THE CULTURE OF A WOMEN-LED NEWSPAPER: AN ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY

OF THE S A R A S O T A H E R A L D - T R I B U N E
By Tracy Everbach
This case study of a U.S. newspaper led by an all-female management team found that the culture of the newsroom reflected the so-called "feminine" traits of its leaders. Through qualitative, ethnographic methods of interview and observation, the researcher documented ways that the female managers brought feminine standpoints to the workplace. Family-friendly policies, openness, teamwork, and communication, identified by management and communication scholars as feminine characteristics, were hallmarks of the newspaper's culture.

The mainstream media in the United States emphasize male viewpoints, occasionally focusing news coverage on women and their concerns. The frequent absence from and trivialization of women in mass media have been labeled "symbolic annihilation,"^ describing a public agenda that reports mainly men's acfivities, interests, and experiences.^ While women have composed a majority of journalism students for three decades, their work in newsrooms has not significantly changed dominant news values in the United States. Few women serve in the highest ranks of news organizations, where decision-making power lies.^ In 2006, 18% of newspaper publishers were women, the highest percentage ever, but far from an equitable distribution with men." Mass media scholars suggest that female journalists view news differently from male journalists.^ Since women increased their newsroom presence starting in the 1970s, they have changed some definitions of news, Kay Mills notes.*" Women's greater numbers in newsrooms coincided with an increase in stories addressing social problems, personalifies, and human interest.' Still, changing newsroom culture, meaning overall shared values, beliefs, and expectations, has been a slow struggle.* Male interests continue to define dominant news values and shape workplace culture. This research examines the only large American newspaper with an all-women management team at the turn of the twenty-first century. A female publisher, executive editor, managing editor, and two assistant managing editors led the Sarasota (Florida) Herald-Tribune from 1999 to 2003, creating an unusual opportunity for a case study. This research examines the female managers' influences on the newspaper's culture,
Tracy Everbach is assistant professor. Department of Journalism and Mayborn Graduate JC/MC Quarterly Institute of Journalism, University of North Texas. Vol. 83, No. 3
Autumn 2006 477.^93

2006 AEJMC
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using theoretical bases in feminism and management. The central research question is: Did the all-women managenient team at the Sarasota Herald-Tribune shape newsroom culture in a gendered way?

Review

Journalism's routines and practices force reporters and editors to focus news coverage on government and corporations and on sources who have authority and power, as Gans and Tuchman showed in seminal ethnographic studies of news organizations.' Those who hold "the reins of legitimized power" have greater access to mass media than other groups and therefore are more likely to be quoted.'" In a patriarchal society such as the United States, that powerful group has become institutionalized as white, middle-aged males." Topics deemed "female" take secondary status in news.'^ By reinforcing legitimized values and power structures while repressing and eliminating elements that contradict norms, the news is socially constructed to emphasize male concerns." Before the 1970s, societal and labor market discrimination kept all but a few women from progressing to the upper ranks in journalism." The second wave of the women's movement helped change women's roles in newsrooms, offering them new career opportunities.'^ Starting in the 1970s, newspapers pledged to diversify their staffs and create newsrooms more reflective of their readers.'^ The results for women thirty years later were disappointing: By 2006, women composed nearly 38% of newspaper employees in the United States, a percentage that had increased only slightly since the early 1980s." In comparison, by the early twentieth century, women represented 46% of the total U.S. workforce.'" The American Journalist Survey reported that "compared to the U.S. civilian work force in 2000, women journalists are considerably less prevalent than women in other professions. Women journalists also are less likely to be managers than women in other areas of the professional work force."" Women have not received opportunities equal to men's in the working world, including education, training, hiring, promotion, contacts, and networking. They have faced barriers in part because of perceptions that their roles in society should be family caretakers.^" Structural barriers, discrimination, gender stereotyping, and gender differences have precluded many women from advancing to management positions in U.S. corporations and businesses.^' In mass media organizations, culture is "largely defined in male terms," according to Carter and her coauthors.^ In 2001, women made up only 13% of top executives in media, telecom, and high-tech firms and only 9% of seats on corporate boards of these companies.^ Women composed 26% of newspaper executives in 2002, and most of the high-ranking women held personnel, community affairs, and legal positions, "areas not historically on the right track for moving into the highest positions."^" In 2003, Al Neuharth, former chairman and CEO of Garmett Co. Inc., one of the largest American newspaper companies, criticized the newspaper business for continued lack of diversity. "Too many middleaged white men still make the decisions," in newsrooms and journalism classrooms, Neuharth said.^ Management and staff homogeneity conJOURNALISM & MASS COMMUNICATION QUARTERLY

