Texas dailies have more non-white employees in their newsrooms now than 10 years ago but most have already peaked in newsroom diversity and begun a downward trend.

The statistics (view PDF of Texas dailies) were compiled from a Knight Foundation study of newspaper employment from 1990 to 2005.

Seven Texas dailies peaked in non-white newsroom employment this year — Austin American-Statesman (23.6 percent), Corpus Christi Caller-Times (37.7 percent), Houston Chronicle (21.3 percent), Laredo Morning Times (91.3 percent), McKinney Courier-Gazette (22.2 percent) and San Angelo Standard-Times (25 percent).

Two Texas dailies this year tied  their peak years — Corsicana Daily Sun 16.7 percent (1995) and The Pecos Enterprise 50 percent (1993-95, 1997, 1999-2000).

But three Texas metro dailies fell below their 2004 peak — The Dallas Morning News (to 14.8 percent from 20.2 percent,) San Antonio Express-News (to 30.6 percent from 31.2 percent) and Fort Worth Star-Telegram (to 21 percent from 22.5 percent.)

Seven Texas dailies reported having an all-white newsroom this year — Ennis Daily News, Nacogdoches Daily Sentinel, Pampa News, Plainview Daily Herald, Taylor Daily Press, Vernon Daily Record and Weatherford Democrat.

While the newspaper industry may be slowly adding journalists of color overall, the gains have been uneven. The share of journalism jobs held by non-whites has receded from its high-water mark in most newsrooms, large and small, the study showed.

Among the 200 largest newspapers nationwide, 73 percent employ fewer non-whites, as a share of the newsroom jobs, than they did in some earlier year from 1990 to 2004. Only 27 percent of these large dailies were at their peak as 2005 began.

Looking more broadly at all newspapers, only 18 percent were at their peak, while 44 percent have slipped. The remaining 37 percent of dailies that divulged their employment figures reported an all-white newsroom.

This third annual report for the Knight Foundation adds context to an annual survey by the American Society of Newspaper Editors and shows year-by-year changes for individual newspapers. It also identifies newspapers that are meeting ASNE’s goal of parity between newsroom and community.

The report was done for the Knight Foundation by journalists Bill Dedman and Stephen K. Doig and includes a separate Web page for each of the 1,410 reporting newspapers online at http://powerreporting.com/knight/.