-American female columnist. Eighteen of the 22 African-American males and the African-American female were employed at size “A” newspapers. There were only three Latinos (1 percent) and two Asian male (.7 percent) columnists. There were no Latina or Asian female columnists. All “other” people of color totaled two male (.7 percent) and no female columnists. All three Latino males, both Asian males and one of the males from the “other” category came from “A” size newspapers. There were 49 columnists who are either people of color or women; 39 come from size “A” newspapers.
Women made up less than 7 percent of sports columnists at APSE member newspapers. Women and people of color combined made up only 16.4 percent of columnists.

Reporter
There were far more reporters within the APSE newspapers than any other category with a total of 2,128. Of these, 87.5 percent were white including 1,682 white males (79.0 percent) and 179 white females (8.4 percent). There were only 140 African-American male (6.6 percent) and 20 African-American female (.9 percent) reporters; 57 Latino (2.7 percent) and 11 Latina (.5 percent) reporters; and 23 Asian men (1.1 percent) and eight Asian women (.4 percent) reporters. There were seven men and one woman in the “other” people of color category.

Copy Editor/Designer
Of all copy editors/designers, 89.7 percent were white. There were a total of 899 white men (78.6 percent) and 127 white women (11.1 percent) who were in copy editor/designer positions within the APSE. African-American men and Latinos each had 39 (3.4 percent) copy editor/designer positions while African-American women and Latinas had 13 and six posts (1.1 percent and .5 percent, respectively). Both Asian men and women were under 1 percent, with 11 men and four females (.96 and .35 percent, respectively). The “other” people of color category had four men (.35 percent) and two women (.17 percent).

Support Staff/Clerk
The support staff/clerk position statistically is the most diverse position for both race and gender. However, this may be interpreted as more negative than positive since these are usually non-professional positions with limited upward mobility and lower salary and benefit ranges.
There are 171 women (24 percent) in this position. There were 475 (66.8 percent) white men occupying positions in this category and 140 (19.7 percent) white women. There were 30 African-American men and 20 African-American women (4.2 percent and 2.8 percent, respectively); 24 Latinos (3.4 percent) and 5 Latinas (.7 percent); and seven Asian men and three Asian women (.98 percent and .4 percent) of the total support staff/clerks. The “other” people of color category had four (.6 percent) men and three (.4 percent) women.

 

Numbers can be misleading. For example. I am familiar withThe Bucks County Courier Times and it's a joke to say that it led size “C” with 29.4 percent.
At any rate, these numbers are awful and won't get better anytime soon, unfortunately.

 

Only because a lot of the white males are entrenched. I imagine sports departments are going to work hard to turn the numbers around, as well they probably should, and that doesn't bode particularly well for most white males trying to make it in the business right now. If you fall into that category and aren't already heavily connected, it might be time to try something else.

I'd like to see the numbers for hires made in the last 3-5 years.

 

Excellent point, 85.

Once again, I will bring up the question I brought up several pages ago... Who are applying for the majority of those jobs? Are there equal numbers of women, blacks, Hispanics, handicapped dwarves, etc applying along with the white males.

White males make up a disproportionate part of sports departments because they make up a disproportionate part of those going to school for and APPLYING for those jobs. I don't know why this is so hard for the number crunchers to comprehend, other than it doesn't fit their agenda.

This survey is statistically irrelevant and misleading.

 

We had a handicapped minority dwarf but try keeping him more than a year. Impossible.

For the white male doomsayers, consider that those numbers were probably even worse 10-20 years ago and white guys still seem to be getting jobs.

 