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tribute to decreases in newspaper circulation and drive away potential audiences, including young people, women, and people of color.^^ During the three decades that newspapers have attempted to diversify their staffs, circulation has dropped. Women are more likely than men to abandon reading newspapers.^' In 2003, men comprised 55% of newspaper readers and women comprised 45%.^* Some reasons for fewer female readers include women's lack of representation in content and a dearth of articles that appeal to their interests.^' In readership studies, women report they want stories that are relevant to their lives.* They are "interested in topics such as their children's education and how they learn (not the politics of the school board); time and money and how to save both; safety and health issues; women in the workplace; social concerns, such as homelessness; and family and personal relationships."'' Women also are interested in stories that have depth and sensitivity, rather than the detachment and factual superficiality attributed to stereotypical masculine news values.'^ In addition, women are interested in different types of news from men, demonstrated by a survey in which women said their top reading choices were community news, advice columns, and international news, while men preferred professional sports, international news, and local school sports.^^ Many women stop reading newspapers because they say content is not relevant to them.^ Therefore, newspapers might attract more female readers if they publish content that appeals to women's interests and portrays women in positions of authority and power. Some journalists and scholars maintain that a newspaper headed by women would appeal to female readers.^^ Because "women are responsible for 81% of consumer buying" in the United States, newspapers, which depend on advertising, could improve business by reaching out to women, according to Miller.^^ However, including more female decision makers does not necessarily change news content. A 1994 study of women's magazines from the 1960s through the 1980s found that female editors did not substantially alter negative and stereotypical portrayals of women in magazine content.^^ The authors concluded that the female editors adopted the same stereotypes male editors had used in the past, and speculated that changing magazine content would require more than female leadership; it would demand "changes in the dominant culture."'* A 2005 study by Lavie and Lehman-Wilzig noted that both men and women internalize news traditions that focus on male hegemonic values, which makes change difficult, no matter the leaders' gender.^' A companion study to the present ethnography found that the content of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune under the all-women management team did not differ from other mainstream U.S. newspapers.''" The content analysis revealed that the Herald-Tribune's front page, local news, business, sports, and lifestyle sections represented few women, so the female management team clearly did not change news values regarding content selection. For example, only 25% of sources quoted on the Herald-Tribune's front page were female, consistent with studies of malemanaged newspapers.'"
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Although female management did not change newspaper content, female managers might influence workplace culture. Some management studies show that people's perceptions of "good managers" favor a "masculine" style.^^ For many years, stereotypical male behavior has been considered the norm for powerful positions.^' So-called "masculine" leadership traits emphasize control, strategy, lack of emotion, and analysis, while so-called "feminine" traits include flexibility, empathy, collaboration, and performance." However, some studies show that "men and women are similar in their overall effectiveness as leaders."""^ In one study, researchers considered defining management styles as "masculine" and "feminine" stereotyping and noted that empirical studies have found no significant gender differences in managerial behavior, personality, or effectiveness."" Other research notes that societal socialization forces female managers into classifications based on stereotypes.^' Aggressive women are characterized as "bitches" or "pushy" when displaying the same traits considered desirable in men.*^ Women also are accused of exploiting their sexuality to advance.'" Recent literature hypothesizes women perceive power differently than men. While Fortune magazine in 2003 published its sixth annual list of the fifty most powerful women in the U.S. workforce, it also published an article maintaining that women "see it (power) in terms of influence, not rank."^" In an October 2003 New York Times Magazine cover story. Lisa Belkin postulated that women are retooling the male definition of work, which has long been about money and power.^' Belkin wrote that women's work definition also is liberating for men: "Because women are willing to leave, men are more willing to leave, toothe number of married men who are full-time caregivers to their children has increased 18%."^^ The nonprofit research firm Catalyst, which tracks trends and numbers of women in business, reported in its study "Women in U.S. Corporate Leadership: 2003" that 26% of women who have not yet reached the most senior posts say they do not want those jobs. Therefore, achieving hierarchical positions might not define success for women.

ineorettcal when female journalists enter male-dominated newsrooms, they Busts become indoctrinated to accept "masculine" news values as professional standards.^' Women have not achieved autonomy or authority to change dominant newsroom culture; therefore, male and female journalists conduct their jobs in similar ways, with an emphasis on news that can be termed masculine.^ Certain norms, values, styles, and practices in journalism are perceived as masculine or feminine. Van Zoonen has observed. The so-called masculine topics include politics, crime, and finance, reported with overwhelmingly male sources. Feminine topics include consumer news, human-interest stories, culture, and social policy, with mainly female sources.'^ News judgment and news values in mainstream news media are based on what white men consider news, according to Gist.^"" Female joumalists are socialized to view these standards as journalistic objectivi480 JOURNALISM & MASS COMMUNICATION QUARTERLY

