News Releases & Articles
4/10/02
Group Consolidation May Endanger Diversity
From the RTNDA Communicator April, 2002
In
February, the Federal Communications Commission loosened
the limits on a single company owning stations covering
more than 35 percent of
the
nation. And by the time you read this, the rampant
consolidation within the broadcast industry may already
be underway.
The signs of what’s to come can already be seen in the
acquisition of the Chris-Craft stations by Fox and the
purchase of KCAL-TV in Los Angeles by Viacom/CBS.
Combine that with the tough economic climate that has
forced layoffs, cutbacks and even entire news
departments to shut down, and it leads many to wonder
whether efforts at newsroom diversity can survive—much
less flourish says Fred Young, senior vice president of
news for Hearst-Argyle. “Although we are asking our
managers and employees to do more with less, we must
continue to recognize
all
employees and all candidates for employment with the
same fairness and commitment to opportunity that
existed in previous years and ‘better economic times.”’
But there is concern diversity efforts may fall victim
to these changes. ”l think it’s a real possibility” says
Gary Kelly, news director of WCFTTV in Birmingham, AL
So, what can news directors do to make sure diversity
doesn’t become another victim of downsizing?
News directors say it’s
important for stations to be more aggressive than ever
about making sure to consider
a diverse
field of candidates for those increasingly rare job
openings.
Start early.
News
director Jim Sanders of KNSD-TV in San Diego says it’s
crucial to start keeping track of these diverse
candidates early and help them along in their careers.
“Whether you can help them into your newsroom now or
not, you can help them in some way into the industry and
you can stay in touch and maybe eventually help them
into your newsroom or a newsroom at your level,”
Sanders says it’s your first job to identify them and
get them into the door.”
Maintain contacts with
minority journalists’
organizations.
Contact members of groups such as NABI, NAHJ, AAJA and
NAJA through their national offices. These organizations
work to increase newsroom diversity and want to see
their members advance.
Diversity is more
than who’s on staff. Susana
Schuler is vice president and corporate news director
for Nexstar Broadcasting Group. She admits it is
sometimes difficult to get people of color to work in
some of the smaller operations she oversees. She
stresses it’s important to combine community outreach
with efforts to make your staff more accurately reflect
your station’s audience. But just because a staffer
comes from a certain racial or ethnic group
doesn’t automatically mean the needs of the
community have been fulfilled. “Hire diversified staff
and get more involved in hearing from that community
about what they want, especially if that diversified
staff isn’t from that community,” Shuler recommends.
The
news executives maintain diversity is not just ”the
right thing to do." It also makes good business
sense.
As Ken Jobe, news director for the Viacom/CBS duopoly of
WKBD-TV/WWJ-TV in Detroit puts it,” Overall, large
corporations want to make money and we’ve got a growing
segment of the audience out there that, if the research
is correct watches more news than other segments. So,
from a business standpoint, you can’t ignore these
individuals."
Willie Chriesman, a longtime news director, is now
developing a new media venture named
Chriesman & Associates
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