Summary

The foreword, by Cherilyn Ireton, Executive Director, World Editors Forum:

In between editing and the production of this Trends in Newsrooms report, Covid-19 happened.

At the time of writing, the disease is rampaging its way across the world, leaving societies scarred and priorities upended. The news business too. It's too early to determine the extent of the disruption, but sitting in isolation, in the midst of the crisis, it feels overwhelming.

Up until Covid-19, that is early 2020, great strides had been made in putting gender issues as a top priority for news organisations. A string of admirable newsrooms had put in place projects to ensure women journalists were not only being heard in the daily news meetings, but were taking up roles to ensure a balanced editorial executive team. And on the news pages, there was a determined effort to see more women experts quoted, more balance in photos and generally a more reflective news product. The simple act of measuring women and men who appear on news pages had become a part of the news production processes. This is what this report is about.

Post Covid-19, these processes are at risk. Not so much in the pioneering newsrooms which have the capacity to entrench them as part of standard operating practice, but in the already-marginal operations where the loss of advertising from the printed newspaper during the Covid-19 crisis, will push them closer to economic meltdown. Inevitable downsizing and survival strategies could well threaten to knock down the issue of gender on the list of newsroom priorities.

So it is going to take the collective strength and determination of all good women (and men) in the news business to ensure that the good work is not undone. The act of bringing gender balance to the newspages and to the teams who contribute to them, must continue. For the benefit of us all.

And for those continuing their transformation, we hope this report will be an invaluable pointer to the kind of change that can happen, without extra resources, using simple measurement tools and driven by a commitment to make a difference.

From the table of contents:

• Why News Organisations Need to Elevate Women's Voices
• What is Stopping Your Newsroom from Achieving Balance?
• How to Improve Gender Balance in Content
• Tracking Tools and Methods
• Case Study
  Financial Times, UK: Tracking Gender Balance
• Change Maker
  Nina Goswami, BBC Creative Diversity Lead and Journalist
• Case Study
  Amedia, Norway: The Business Impact of Gender Balance
• Change Maker
  Emily Ramshaw, CEO and Co-Founder of The 19Th
• Case Study
  South China Morning Post, Global: Increasing the Visibility of Women
• Change Maker
  Kavita Devi, Editor-in-Chief of Khabar Lahariya, India
• Case Study
  Ara, Spain: Creating Engaging Content for Women