ty, allowing the news to become "masculinized" even when reported by women.^'' While men lead a majority of newsrooms, some scholars and journalists contend female management would foster its own form of newsroom culture. Cultural feminism views women with their own values, practices, and "standpoint."'^ Using feminist standpoint theory, this research seeks to analyze ways the Sarasota Herald-Tribune's management team's gender shaped newsroom culture. Previous research that included the Sarasota Herald-Tribune is relevant to this examination. Impact, a study of 100 American daily newspapers, found that the Herald-Tribune's culture differed from 80% of other study subjects. The study classified the newspaper's culture as "constructive," defined as "encouraging members to work to their full potential, resulting in high levels of motivation, satisfaction, teamwork, service quality and sales growth." Cooperation, teamwork, communication, and higher profltability and readership also are associated with constructive cultures.^' In contrast, a majority of U.S. newspapers had "aggressive defensive" cultures, defined as workplaces where change occurs slowly, hard work and devotion to the job are valued, and "people are expected to approach tasks in forceful ways to protect their status and security."*^" These findings mirror management research that identifies stereotypical masculine and feminine management styles.*"' Masculine management is characterized as less interpersonal and more autocratic, and feminine management is called more interpersonal and democratic." Management and communication research shows that women and men learn to interpret power differently, with men generally regarding power as status and women interpreting it in terms of connections." Women generally place importance on community and connections while men tend to be concerned with competition and status." The attributes associated with female leadership, including communication, collaboration, and innovation, are more consistent with a constructive culture than a defensive one.^' Because the newspaper industry, facing waning readership and circulation, is being forced to adapt technologically and economically, a constructive culture that encourages innovation and change could provide a successful business model for newspapers' future.**^ This study recognizes constructive culture as reflective of a feminine management style marked by openness, concern for family issues, collaboration, teamwork, and acknowledgement of workers' viewpoints and perspectives. This is not to say that women are the only managers capable of employing a feminine management style; men also can display these traits. This ethnographic case study examined the Sarasota HeraldTribune's newsroom culture for three weeks during a nineteen-month period in 2002 and 2003. The researcher employed observation and indepth interviews to study the workplace.
THE CULTURE OF A WOMEN-LED NEWSPAPER

Method

481

The researcher observed daily work routines inside the newsroom and conducted in-depth interviews with managers and employees to gather evidence on pracfices, policies, and routines.^' Depth interviews consisted of quesfioning newsroom workers to gather information on their perspectives and beliefs and to create rapport that allowed her to understand and interpret behavior.'"'' Fieldwork took place during one-week periods in June 2002, September 2003, and December 2003. These weeks were chosen after negofiafion with the newsroom managers. The researcher observed newsroom operations, including editors' budget meefings, conferences among employees and managers, story assignments, story proposals, edifing sessions, reporter interviews with sources, general discussions among employees, decisions on news coverage, and other newsroom routines and practices. Interviews took place in the newsroom and outside of work to provide discussion freedom. The researcher conducted open-ended, in-depth interviews with twenty-six female and male reporters, photographers, page designers, and editors about the workplace and their impressions and feelings about management pracfices and policies. All employees were promised anonymity except the top editors and the publisher, who agreed to be idenfified by name in the study. The interviewees answered a standardized list of open-ended questions developed by the researcher with provisions for follow-up, specific quesfions, and comments. After the interviews and observation, the researcher coded all interview and observafion subjects, then organized data into categories pointing to key concepts that revealed the nature and culture of the newspaper. For example, the researcher considered issues, symbols, and rituals involved in the news process; news convenfions, indoctrinafion, and training; and employees' and managers' interpretafions of their newsroom roles. The researcher examined the data for influences the management team had on the newsroom culture, including interactions and communication between and among managers and employees, policies and pracfices, and general workplace atmosphere. She paid parficular attenfion to women's standpoint as a marginalized or oppressed class and the reversal of this standpoint at the Herald-Tribune because the top managers were women. Also taken into account was management and journalism literature that noted women tend to bring emofion, cooperafion, infimacy, and a "holisfic" approach of blending personal and professional lives to the workplace.""' The Herald-Tribune, owned by the New York Times Company, had a daily circulafion of 106,000 in 2004, making it one of the 100 largest newspapers in the United States. The newspaper is located along Florida's west coast in Sarasota County, which has a populafion of about 335,000. Before the women assumed control of the newspaper in 1999, the daily circulafion was about 110,000. However, it would not be fair to attribute a drop in circulafion directly to the female management. Almost all American newspapers saw circulafion decreases during this time.

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The Herald-Tribune distributes five zoned editions, four beyond the boundaries of Sarasota County, in Manatee County, population 275,000; and in Charlotte County, population 147,000,^' The total audience comprises a population of about 757,000 in three counties. The news organization operates bureaus that produce zoned editions in Venice, Bradenton, Charlotte, and Englewood. The Herald-Tribune newspaper was created in 1938, when the Sarasota Herald bought the Sarasota Daily Tribune.'^ The New York Times Co. bought the paper in 1982. Herald-Tribune Publisher Diane McFarlin, Executive Editor Janet Weaver, and Managing Editor Rosemary Armao said when they formed their management team in 1999 that their goal was to "put out a hard charging, high quality newspaper in a more effective newsroom, one that is fun, family-friendly and diverse."^' The employees called the newsroom "Amazonia" because of the all-women management team. The managers noted that filling the top jobs with women was not intentional,'" As of September 2003, the paper employed 155 newsroom workers, 41% of whom were women, a higher percentage than the 37% national newsroom average for female employees that year.''

