‘A pretty good mix’
By Meliqueica Meadows
Of the St. Louis American
A recent national survey revealed that the percentage of blacks on local television news has continued to decline. But, on the local scene, KSDK Newschannel 5 is leading the pack in black on-air talent.
KSDK News Director Mike Shipley said that of 15 on-air reporters – including anchors Kay Quinn, Rebecca Wu and Kelly Jackson – five are minorities. There are four African-American reporters (Jeff Small, Sharon Stevens, Kordell Whitlock and Kelly Jackson) and one Asian reporter, Rebecca Wu. Of nine anchors, Art Holliday, who has been with the station for 27 years, Kelly Jackson and Rene Knott are all African American.
“Our goal as journalists is to reflect the entire community and do stories that reflect the community,” said Lynn Beall, KSDK general manager. “In terms of recruiting, we want to make sure that we get a pool of highly qualified people from diverse backgrounds.”
That is where Ava Ehrlich comes in. As executive producer of special projects, internship coordinator and recruiter for newsroom positions, she is on the frontline of the diversity initiative at KSDK.
“We do a lot of things,” Ehrlich said. “I go to career fairs and national conventions. I keep in touch with a lot of people, and we advertise with the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) and the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA).”
Ehrlich added that KSDK also has several community partnerships which help maintain and increase diversity.
“We have partnerships with the NAACP, American Women in Radio and Television, NABJ, the Urban League and the St. Louis American as well as HBCUs such as Harris-Stowe,” she said.
“I’m really proud of the fact that at our editorial meetings every morning we have representation from all areas across the region and diverse backgrounds of experience,” Shipley said.
“By the time we come away from the table with our coverage plan, it gives us a pretty good mix of stories.”
KMOV human resources representative Peggy Milner said that according to EEOC regulations, KMOV does not make distinctions between reporters, anchors and on-air talent and therefore cannot give definitive numbers on diversity. She said the station has about 150 employees (including the production staff) that are all classified as “professionals.”
She did, however, say that there were two African-American on-air anchors. According to the station’s website, of seven anchors there are two African Americans – Robin Smith and Vickie Newton. Of 14 reporters, there are two African Americans, Erica Van Ross and Robert Townsend.
“We do widely recruit, including through NABJ,” Milner said. “And our station was one of the founding members of the Diversity Awareness Partnership.” Through the program, students of diverse backgrounds are taught basic editing and television production technique.
KTVI Fox 2 News has twelve anchors, including two African Americans – April Simpson and Elliott Davis. Of 28 reporters listed on the station’s website, six – including Simpson – are African-American. The other black reporters are John Gadson, Rob Desir and Bonita Cornute, Maurice Drummond and Summer Knowles.
In terms of diversity of on-air staff, KPLR WB11 comes in last among the four local stations with only one part-time reporter who is African American, Kelly Hoskins, and two sports anchors/reporters, Telly Hughes and Mike Claiborne.
When the 2006 Radio and Television News Directors/Ball State University report was released last month, the NABJ was one of the first organizations to comment on the findings.
“While we would hope to see an increase across the board among the underrepresented groups, clearly the numbers show that’s not the case,” NABJ president Bryan Monroe said.
“As stations seek to diversify their news staffs, such progress should not come at the expense of African Americans.”
While the 2006 Radio and Television News Directors/Ball State University report did show an increase in minority journalists in television newsrooms – up a full percent from 2005 to 22.2 percent – it also showed a decline in African-American on-air talent. The growth is attributed entirely to an increase in Hispanic and Asian-American journalists, while black on-air talent dropped by 0.8 percent.
There was a slight increase in African-American representation behind the scenes, as the number of black television news directors grew to represent 4.2 percent, more than any other group of minority news directors.
Blacks made small gains in radio news as well, even though, in the last decade, the overall minority representation in radio newsrooms has dropped by over 8 percent. And the number of black general managers continues to lag as the report showed that 23 percent of television station general managers are white and four out of five are men.
While minorities make up nearly 34 percent of the U.S. population, local television news has yet to reflect those numbers, something Shipley said is an important ingredient in providing the best possible news coverage for viewers.
“In journalism, you want to have as many different viewpoints as possible,” Shipley said. “I think that we have folks from a lot of different backgrounds, and it helps us to better deliver the news.”
