Men, For The Most Part, Run The Newsroom

In August, Deborah Turness will become the first woman to head a network news division as she takes the reins as president of NBC News. Nine years ago, she made history in precisely the same way in Great Britain, as she headed ITV News, a BBC rival.

But, according to the Pew Research Center’s FactTank,  industry data show that men continue to occupy most of the top positions in local TV and radio, as well as at daily newspapers in the U.S.

Forty percent of people who worked at local television stations in 2012 were women, but less than 20% of the general managers were, according to a newsroom survey conducted by the Radio Television and Digital News Association, in conjunction with Hofstra University. Still, this represents a rise –up from 15.8% in 2011. In 2004, women filled just 12.1% of television management positions.

In radio, women make up the same percentage of managers (19.3%), the RTDNA 2012 survey reported. But the trajectory over time has been bumpier.  The proportion of women in radio management has been relatively stable the last three years, but represents a decline from 2008, when one-quarter of the general managers were women.

The percentage of female managers at daily newspapers has remained stagnant for years.

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