In interviews, Herald-Tribune managers said they believed their gender influenced the newspaper's culture in positive ways. Noted Publisher Diane McFarlin: "This organization probably has more 'feminine' traits than other newspapers. We tend to be more communicative. There is more of a sense of well being of employees, more of a nurturing environment, and this is true of our male employees, too.""* The consistent themes that arose among employees and managers regarding the workplace culture were the newspaper's family-friendly policies, an atmosphere of openness emd transparency in decision making, a consensus-building managerial style, and clear communication between management and employees. The concept of balancing work and personal life is a relatively new U.S. workplace phenomenon, coinciding with women's entry into management positions after the feminist movement of the 1970s. In interviews, Herald-Tribune managers said they made particular efforts to accommodate families and employees' family issues. This contradicts a phenomenon many women with children have reported in the corporate world, known as the "mommy track." In the 1970s through 1990s, female managers who left corporations temporarily to raise children found that when they returned, they did not attain the same status they had when they left.'^ The "mommy track" concept not only caused women to lose managerial ground, but also ignored the needs of men interested in assuming greater roles in raising children. In fact, a male Herald-Tribune reporter,''' considered one of the top reporters at the Herald-Tribune, said the paper's female leadership allowed him a family life he did not have in previous journalism jobs. Over more than a decade as a single father, he had not found a job that allowed him to spend time with his son.*" When he interviewed at the Herald-Tribune, Publisher McFarlin asked him what made him happiest.
THE CULTURE OF A WOMEN-LED NEWSPAPER

