RTDNA-Hofstra Study Looks At Minorities, Women In Radio Newsrooms

Study

The latest release from the RADIO TELEVISION DIGITAL NEWS ASSOCIATION-HOFSTRA UNIVERSITY Annual Survey of U.S. broadcast newsrooms shows that the minority workforce in radio is at its highest level since the mid-1990s, and the percentage of women news directors is also up this year.

The minority radio news workforce is at 13%, which is up from 1990's 10.8%,  2010's historic low of 5%, and 2013's 10.9%, but lags the overall minority population of 36.9%.  Radio news workforces in 2014 are 6.2% Hispanic, lower than 1995's 7.5% but higher than any year since, with 4.8% African-American. 1.7% Native American and 0.3% Asian American.  Among radio news directors, the percentage of African-Americans has dropped substantially from 1995's 5.4% to 2014's 1.9%, flat from last year, while Hispanics make up 3.9%, Native Americans 4.5%, and Asian-Americans 1.3% of news directors.  The percentage of minority GMs rose from 8.2% last year to 9.9% this year, credited to noncommercial stations.

The percentage of women serving as news directors rose 2.5% to 23.1% this year, but women were nearly twice as likely to be news directors at public radio stations than at commercial stations, and less likely to be news directors at smaller stations or stations in Southern markets.  And women as a percentage of the workforce fell from 34.2% last year to 31.1% this year.

Read Professor Emeritus BOB PAPPER's summary of his findings by clicking here.

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