NAJA President Blasts ASNE Numbers

by Dan Lewerenz, NAJA President

The Native American Journalists Association is disappointed by numbers release today by the American Society of Newspaper Editors showing a drop in the number of American Indian journalists working at U.S. newspapers.

Native journalists already are the most underrepresented group in the American newsroom. And despite a professed desire to increase newsroom diversity, the number of American Indians working at mainstream newspapers has fallen in the last year, highlighting a disturbing trend in ASNE's numbers.

If ASNE's numbers are accurate, there are only 295 Native journalists working at U.S. newspapers - a mere one half of 1 percent of overall newsroom employees.

ASNE points out that that's 46 more Native journalists than were identified in the 2001 survey. However, what they don't say is that this is a decrease from last year's 313 Native journalists, the highest number yet recorded in the survey. More troubling than the immediate drop is a fluctuation in the numbers (see below) that seems to indicate either an unwillingness or an inability of U.S. newspapers to retain Native journalists.

The number of American Indian journalists working at U.S. newspapers, according to the ASNE surveys:

• 2005 - 295
• 2004 - 313
• 2003 - 289
• 2002 - 307
• 2001 - 249
• 2000 - 292
• 1999 - 241
• 1998 - 256

These figures can only be discouraging to the growing number of Indian youth who see viable careers in the news. NAJA remains committed to helping Native people find journalism careers, both in Native-oriented and in non-Native journalism outlets. We believe ASNE shares that goal. However, if as an industry we are to succeed, then the effort can't be NAJA's alone. Newspaper executives must be willing to go the extra mile in order to increase Native representation in their newsrooms. They need to reach out to Native communities and demonstrate a commitment to covering Indian people and Indian issues. They need to recruit not just at the elite universities and the established journalism schools, but at tribal colleges and at local and regional colleges, where the talent is just as abundant, but where the training opportunities may be more limited. And once they've recruited a representative work force, they need to retain it.

NAJA will continue to recruit and train Native people for journalism careers. But we can't do it alone.