Results

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"I know my answer should have been, 'Having a page one story on Sunday,' but I said, 'My son,'" the reporter recalled. "I was mortified, but she looked at me and said, 'Good answer.'"*" The managers value family life, a philosophy that fosters employee loyalty, according to the male reporter and other employees interviewed. "I worked eight straight days after 9/11 and I had no problem with it," said Reporter No. 1.'^ Several veteran employees reported that before the female management team assumed power, the newspaper's culture dictated they separate work and personal lives. Managing Editor Diane Tennant said that mandate has changed: "It's different now. We make accommodations for people."'*^ Publisher McFarlin said she recognized that "when employees get to interact with their kids, they are happier. We're going to feel more success if employees are happier."** The female editors said they considered themselves role models for family-friendly policies. Executive Editor Janet Weaver gave birth to a daughter and took three months' maternity leave while serving as the newspaper's managing editor. Weaver's husband, Mark Weaver, stayed home with their children. The family-focused environment helps retain employees, the managers said. "Some of the ways to keep people from going to bigger newspapers is to see how inflexible they (other newspapers) are."^^ Still, the policies are not perfect. One day in the newsroom, a female editor* with a 3-month-old baby talked with a colleague about the difficulty of seeing her husband, also an editor at the paper. She said they were working different shifts to share childcare duties, and she often was asleep when he arrived home from work.*' Weaver said the newspaper's family accommodations were attributable in part to female leadership, but also to a "generational" phenomenon.** "You have people in there (the newsroom) that don't want to live that kind of lifeout drink 'em, work a billion hours, out cuss 'em," she said, referring to the stereotypical journalists' lifestyle. "Younger people are coming in and saying they don't want to live in newsrooms. People are saying they don't want to work 80 hours a week."*' As Tannen has noted, a male communication style tends to emphasize hierarchy, status, and competition.'" In contrast, the female leaders at the Herald-Tribune made a point of welcoming employee input, offering open-door conversation policies, and coming out of their offices to communicate with the staff. McFarlin noted of the newsroom: "There are more conversations here. Meetings are not directive. They're very open."'' Tennant added, "We want people to question and debate."'^ Employee input became important in an extraordinary way in December 2003, when the paper hired a new executive editor to replace Weaver, who left for another job. Employees met with candidates applying for the management position, a non-hierarchical method. When McFarlin announced she had decided to hire a male executive editor, therefore breaking up the all-female team, she gathered the staff in the newsroom and told them in person, rather than issuing a memorandum.'^ "You made a great choice," she said. She also told the staff that the new
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male editor, Mike Connolly, was the best candidate, no matter his gender. Allowing the staff to participate in the decision to hire an upperlevel manager by offering their feedback to the publisher, meeting the job candidate in person and asking him questions, and announcing the decision in an open forum are actions contradictory to the hierarchical, rational, bureaucratic structures of most newsrooms.'^ Another theme that emerged was the Herald-Tribune's consensusbuilding management approach. Managing Editor Tennant said team participation is a style superior to strict hierarchical formulas. "I still think that the best solutions come from a teamnot from a managing editor or some other editor."^^ As part of the managers' team approach, Herald-Tribune employees were encouraged to express their opinions about the newspaper in an Intranet site called the "Hot Spot." The site encouraged employees to get to know each other and included an employee face book. On an inter-office message board, employees openly teased managers. On the inter-office message board, after an announcement about the Poynter Institute's National Writers Workshop featuring an all-male list of speakers, a male columnist"" posted a tongue-in-cheek reply: "Sounds like that all-male journalism group we've been planning." A male employee answered him: "Thank God! We finally get a voice. Power, brothers."'' This facetiousness showed male employees did not feel their female bosses stifled their words. The managers' openness extended to newspaper readers. They allowed and even welcomed input from the public and from employees. McFarlin instituted the Reader Advocate, a telephone hotline that readers could call with concerns and complaints, and invited members of the community to sit in on planning meetings, an unusually open policy for a newspaper."* Open connections with the community continued in other sections of the newspaper. Executive Editor Weaver said she encouraged reader and source input, noting that she often "disarmed" people by giving them her home and cell phone numbers and asking them to call her." Several employees said they welcomed the workplace environment created by the female management team. The female managers made the newsroom more "interesting and creative" than previous regimes, said a longtime male editor.^ A male reporter who has worked at the paper since 1974 said the female team created a more comfortable work environment: "Women editors definitely make a difference."'"' Male Reporter No. 2 said a friend who had worked for a large California newspaper was visiting him in the newsroom when McFarlin stopped by his desk to say hello. The friend was incredulous. "He said, 'You know the publisher^'" The publisher at his newspaper never came into the newsroom nor talked to newsroom employees.'"^ Longtime employees said the Herald-Tribune's female managers abolished past sex discrimination. A male reporter who worked at the paper two decades said a past male editor instituted a policy that women could not cover the police beat. "The bureau chief felt they (women) were endangered," covering crime, the reporter said.'"' Some
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female employees said they felt more comfortable working for female managers than for men. A female photographer said she felt she could show emotion in the Herald-Tribune newsroom: "I've cried in the newsroom. I've broken the cardinal rule."'"* She noted that in three previous, male-dominated, large newsrooms where she worked, managers frowned upon crying, but tolerated "men showing anger." A female reporter who began working at the paper in 1986 said that when the women took over, the newspaper addressed some social issues it ignored in the past, including homelessness and affordable housing."' One employee offered a throwback to the practice of men hiring other men, known as the old boys' network: she said she landed her job as a page designer through connections in the "old girls' network."'"* Despite positive responses to the female management, some employees said they saw downsides to working for female bosses. One female employee admitted she could not use her sexual wiles to charm her female managers as she had male bosses in the past.'' Another female reporter acknowledged the newsroom had more of a family structure than other newsrooms where she had worked, but "I do feel more cattiness."'"* She reported that gossip served as a staple of interactions between her supervisor and her employees. "Not that men can't gossip, but there is more of a blur here between work and personal life." Tennant noted that some women prefer working for men because they consider female management a "coffee klatch" thing.'"' On the other hand, former Managing Editor Rosemary Armao, known as an advocate for hard, investigative news, said the female-led newsroom discouraged traditional, tough male journalists from applying for jobs. She said she saw two types of people come in for job interviews: "Strong, intelligent, powerful women, and men who are not assertive.""" Armao asked, "Where are all the big men of joumalism, the Jirruny Breslins? We're not seeing it anymore." The Herald-Tribune employed a slightly higher percentage of women, 41%, than the national average of 37% female newsroom employees. The perception by many outside the newsroom was that the HeraldTribune's diversity problem was men"that was the rumung joke," McFarlin said."' When McFarlin hired a man for the executive editor position, she joked that she was implementing a diversity program. She said she enjoyed the distinction of being the only large, female-led newspaper in the United States, but "it was not a mantle we were required to wear forever.""^ Although the newsroom displayed gender diversity, the staff suffered from a lack of racial and ethnic diversity. Before the female management team took over the newspaper, the Herald-Tribune reported 11% of its newsroom employees were racial and ethnic minorities. By 2003, the percentage had dropped to 8%.'" In the meantime, the community had become more diverse, about 11% non-white.'" Turnover among younger reporters, minority and white, was common and many left the HeraldTribune after two or three years for larger newspapers. The managers conceded they had trouble retaining minority employees, in part because some could get better paying jobs elsewhere. Managing Editor Armao 486
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explained: "We're a 100,000-circulafion newspaper in an area that has lots of bigger, better-paying papers (for example, the 233,000-circulation Tampa Tribune and 344,000-circulafion St. Petersburg Ti'mes"^). The population is old and white. Getting young people is hard, period. It's particularly hard to get young minorifies.""^ Weaver said other newspapers "offer more money and prestige" to minorities. She also confirmed that the paper's minority recruifing efforts had been "unfocused.""' Under the female leadership team at the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, teamwork, collaboration, and balancing family and professional lives were primary goals. Several employees said they were satisfied with their jobs and mofivated to work because of the supporfive, egalitarian environment. The managers brought their experiences as women to the newsroom culture. They forged their own approach to the workplace, different from the tradifional hierarchical male approach of most newsrooms. In fact, the Impact study confirmed this by characterizing the HeraldTribune as part of the 20% of U.S. newspapers with "construcfive" cultures. Manifestafions of the culture included an open newsroom, exemplified by top editors' willingness to keep office doors open most of the fime. Employees understood they could approach managers about problems and concerns without having to go through hierarchical levels. Problem solving was often done by consensus and teamwork rather than by unilateral decisions. These are characteristics of a feminine management style rather than a masculine, or hierarchical and bureaucrafic, one." As Tannen noted, most women deal with problems and decisions in terms of connection and community rather than in terms of hierarchy."' Many of the Herald-Tribune's major decisions involved teamwork and consensus, such as choosing a new executive editor. Employees could voice their opinions on the newsroom's Intranet bulletin board. Even readers had a say in what the paper published through the Reader Advocate telephone line. The managers' family-friendly policies also reflected the newsroom culture. Employees said if they needed fime off to take care of family members, children, the ill, or elderly, they would be able to take it without reprisal. The managers set the stage for these policies by observing them as well. However, it should be noted that while the Herald-Tribune's culture can be characterized as "feminine," such a culture is not exclusive to women. As Executive Editor Weaver noted, the Herald-Tribune's family-friendly policies cater to a generafion of journalists, male and female, who put more emphasis on family and personal fime than past generafions. One of the employees who benefited most from these policies was a single father. It also is important to point out that other newsrooms idenfified in the Impact study as having "construcfive" cultures must have been led by male managers, since the Herald-Tribune was the oty female-managed U.S. newspaper during this fime.
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Conclusion