Report shows newspaper sports sections dominated by white males
Eds: SUBS 19th graf to CORRECT newspaper name to Press-Citizen sted Press-City; With BC-Newspaper Sports Diversity-Regions.
LAS VEGAS (AP) — The staffs of newspaper sports sections are dominated — and usually headed — by white men, according to a study that shows women have yet to make big inroads in a traditionally male field.
The survey of 305 newspapers of varying circulation also showed sports sections lagging in employment of minorities, with blacks holding 6.2 percent of jobs among an overall minority representation of 12 percent.
Bigger newspapers tend to hire more women and minorities than smaller papers, but study director Richard Lapchick said the overall rate was dismal.
“Normally we assign a grade in these reports and this is the first time we didn’t do that,” said Lapchick, director of the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida. “But in each one of those categories we would be in the F category for people of color and female representation.”
Garry D. Howard, assistant managing editor/sports for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, said the results are discouraging and show the industry has a long way to go to reflect the makeup of both society and its readers.
“Obviously I think we’ve had a problem in our industry for some time,” Howard said. “We constantly point the camera at sports we cover where everyone has a problem and we never take the camera and point it at ourselves. I think this report has done just that.”
The survey showed that nine out of 10 sports editors were white males, as were 84 percent of sports columnists.
Women made up 12.6 percent of sports staffs, in contrast to another report earlier this year by the American Society of Newspapers that showed women making up a total of 37.7 percent of newsrooms overall.
“I was more surprised on how few women there were in all those ranks, especially considering that 40 percent of participants in athletics in high school and college are women,” Lapchick said.
The survey covered more than 5,100 positions on sports staffs and was part of a project for a class on the business of sports media taught by John Cherwa, sports projects editor for the Orlando Sentinel and sports coordinator for Tribune Co.
Cherwa said he would like the survey done every few years so newspapers can chart progress.
“We didn’t know how bad we were,” Cherwa said. “We knew we were bad, and now we know how bad we are. At least we’ve now got a baseline, something we can move forward with.”
Howard, one of five black sports editors included in the survey, said he was the only one he knew when the Milwaukee paper named him to the post in 1994. Since then, he said, there has been some progress, but not enough.
“People of color and women can hold these jobs and flourish in these jobs,” he said.
Lapchick, who has done similar surveys for pro sports leagues and colleges, did the study at the request of the Associated Press Sports Editors, a group of sports editors from around the country. The results were presented Thursday to the APSE annual convention in Las Vegas.
The fact the sports editors themselves asked for the survey, Lapchick said, means they are serious about the issue.
“This is the first time that any organization has ever requested a look at itself,” Lapchick said. “I think that’s an incredibly healthy sign.”
Among newspapers surveyed, the Sacramento (Calif.) Bee had the highest percentage of minorities among the largest papers at 54 percent, while the Fresno (Calif.) Bee was tops among size “B” newspapers at 45 percent. The Tallahassee (Fla.) Democrat was highest in the “C” circulation category at 36 percent, while the Laredo (Texas) Morning Times was best among the smallest papers with minorities occupied all five of its staff slots.
The Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) Sun-Sentinel sports staff was 24 percent women, the highest of the big newspapers, while the Columbia (S.C.) State was tops with 29.6 percent in the “B” category. The Bucks County (Pa.) Courier Times led size “C” with 29.4 percent, while the Iowa City Press-Citizen had 44 percent women in the “D” category.
The Southwest Region of the APSE had the best record for sports editors who were people of color with 9.1 percent, while the Northwest region had the most female sports editors at 11.8 percent. The Associated Press was included in the Northeast Region, where 6 percent of sports editors were women and 4 percent were minorities. The Mid-Atlantic Region reported the lowest percentage of any region with only 2.4 percent of its sports editors minorities and no women sports editors.

 

OK, this post is probably going to draw some heat, but I want to play devil's advocate on this topic for a moment because it is something I've wondered about for quite a while.

Any time there is a profession where there is an overwhelming majority of white males, people start clamoring about diversity. There need to be more blacks. There need to be more Hispanics. There need to be more women. Which I agree is not a bad desire to have.

So let's turn that around for a minute. What about the diversity of the people actually playing the sports? Why don't people apply that same argument to the NBA and say there need to be more white players? Why don't they apply it to the NFL and say there need to be more white running backs, or more white cornerbacks? Why is it OK in these instances for a large majority to take hold, complete with all the requisite stereotypes (white guys are too slow, white guys don't jump high enough, etc.)?

My guess is someone will come on here and answer, "Well, if the white guys were more talented, they'd get those jobs. The black guys are better, so they are the ones playing." And I'd be the first one to agree with that. The best people for any position should do the job.

But best is subjective. It's always going to be in the eye of the beholder. Whose to say the white guy tailback isn't better, but didn't get a fair shake just because of the color of his skin?

So, turning it back around, let's say a newspaper publisher is hiring for a sports editor. He brings in candidates of all colors (and sexes), and decides he's most impressed by the qualifications of a white male. It doesn't matter that 90 percent of the other papers in the country also have white sports editors, the publisher likes this guy the best and feels he'll do the best job for his business.

There's no shortage of people who would instantly label this publisher a racist. Why? Isn't it the same exact thing as the athletes' scenario? Where is the difference? Why is 90 percent racial makeup in one profession OK, but not another?

 

I have two problems with this. In many cases you can count the number of minorities in high places on two hands -- yet the perception is we are getting all the jobs. What do you want? None of us to have jobs.
The other problem is some papers hire minorities but they do not want you to use your diversity to your or the paper's advantage. It is like there is one way to report and one way to treat the community and I just do not buy that.
That is why you have diversity so you can have pardon the pun diverse ideas.