Study: Sun-Times Leading The Way In Closing Media Gender Gap
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Anyone who's worked in journalism can tell you it's still a male-dominated industry, but the Chicago Sun-Times comes is faring best at closing the gender gap among the nation's major newspapers, according to a recent study.
An annual study by the Women's Media Center examined the 10 most widely circulated newspapers in the U.S., and found 46 percent of the bylines in the Sun-Times during the last three months of 2013 belonged to female reporters.
Chicago newsies certainly won't be surprised that the Sun-Times leads the pack when it comes to women writers. Four of the paper's most prominent reporters are women – City Hall Reporter Fran Spielman, Political Reporter Natasha Korecki, Criminal Courts Reporter Rummana Hussain, and Education Reporter Lauren FitzPatrick.
Overall, the study found men receive 63 percent of byline credits in print, Internet, and wire news.
You might be surprised which major newspaper took last place: The New York Times, for which only 31 percent of the bylines were from women.
The study didn't examine bylines at the city's other major newspaper, the Chicago Tribune. While circulation of the Tribune is greater than the Sun-Times alone, Sun-Times Media publishes a total of 40 newspapers -- including the Southtown Star, the Naperville Sun, the Chicago Reader, and the Northwest Indiana Post-Tribune -- and the combined circulation of all Sun-Times Media publications regularly outpaces the Tribune.