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The Herald-Tribune did not exclude or marginalize female perspectives in the workplace, as many male-dominated newspapers do. When Herald-Tribune employees became indoctrinated to the organization's expectations, they did not see women as being held back from advancement. Neither men nor women interviewed for this study viewed gender as an obstacle to advancement within the organization. In fact, many employees reported a sense of well-being and comfort in their positions. Employees reported that the organization considered men and women to be on an equal playing field. However, employees did acknowledge that while gender was not an issue affecting hiring, promotion, salary, and rank, the newspaper staff lacked racial and ethnic diversity. Minorities did not hold any of the top positions at the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Also, the feminine culture had no effect on the newspaper's content, which favored a male perspective. Overall, employees were generally positive about the organization, particularly its acceptance of family concerns, its gender fairness, the openness of management, and the feeling that the newspaper staff worked as a team rather than a hierarchy. This standpoint reflects women's roles as communicators who flourish in networks of cormections and relationships, including family and work colleagues.'^" It should be pointed out that this research provides a window into the management, operation, and content of the newspaper; a study in which a researcher spent considerably more time in the newsroom might have produced different results. The Herald-Tribune's culture may serve as a model for other newspapers to retain employees, particularly those with families, and improve employee morale by valuing employees' input and opinions. Both female and male employees can benefit from working in an open and encouraging environment. Since constructive cultures foster innovation and change, the Herald-Tribune's cultural model also could serve as a means to revitalize the sagging newspaper industry.

NOTES 1. Gaye Tuchman, Arlene Kaplan Daniels, and James Benet, eds.. Hearth and Home: Images of Women in the Mass Media (NY: Oxford University Press, 1978), 3-38. 2. Kay Mills, "What Difference Do Women Journalists Make?" in Women, Media, and Politics, ed. Pippa Norris (NY: Oxford University Press 1997), 43. 3. Maurine H. Beasley, "Is There a New Majority Defining the News?" in Women in Mass Communication, ed. Pamela Creedon, 2d ed. (Newbury Park, London, New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1993), 130-31. See also Maurine H. Beasley and Sheila J. Gibbons, Taking Their Place: A Documentary History of Women and Journalism (Washington, DC: American University Press, 1993), 26. 4. Mary Arnold and Mary Nesbitt, Women in Media 2006: Finding the Leader in You (Evanston, IL: Media Management Center at Northwestern 488
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University, 2006), 13. 5. Mills, "What Difference Do Women Journalists Make?" 41-42. 6. Mills, "What Difference Do Women Journalists Make?" 39. 7. David Weaver, "Women as Journalists," in Women, Media, and Politics, ed. Norris, 38-39. 8. Arnold and Nesbitt, Women in Media 2006, 18; Weaver, "Women as Journalists," 39. 9. Gaye Tuchman, Making News: A Study in the Gonstruction of Reality (NY: The Free Press, 1978). See also Herbert Gans, Deciding What's News: A Study ofGBS Evening News, NBG Nightly News, Newsweek & Time (NY: Pantheon Books, 1979). Both Tuchman and Gans spent months observing routines and practices in newsrooms, interviewing and following journalists. Their groundbreaking ethnographic studies focused on the notion that the news is a social construction rather than a reflection of events that happen each day in the world. 10. Tuchman, Making News, 133. 11. Tuchman, Making News, 152. 12. Tuchman, Making News, 138. 13. Tuchman, Making News, 292-99. 14. Mary Arnold Hemlinger and Cynthia C. Linton, Women in Newspapers 2002: Still Fighting an Uphill Battle (Evanston, IL: Media Management Center at Northwestern University, 2002), 19. 15. David H. Weaver and G. Cleveland Wilhoit, The American Journalist: A Portrait of U.S. News People and Their Work, 2d ed. (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1991), 181. 16. AJR staff, "Diversity Delayed," American Journalism Review 20 (1998): 9. See also American Society of Newspaper Editors, 2002 Newsroom Census, http://www.asne.org/kiosk/diversity/2002 Survey/2002Census Report.html (accessed December 19, 2002). 17. American Society of Newspaper Editors 2006 census, http:// www.asne.org/index.cfm?id=5660 (accessed June 12, 2006); Indiana University School of Journalism American Journalist Survey, "Women Journalists Aren't Increasing Overall," Poynter Online, http://www. poynter.org (accessed July 28, 2003). These figures are part of data collected by David H. Weaver and G. Cleveland Wilhoit for an update to their book. The American Journalist (Personal correspondence, March 22, 2004.) 18. U.S. Department of Labor statistics, http://www.dol.gov/wb / stats/main.htm (accessed June 12, 2006). 19. Indiana University School of Journalism American Journalist Survey. 20. Sue A. Lafky, "The Progress of Women and People of Color in the U.S. Journalistic Workforce: A Long, Slow Journey," in Women in Mass Gommunication, ed. Creedon, 100-110. 21. Claartje J. Vinkenburg, Paul J.W. Jansen, and Paul L. Koopman, "Feminine Leadership-A Review of Gender Differences in Managerial Behaviour and Effectiveness," in Women in Management: Gurrent Research Issues Volume 11, ed. Marilyn J. Davidson and Ronald J.Burke (London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi: Sage, 2000), 120-37.
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22. Cynthia Carter, Gill Branston, and Stuart Allan, News, Gender and Power (London and NY: Routledge, 1998), 2. 23. Carrie Johnson, "Women at the Top? 'We're Still Talking Token Numbers,'" Austin American-Statesman, April 1, 2001, JIO. 24. Hemlinger and Linton, Women in Newspapers 2002,15. 25. Matthew Daneman, "Former Gannett CEO Neuharth Crusades For Media Diversity," (Rochester, NY) Democrat and Chronicle, February 21, 2003, http: / / www.democratandchronicle.com / news / 0221story 19_news. shtml. 26. Daneman, "Former Gannett CEO Neuharth Crusades for Media Diversity." 27. Editor and Publisher, "Newspapers post strong 3Q profits," October 17,1998,16. 28. Newspaper Association of America booklet. Facts About Newspapers: A Statistical Summary of the Newspaper Industry, 2003. 29. Debra Gersh Hernandez, "Good and the Bad About Women's News in Newspapers," Editor and Publisher, May 21, 1994, 17. See also Karen Schmidt and Colleen Collins, "Showdown at Gender Gap," American Journalism Review 15 (6,1993): 39-42. 30. Hernandez, "Good and the Bad About Women's News in Newspapers"; Schmidt and Collins, "Showdown at Gender Gap." 31. Hernandez, "Good and the Bad About Women's News in Newspapers"; Schmidt and Collins, "Showdown at Gender Gap." 32. Liesbet van Zoonen, "One of the Girls? The Changing Gender of Journalism," in News, Gender and Power, ed. Carter, Branston, and Allan 36. 33. Susan Miller, "Opportunity SquanderedNewspapers and Women's News," Media Studies Journal 7 (1-2) (winter/spring 1993): 168. 34. Kim Walsh-Childers, Jean Chance, and Kristin Herzog, "Women Journalists Report Discrimination in Newsrooms," Newspaper Research Journal 17 (3-4,1996): 86-87. 35. Hernandez, "Good and the Bad about Women's News in Newspapers," 17. 36. Miller, "Opportunity SquanderedNewspapers and Women's News," 167. 37. Lee Jolliffe and Terri Caflett, "Women Editors at the 'Seven Sisters' Magazines, 1965-1985: Did They Make a Difference?" Journalism Quarterly 71 (winter 1994): 800-08. 38. Jolliffe and Caflett, "Women Editors at the 'Seven Sisters' Magazines, 1965-1985: Did They Make a Difference?" 806-07. 39. Aliza Lavie and Sam Lehman-Wilzig, "The Method is the Message: Explaining Inconsistent Findings in Gender and News Production Research," Journalism 6 (1, 2005): 67-69. 40. Tracy Everbach, "The 'Masculine' Content of a Female-Managed Newspaper," Media Report to Women 33 (fall 2005): 14-22. 41. Everbach, "The 'Masculine' Content of a Female-Managed Newspaper," 20-21. 42. Gary N. Powell, Women & Men in Management (Newbury Park, London, New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1993), 153-69.

