Black Media Powerhouses: 10 African American Journalists To Watch

The challenges around establishing diversity in newsrooms are not new.

There are ample studies and surveys tracking progress — or lack thereof in some instances.

American Society of News Editors (ASNE) conducts an annual Newsroom Diversity Survey. The RTNDA/Hofstra University Newsroom Study looks at how women and people of color are represented in television and radio newsrooms.

The results are mixed. According to the ASNE report, the greatest increase of minorities is in online-only newsrooms, where they represent 25.6 percent of respondents, which is up from 24.3 percent last year.

Television newsrooms are seeing the highest number of people of color at 24.8 percent, as of 2017. However, despite these increases, they don’t mirror the minority population growth.

While there’s still work to be done, we celebrate journalists of color working in newsrooms across the country.

Last year, we profiled some stand out Black reporters, editors, and anchors. For this Black History Month, we’re adding to the list.

Yamiche Alcindor

Yamiche Alcindor joined PBS NewsHour as its White House correspondent in 2018. You also can catch her on NBC and cable news programs as a regular contributor. Alcindor has traveled the country, covering major stories for The New York Times and USA Today, including the 2012 presidential campaigns, the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, and police protests in Baltimore and Missouri. With the upcoming 2020 election, expect to see more of Alcindor lending her political news expertise on NewsHour and some of NBC/MSNBC’s most popular shows.

Nia-Malika Henderson

CNN’s Nia-Malika Henderson spent several years on the print side of the business before joining the cable network as a senior political reporter in 2015. Henderson made stops at The Washington Post and Politico, covering a broad range of political topics from the 2008 and 2012 campaigns to the Obama administration in the White House. She also reported for Newsday. Today, she’s part of CNN’s political team, reporting the latest political news. She also serves as a guest panelist on CNN’s The Situation Room, CNN Inside Politics, and CNN Tonight with Don Lemon.

Gayle King

Award-winning journalist Gayle King, co-anchor of CBS This Morning and aka Oprah’s BFF, boasts decades of news experience. King worked her way through several television markets, including Baltimore, Kansas City, and Washington, D.C. She also was an anchor at WFSB-TV in Hartford, Conn. for 18 years. King has hosted her own syndicated talk shows, both on TV and satellite radio. Today, she’s editor-at-large for the Oprah Magazine. She’s interviewed some of the biggest names in news as CBS This Morning’s co-anchor.

Hoda Kotb

When Hoda Kotb took over as Today Show co-anchor next to Savannah Guthrie, she became part of history. It was the first time the popular morning show would be anchored by two female hosts. That was a little over a year ago. Since then, the award-winning Kotb, who joined NBC News in 1998 after working at stations in New Orleans and Fort Myers, has lived up to her hyped promotion.

Don Lemon

Award -winning and sometimes controversial Don Lemon hosts his own nightly show, CNN Tonight with Don Lemon. Lemon started his news career as a news assistant at New York’s WNYW. He then worked his way through NBC affiliates in Birmingham, St. Louis, and Philadelphia before landing a correspondent spot with the network. He worked up to a co-anchor position with the NBC station in Chicago. Lemon has been with CNN since 2006.

Marc Lamont Hill

Marc Lamont Hill is not one to hold back. The outspoken Hill is a mix of journalist, host, commentator, author, and academic. Recently in the news for being fired from CNN following comments he said about Israel, the Philadelphia native is a BET News correspondent and HuffPost Live host.

Clarence Page

Clarence Page is one of the most revered journalists of our generation. He is the longtime syndicated columnist of the Chicago Tribune. Page often is tapped by MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews to provide political commentary. He’s received several awards during his career, including two Pulitzers.

Robin Roberts

Robin Roberts is the sportscaster-turned-Good Morning America-anchor. Roberts landed the coveted spot in 2005 after sitting in as the news anchor for a few years. She has interviewed some of the biggest newsmakers and reported on huge stories. She’s received numerous awards for her reporting, including a series on Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath on the Gulf Coast, where she grew up.

Eugene Robinson

On any given Sunday morning, you can catch this Pulitzer-prize winning The Washington Post columnist and editor on Meet the Press. Eugene Robinson has become such a popular MTP guest that there’s a Saturday Night Live sketch he’s featured in. He started writing the column in 2005 and won a Pulitzer for his commentary of the 2008 presidential campaign.

Darlene Superville

Politics is Darlene Superville‘s beat and the Associated Press is the place. Over her 30-year career there, the veteran AP writer/reporter/editor, Superville has reported New Jersey local and state news before moving to the national desk. There, she covered the presidential campaigns between 2000-2012 and was Chief AP Reporter during the Obama White House years. She is now part of the AP team assigned to the Trump administration.

Interested in Black-interest news in media and other industries? We can create a custom newsfeed for you. It’s easy. Sign up at PR Newswire for Journalists today.

Brett Savage-Simon is PR Newswire’s former director of audience relations and was a television reporter in her former life.