In contrast, the over-50 age group is 78 percent male and 99 percent white. This agrees with the results of ASNE's annual employment census. However, daily newspapers remain far short of matching minorities' 26 percent share of the national population. The number of women has hardly changed in the last eight years, even though they constitute half of the younger journalists. Overall, women made up 35 percent of the survey sample in 1988 and 37 percent last year.
Journalists are increasingly college-educated.
Those with journalism degrees are now a majority, at 54 percent. The newspaper internship is becoming a standard feature of journalists' college education. More journalists are planning to get out of the business before retirement age. In particular, minorities and women predict they will leave early. But ''working conditions'' and ''stress'' now run a close second and third.