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43. Ann Harriman, Women/Men/Management, 2d ed. (Westport, CT, London: Praeger, 1996), 2-4. 44. Linda L. Lindsey, Gender Roles: A Sociological Perspective, 3d ed. (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1997), 262-64. 45. Powell, Women and Men in Management, 167. 46. Vinkenburg, Jansen, and Koopman, "Feminine Leadership-A Review of Gender Differences in Managerial Behaviour and Effectiveness," 123-4,130. 47. Lindsey, Gender Roles, 53-59. 48. Angel Kwolek-Folland, Incorporating Women: A History of Women & Business in the United States (NY: Palgrave, 1998, 2002), 168-69, 201. 49. Kwolek-Folland, Incorporating Women, 202. 50. Patricia Sellers, "Power: Do Women Really Want It?" Fortune, October 13, 2003. 51. Lisa Belkin, "The Opt-Out Revolution," The New York Times Magazine, October 26, 2003, 45. 52. Belkin, "The Opt-Out Revolution," 86. 53. Van Zoonen, "One of the Girls? The Changing Gender of Journalism," 33-46. 54. Van Zoonen, "One of the Girls? The Changing Gender of Joumalism," 34. 55. Van Zoonen, "One of the Girls? The Changing Gender of Journalism," 35-36. 56. Marilyn E. Gist, "Through the Looking Glass: Diversity and Reflected Appraisals of the Self in Mass Media," in Women in Mass Communication, ed. Creedon, 109-110. 57. Stuart Allan, "(En)gendering the Truth Politics of News Discourse," in News,Gender and Power, ed. Carter, Branston, and Allan, 126,133; Gist, "Through the Looking Glass," 108-09. 58. Josephine Donovan, Feminist Theory: The Intellectual Traditions of American Feminism (NY: Continuum, 1992), 199. 59. Arnold and Nesbitt, Women in Media 2006, 19; Readership Institute, Media Management Center, Impact Study (Evanston, IL: Northwestem University, January 2000). 60. Readership Institute, Impact Study. 61. Harriman, Women/Men/Management; Powell, Women and Men in Management. 62. Harriman, Women/Men/Management; Powell, Women and Men in Management. 63. American Press Institute, "Women, Men and Newsroom Leadership," DVD, 2003. 64. Deborah Tannen, You Just Don't Understand: Women and Men in Conversation (NY: Ballantine Books, 1990), 24-25. 65. Arnold and Nesbitt, Women in Media 2006, 52. 66. Arnold and Nesbitt, Women in Media 2006,16-17. 67. Norman K. Denzin and Yvonna S. Lincoln, eds.. The Landscape of Qualitative Research: Theories and Issues (Thousand Oaks, London, New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1998), 134-36. 68. Thomas R. Lindlof, Qualitative Communication Research Methods
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(Thousand Oaks, London, New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1995), 5. 69. Linda McGee Calvert and V. Jean Ramsey, "Bringing Women's Voice to Research on Women in Management: A Feminist Perspecfive," Journal of Management Inquiry 1 (March 1992): 79-88; Harriman,
Women/Men/Management; Liesbet Van Zoonen, Feminist Media Studies

