The Online News Association sent out an updated list of attendees after the conference held in September (ONA14). My analysis on the pre-conference list was popular with speakers and sponsors. Some used the data in presentations and others quoted it to attendees and their staffers back at work.
Having met quite a few people at ONA14, I can safely say this list is not comprehensive. Names are missing, especially those of staff at the sponsor tables on the Midway. Some numbers:
- Original List N=1617
- Updated List N=1863 (8 of which were in the original list but not on the final list. We can assume these 8 people registered for the conference but never checked in to receive their badges).
- Difference of N=246
Here are the distributions of careers-by-gender from the updated list:
Self-reported job titles among the female participants:
Final count of attendees, female, by job title.
Self-reported job titles among the male participants:
Final count of attendes, male, by job title
What can we deduce from the data and this chart?
- The news industry appears uncommitted to hiring or sending developers to continuing-ed type conferences.
- The “managers” and “editors” categories vary widely in actual job duties.
- The “editors” include web editors and many editors are also writers of some sort. Indeed, many jobs in journalism are mash-ups.
- Gender inequality in the “Executive” and other categories is painfully obvious.
Please add your own observations in the comments.
This Wednesday, October 29th, 2014, I’ll be speaking at ONAPhilly’s “ONA Takeaway night” on at 7pm at The Pen and Pencil Club in Philadelphia, PA. A bunch of attendees will be sharing knowledge of the conference. See you there.