By holding 7 of the 19 top jobs, white men make up 36.8% of these newsroom leaders. On its own, from a diversity standpoint, that’s…not terrible, actually! As of 2019, 62.9% of American adults were non-Hispanic whites, with white man making up a bit less than half of that share. So while 36%
is an over-representation, it’s a relatively
small over-representation especially compared to not that long ago, when these jobs might have been 80-90% white men.
3 of the 25 largest U.S. newspapers. Now, women lead 7 of the top 19 not yet parity, of course, but a significant improvement in a seven-year span.
Also in 2014, an ASNE survey of American newspapers found only 15 percent had even a single person of color in any of their top three editorial positions. Not just the