(London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi: Sage Publicafions, 1994), 56-64. 70. Newspaper Associafion of America, "Facts About Newspapers: A Stafisfical Summary of the Newspaper Industry, http://www.naa. org/info/facts04/cmi.html (accessed August 17, 2004). 71. U.S. Census Bureau, http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states (accessed September 15, 2003). 72. Sarasota County records. 73. Sherry Ricchiardi, "Where Women Rule," American Journalism Review 23 (1, 2001): 52. 74. ASNE 2003 armual census; Ricchiardi, "Where Women Rule," 52. 75. Ricchiardi, "Where Women Rule," 52. 76. Interview with Sarasota Herald-Tribune publisher Diane McFarlin in her office, September 11, 2003. 77. Kwolek-Folland, Incorporating Women, 203-05. 78. Kwolek-Folland, Incorporating Women, 203-05. 79. Male Reporter No. 1, interview with author, September 11, 2003. Note: Employees interviewed for this study are not idenfified by name per agreement with the author, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune managers, and the University of Missouri's Institufional Review Board. The decision to keep employees anonymous was intended to allow them to speak freely without fear of retribufion. 80. Interview with Male Reporter No. 1 in Sarasota-Herald Tribune newsroom conference room, 11 September 2003. 81. Male Reporter No. 1, interview. 82. Male Reporter No. 1, interview. 83. Interview with Sarasota Herald-Tribune Managing Editor Diane Tennant at a Sarasota restaurant, September 10, 2003. Tennant replaced Rosemary Armao as managing editor after Armao resigned in June 2002 over an ethics dispute with Execufive Editor Janet Weaver. 84. McFarlin, interview. 85. Janet Weaver, interview with author, September 12, 2003. 86. Female Editor No. 1. 87. Newsroom observafion of Female Editor No. l's conversafion with another employee, December 17, 2003. 88. Weaver, interview. 89. Weaver, interview. 90. Tannen, You Just Don't Understand, 38. 91. McFarlin, interview. 92. Tennant, interview. 93. McFarlin, interview. 94. Newsroom observation, December 19, 2003. 95. Linda Steiner, "Newsroom Accounts of Power at Work," in News, Cender and Power, ed. Carter, Branston, and Allan, 146. 96. Tennant, interview.
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97. Male Reporter No. 6, posting May 16, 2002. 98. Intranet posting. May 23, 2002. 99. Observation of news budget meeting, June 6, 2002. 100. Observation of editors' meeting, September 10, 2003. 101. Interview with Male Editor No. 1 in the newsroom, June 6, 2002. 102. Interview with Male Reporter No. 2 in the newsroom, December 15, 2003. 103. Male Reporter No. 2, interview. 104. Interview with Male Reporter No. 3 in news bureau office, December 16, 2003. 105. Interview with Female Photographer No. 1 in newsroom, June 5, 2002. 106. Interview with Female Reporter No. 2 in the newsroom, June 5, 2002. 107. Interview with Female Page Designer No. 1 in the newsroom, June 5, 2002. 108. Interview with Female Reporter No. 4 at a restaurant, December 16, 2003. 109. Interview with Female Reporter No. 3 at a restaurant, December 16, 2003. 110. Tennant, interview. 111. Interview with Rosemary Armao in newsroom conference room, June 2, 2002. 112. McFarlin, interview. 113. Lisa Rab, "H-T Publisher Names New Top Editor," Sarasota HeraldTribune, December 20, 2003,12A. 114. Bill Dedman and Stephen K. Doig, report compiled for Knight Foundation, May 2004, http://powerreporting.com/knight/fl_sarasota_herald-tribune.html (accessed August 17, 2004). 115. McFarlin, interview. 116. St. Petersburg Times, "Circulafion of Florida's Largest Newspapers," http://www.sptimes.com/Marketbook/circulation.html (accessed January 15, 2004). 117. Armao, interview. 118. Weaver, interview. 119. Steiner, "Newsroom Accounts of Power at Work," 146. 120. Tannen, You Just Don't Understand, 25. 121. Donovan, Feminist Theory, 173,177; see also Tannen, You Just Don't Understand, 38.

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