Survey: Many Women in Newsroom Management Looking to Change Jobs or Leave Industry

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API news release

Survey Reveals that Many Women in Newsroom Management Looking to Change Jobs or Leave the Newspaper Industry

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J. Ann Selzer, President of Selzer & Company, Inc., talks about the survey's goal and what she found.

Charlotte Hall, VP and Managing Editor of Newsday, on gender balance in the newsroom.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

RESTON, VA -- A sizable proportion of women in newsroom management are looking to leave their current newspapers or leave the newspaper industry, according to a new national survey of editors.

In the survey, commissioned by the American Press Institute and the Pew Center for Civic Journalism, forty-five percent of women interviewed say they will definitely or probably be offered a better job at other newspapers or flee journalism. This compares to just 33 percent of men. Only 33 percent of the women anticipated moving up within their organization, while 42 percent of the men were confident of such a move.

These findings are among many reached in a survey of 273 male and female newsroom managers at newspapers larger than 50,000. The survey was conducted in the summer of 2002. Details of the survey, which included 202 men (41 percent of male newsroom managers) and 71 women (38 percent of the nation's top female editors), will be among other discussions at the J. Montgomery Curtis Memorial Seminar for women in newsroom leadership. The seminar began today at the institute's Reston, Virginia, headquarters.

"This is a wake-up call for the news business to stanch a brain drain and capitalize on a valuable asset," said Jan Schaffer, executive director of the Pew Center for Civic Journalism.

The survey also found that there is a great divide in newrooms that is not between men and women -- who have similar feelings on many large newsroom issues -- but between two distinct subsets of women. While acknowledging that women in the newsroom are by no means unified in their world view, the survey sorts the women respondents into "career-conflicted" women and "career-confident" women.

"We find a group of women who can truly benefit from mentoring and coaching in their jobs," says Mary Glick, Associate Director of the American Press Institute.

Basically, career-conflicted women struggle because they lack the full range of tools to succeed. They signal that they are unsure and have shortcomings. They lack interpersonal skills that push careers forward. They have not had a mentor and they want help.

Career-confident women look and act savvy. They've benefited from mentors and have numerous workplace skills. They want to connect with readers. Their skills make them attractive to other industries.

Career-conflicted women (45 percent of those surveyed) say they probably want to move up but have concerns about advancement, including sexism and the lack of opportunity. They report lower satisfaction with salary and relationship with bosses and different tastes in news.

They also are generally younger (45-54) and less experienced than their career-confident counterparts. They say they are less likely to command attention, seek lots of input, take direction from their superiors and incorporate readers' concerns into the newspapers.

Their pattern of interests differ from the entire body of women surveyed. The career-conflicted subgroup feels that too many resources go to covering crime and politics. They want more to be spent on coverage of health, medicine, women's and parent's issues and recreation.

Career-conflicted women are more likely to say they have allowed someone else to take credit for their good idea. Only 44 percent of these women say they've had a mentor who advised them on how to succeed in their current job and move up. That compares to 58 percent of all women and 61 percent of men.

Career-confident women, on the other hand, stress the importance of mentors. Sixty-nine percent have had a mentor who advised them on how to succeed in their current position and how to ascend.

Career-confident women are clear about either wanting to advance, opt out of promotion to remain in their current position or to move to another position at an even lower level. Nonetheless, they show consistent views that distinguish them from their conflicted counterparts.

They are satisfied with their higher-ups and their salaries. They're are confident of their ability to get "face-time" with superiors and to market ideas. They believe they can set and achieve career goals and have been groomed for success by being sent to company retreats or training sessions. They believe they make an impact on Page One.

The survey looked also at the differences between men and women in the newsroom management jobs and came up with more similarities than differences when it comes to leadership traits, content vision and job satisfaction.

Still, there are some differences. Here are a few highlights: