APRILFeedback

Perhaps the group of women most likely to serve as presenters and chairs on sessionsat NAB is comprised of those who work in the top executive positions in broadcastingand entertainment companies. Unfortunately, according to the Annenberg studyreleased in August 2002, the “glass ceiling” continues to keep men in power posts tothe exclusion of women. Specifically, at the ten major entertainment companies(among them, Disney, Viacom, AOL/Time Warner) women accounted for just 14percent of the top executive spots and 15 percent of the board member slots in 2001.Apologists contended that recent industry consolidation has stripped some of the rungsfrom the corporate ladder, leaving women with the opportunity to run divisions butnot entire companies. However, according to Discovery President and COO JudithMcHale, the classic “pipeline” explanation does not fully account for the current levelof women at top ranks, since there are many qualified women who have worked in theindustry for more than 20 years, and “…until you have more women in leadershippositions, it will be difficult to make changes and make progress.” While one femaleexecutive in the television industry found the results of the Annenberg study to be “thesame old story,” the publication of the report “at least gets people talking about theissue” (Romano, 2002, p. 9). The Annenberg report indicated that fewer than 20percent of the board members of the largest communication companies are women,with men accounting for more than 75 percent of the top executive positions acrossfour different communication company sectors. According to Susan Ness, former FCCCommissioner and now Director of the Information and Society Section of theAnnenberg Public Policy Center, “There continues to be a dearth of women in theexecutive suites and corporate boardrooms of communications and e-commercecompanies…With few exceptions, we have not moved beyond tokenism in the numberof women in top leadership positions or serving on the boards of communicationscompanies” (cited in Tepavcevic & Slass, 2002, p. 1). Among the 23 biggest telecomand cable providers women accounted for only 12 percent of directors and 16 percentof executives. One bright spot was that within the seven commercial broadcasttelevision and cable networks, women account for 32 percent of news executives.Among presidents and CEOs of more than 120 broadcast television and cablenetworks/channels, just 16 percent are women. The Annenberg report also stated thatfour out of five heads of local cable systems are men, as are more than four out of fiveheads of local television stations. According to Ness, “Ironically, women may have agreater opportunity now than ever before to be tapped as top executives and boardmembers. They should not be chosen, however, solely to add diversity. Women areready with the expertise, the commitment, and the talent to provide shareholders andmanagement with knowledgeable and dedicated service” (Tepavcevic & Slass, 2002, p.2). Still, according to the Annenberg study, females accounted for 30 percent of theexecutives at the seven national broadcast and cable news outlets last year, comparedwith just 20 percent the year before.i In programming at the national level, 16 percentof the top executives at 120 broadcast and cable channels are women.ii There are also anumber of female GMs at cable networks, including History Channel, TNN andVH1.iii At the local broadcast TV level, in the “top 210 media markets there were 243general managers, 823 female anchors, and 450 female news executive producers whoare women. Thus the report indicated that women fare slightly better at lower levels ofcommunication companies. (Romano, 2002, p. 9).20Feedback April 2003 (Vol. 44, No. 2)