Newsroom diversity, professional development, and staff retention: An integrated approach

One concern for the broadcast news industry is hiring and retaining representative newsroom staffs that mirror the nation's population. At the same time, these newsrooms need to be led by managers who are representative of the country's demographic makeup. Upper management has long complained of a lack of qualified minority staff to promote into supervisory news positions. Meanwhile, newsroom workers often say they are frustrated by a lack of advancement opportunities and training to prepare them to advance. The point at which the issues of minority staffing and retention, and training and promotion come together within broadcast news outlets is the focus of this study.;The project used two concurrently run, Web-based surveys to compare the perceptions of local, commercial broadcast news directors and producers as to the availability and value of professional development in their newsrooms. It explored whether company-sponsored professional development opportunities contributed to the job satisfaction of producers. It also examined the role of professional development in affecting employee promotion. The study asked whether there was a disconnect between producers and news directors that might contribute to job dissatisfaction. Further, the study examined whether the perceptions of producers and news directors varied according to minority status.;Results of the study included: (1) producers and news directors have different perspectives about the amount and importance of available professional development, (2) there are differences in how minority and white producers and news directors view these questions, (3) there are differences in how news directors and producers perceive performance evaluations, and (4) there are differences in the goals of producers and news directors for professional development. The study found no support for three hypotheses including: (1) that minority news directors and producers have views different than whites about professional development training as a contributor to promotion, (2) that professional development leads to greater job satisfaction for all producers, and (3) that professional development alone leads to greater job satisfaction for minority producers.