Washington, D.C., April 20 - The National Association of Hispanic Journalists is troubled by the lack of net growth in the number of Latino journalists employed in the nation's newsrooms last year reported in the American Society of Newspaper Editors' annual newsroom census released today.

The number of Latino journalists working at U.S. dailies increased by only 46, climbing from 2,212 in 2002 to 2,258 in 2003 -- an increase from 4.04 percent to 4.16 percent.

But since those totals include journalists hired last year for two newly-launched Spanish-language dailies, Belo's Al Dia in Dallas and Knight-Ridder's Diario La Estrella in Fort Worth, the actual number of net new jobs for Latinos in English-language papers appears to be much smaller. ASNE could not immediately say today how much of the net job gain the Spanish-language dailies represented.

"We are dismayed and perplexed by the continued lack of significant progress in the overall hiring of Latinos last year," said NAHJ President Juan Gonzalez, "Given all the attention newspaper chains are devoting to new publications geared to the Latino community, we expected a big increase in the numbers of Latinos now more than ever. What happened?"

Furthermore, NAHJ's analysis of the newsroom census indicates that there was "virtual stagnation" for the nation's more than 1,400 daily English-language papers when it comes to increasing the numbers of Latinos, Gonzalez said. This follows a more positive trend in 2002, which saw an increase of 114 new Latino journalists.

One of the few bright spots in the ASNE survey was an upswing last year in the number of Latino supervisors, from 421 in 2002, to 454 -- a gain of 33. Latino journalists, however, still comprise only 3% of the 13,053 supervisors at daily newspapers, while the total Latino population of the U.S. is now 13%.

The ASNE study also reported that the overall percentage of journalists of color working in our nation's newsrooms increased from 12.53 percent to 12.95 percent. That represents an increase of only 161 more minority journalists. It is important to note that this increase comes against a backdrop of declining employment totals, with only 54,200 full-time jobs - a drop of more than 500 from the previous year - as many journalists took advantage of early-retirement buy-outs.

NAHJ is also concerned that for the second consecutive year, African American journalists have seen an even more woeful increase in their numbers - only 19 new jobs in 2003 - and that they were the only minority group to see a net decline in the number of newsroom supervisors, from 587 to 572.

"These numbers certainly should not serve to pit one racial or ethnic minority group against another," Gonzalez added. "There is not much here for any of our minority journalists groups to be very happy about. That's why we will continue to work together to jointly face a media industry that resists change when it comes to diversifying its newsrooms."

During a diversity roundtable at the ASNE convention today, NAHJ urged the editors' group to include in its future annual surveys a separate breakout of the number of Latinos working both in English-language and Spanish-language dailies that are owned by mainstream companies.

We were encouraged by the response from ASNE President Peter Bhatia and other board members who shared our concern and pledged to devise a solution to accurately reflect the newsroom makeup of those companies.

NAHJ, however, realizes that ASNE's report recognizes the growth of journalists of color has failed to keep pace with the country's minority population.

This is why NAHJ invited editors at the roundtable and other industry leaders to partner with the association on the Parity Project. The goal of the project is to increase dramatically the employment of Latino journalists during the next five years.

The Parity Project identifies cities where Latinos are underrepresented in the newsrooms of local media outlets but make up a significant portion of the population. In those cities, NAHJ will offer to work jointly with existing print and broadcast outlets, area journalism schools, foundations and Latino community leaders to develop comprehensive model programs that will increase Latino newsroom presence and influence.

The E.W. Scripps Co. became the first major chain to partner with NAHJ on the project. So far, NAHJ has launched the project at six Scripps papers. NAHJ subsequently launched the project with the North County Times, a Lee newspaper.

At the first two Scripps papers NAHJ partnered with, the percentage of Latino and minority journalists has dramatically increased.

At Denver's Rocky Mountain News, the first to join the project in April of 2003, the percentage of minority journalists on staff jumped from 8.5% in Dec. 2002 to 11.6% in Dec. 2003.

At Southern California's Ventura County Star, which launched the project in June of 2003, the percentage of minority reporters and editors went up from 11.8% to 17.2% during the same time frame.

NAHJ's Parity Project has received funding from the Robert R. McCormick Tribune Foundation and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, as well as NAHJ's individual donors to its Campaign for Parity.

NAHJ was founded in 1984 and has close to 2,000 members. The goal of the association is to improve news coverage of the Latino community and to increase the number of Latinos working in our nation's newsrooms.