Journalists of the '90s

Headnote

Study indicates they are graying homebodies with less respect for their newspapers and their managers

DAILY newspaper journalists these days are a graying group who don't get out into their community much and don't feel they get much leadership at work.

Nearly half - 44% - of newsroom journalists are over 40 years old, up from just 26% eight years ago. And the number of young journalists is slipping just as dramatically:While those 30 and younger accounted for 29% of the newsroom workforce in 1988, they represented just 20% last year.

Journalists in the 1990s are also increasingly likely to feel alienated from the community they cover: Fully 55% of the reporters, for instance, say they are less involved in community groups than they were eight years ago.

On the job, too, journalists are feeling more alienated.

They are far less likely to rate their own newspaper as top-notch than they were eight years ago, and they are not much impressed with their newsroom leaders"

"Decision-making, goal-setting and leadership -- these are not seen as major strengths of newsroom supervisors. In fact, 36% (of nonsupervisory journalists) see `lack of leadership' as their boss's major weakness," said Paul S. Voakes, assistant professor of journalism at Indiana University.

In a survey conducted for the American Society of Newspaper Editors, Voakes has assembled a provocative - and sometimes troubling - portrait of today's daily newspaper journalists.

The survey, entitled "The Newspaper Journalists of the '90s,' is a follow-up...