Executive Leadership Program

About ELP

The Asian American Journalists Association is proud to provide a program to help Asian American and Pacific Islander journalists become outstanding newsroom leaders and executives.

The AAJA Executive Leadership Program (ELP) looks at how Asian American and Pacific Islander values relate to high-level decision-making processes and leadership development. The two-session program explores the responsibilities and challenges in the newsroom. Each participant will develop individual career paths to leadership positions. There are 381 graduates of the Executive Leadership Program since the program began in 1995.

In a survey of Executive Leadership Program graduates, 55% of all respondents received 1 or more PROMOTIONS within their company or at new companies. Of those who received promotions, 83% rated the program 3 or above on a scale of 1-5 with 5 being the highest, when asked about the impact of their ELP training on their promotions.

The AAJA Executive Leadership Program is founded and directed by Dinah Eng, columnist for Scripps Howard News Service, freelance writer and former AAJA National President.

The 2009 ELP Introductory Session took place February 25 to March 1, 2009 at Gannett Co., Inc. Corporate Headquarters in McLean, VA. The 2009 Introductory Session is supported by a grant from the McCormick Foundation and is hosted by Gannett Co., Inc. with additional sponsorship from CNN and People.

The ELP Mentor Program took place February 24, 2009 in McLean, VA

The ELP Advanced Session took place July 22-23 just prior to the UNITY: Journalists of Color Convention July 23-27, 2008, Chicago, IL. The next Advanced Session will take place during the Boston Convention, August 12-15, 2009

Newsroom Statistics

Unfortunately, as with other communities of color, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) are underrepresented in this country's newsrooms. The American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) 2009 newsroom employment survey showed that 458 of the newspapers responding to the survey had no minorities on their full-time staff. This number has been growing since 2006. AAPIs make up only 3.14% of all newsroom employees, down from the 3.22% in 2008, the first time the percentage has decreased since information has been gathered starting in 2001.

In broadcast, the percentage of Asian Americans in television newsrooms throughout the country is 2.7% according to a 2008 survey released by the Radio and Television News Directors Association (RTNDA) and Ball State University. Asian American Television news directors comprise 1.7%, up from 1.0% in 2007.

The data covering radio newsrooms shows that 0.4% of the radio newsroom workforce are Asian American (down from 1.1% in 2007). Only 0.8% of radio news directors are Asian American (down from 1.9% in 2007).

Read more about the 2009 ASNE Newsroom Employment survey.

Read more about the 2008 RTNDA survey of minorities and women.