Men have long dominated the journalism industry — they control the chief executive seats at CNN, News 12, NBC News and Newsday, for example — but women have made headway in recent years, especially in the newsroom leadership ranks.
Celina Tebor, news editor for CNN News, spoke highly about her work life, where half of her bosses are “powerful” women.
According to a 2023 Reuters Institute study, half of the new top editors appointed in the past year are women, and 44% percent hold the top editorial role.
At CNN, “In the newsroom, people who are doing the news day to day, it’s predominantly women,” Tebor said in a March interview with Compass News at the 2024 Spring National College Media Convention in New York, where Tebor was a speaker.
Tebor, a three-year pro, said she has yet to experience sexism at work, but would not provide her age out of concern that people in the industry might perceive her work differently.
Tebor grew up in Portland, Oregon, and has a bachelor’s degree in political science and communications from the University of San Diego.
She developed her love for writing through a high school journalism class. Tebor first interned as a production assistant, where she experienced a love for reporting. Tebor proceeded to intern at other news organizations, eventually landing the job at CNN News.
Jayden Kass, 19, of Riverhead, who attended the College Media Association’s National College Media Convention with members of Suffolk County Community College’s Journalism Club, is a journalism major who wants to pursue a career in travel photojournalism. She said she was inspired by Tebor’s journalism journey.
For Kass, relatives recognized early on that journalism was a career option when she developed a love for writing at a young age.
Kass said it can be difficult to go outside her comfort zone and to find people who are open to being interviewed, but journalism is worth it.
“Stick with it,” she said. “It can get very hard and stressful, but at the end, it feels amazing getting rewarded for your work.”
