The rise of the anchorwomen

Viewer attitudes, economics lift young female newscasters

The marquee duo of Frances Rivera (left) and Kim Khazei were made Channel 7's permanent anchor team yesterday. (Globe Staff Photo / Michele McDonald)

As layoffs and early retirements alter Boston's television newsrooms, the traditional anchorman is becoming a minority and newscasts are getting female makeovers.

Men have been leaving their anchor jobs because of budget cuts forced by the recession and changes in direction at the stations, and women are being elevated to more prominent roles. At WHDH-TV (Channel 7) the marquee anchor duo is Frances Rivera and Kim Khazei. At Univision Boston, an all-female team anchors and reports the news. At NECN, women anchor all weekend newscasts. Women have replaced male anchors on other stations' newscasts, as well.

While their managers say they were the best candidates for the jobs, their gender influenced the decisions in some cases. Managers say today's audiences are more willing to accept news from a young woman. As stations lose industry veterans, who typically earn much larger salaries, they turn to younger anchors to cut costs and draw viewers.

Most of the recent high-profile departures in Boston have been men, among them WCVB-TV's Jim Boyd, WHDH's Randy Price and Brandon Rudat, and NECN's Tom Ellis. For the most part, women have replaced them.

Ed Ansin, owner of WHDH, had been trying out the team of Rivera and Khazei since Price left Channel 7 last month and made the duo permanent yesterday. Ansin said he paired them because he wanted to make his stations stand out against the traditional anchor format.

"The fact that it's two women is something that differentiates us, of course," Ansin said, "but also the fact they are both well known and very popular and very good."

His station, which has a female news director, Linda Miele, also promoted reporter Sorboni Banerjee as its lone weekend morning anchor.

"We were running short of men," Ansin said. "And we said, 'Gee, let's see how it goes if we had Sorboni go at it alone.' "

WHDH isn't the only one with fewer men in the newsroom. Stations and networks across the country have seen a scarcity of male anchors in recent years, according to studies by the Radio-Television News Directors Association. At news stations nationally, 57 percent of anchors are women, up from 54 percent in 1996.

One explanation, observers say, is that young men may be backing away from the profession as opportunities shrink and women are promoted more quickly. "It's faster for [women] to move up the food chain," said Bob Papper, head of the journalism department at Hofstra University, where he studies newsroom trends. "It takes longer for men to get on the air at a decent size station."

Some station managers also think they can increase their ratings by putting attractive young women in the anchor chairs, Papper said. "In television, what you look like matters, and that is true for both men and women," he said. "Young women can look more mature than men of the same age. The fact is that the average woman coming out of school, if you dress her up and put makeup on, she looks like an adult. The average guy coming out of school looks like he's coming out of puberty. It's not discrimination. It's biology."

And there are a lot more of them in training. Nationally, 70 percent of students at journalism schools are women. At Boston University, 64 percent of students in the undergraduate broadcast journalism program are women. In the graduate broadcast program, women make up 75 percent of the students.

Young women are also seeing more high-profile women climb into bigger anchor chairs. The most prominent example is Katie Couric, who replaced Dan Rather on CBS Evening News in 2006. Shows such as "The Insider," "Entertainment Tonight," and "Inside Edition," as well as "Good Morning America" are led by casts of women.

"One reason is because women as news anchors have credibility with the audience. They see it as a profession where they can do serious work and be accepted," said Barbara Cochran, president of the news directors association. "Many years ago, when women first started to be seen on the air, there were questions whether the audience would accept hard news from a woman. That is not a concern anymore."

WHDH began pairing Rivera and Khazei as the new anchor team in January for its 10 p.m. newscast on sister station WLVI. Khazei replaced Matt Lorch, who is back to reporting at night.

When Price, the longtime anchor, left WHDH in February, Ansin recruited Khazei to fill in temporarily. "I think they tend to be more passionate about the work," he said of the new team.

Rivera said she has heard from many viewers who were surprised to find they like the female anchor duo.

"Viewers are so used to the yin-yang of a male-female anchor team, and I believe it's easier for people to assume they won't like anything other than that formula," she said. "But there's the curiosity factor. Once that's appeased and they realize there is a unique dynamic with a female anchor team, they say they stick around to watch."

That same curiosity factor is happening at WUNI-TV (Channel 27), Boston's Univision affiliate. General manager Alex von Lichtenberg said he has seen a small jump in ratings since he ushered in an all-female news team after he laid off his male coanchor and sports anchor in January.

"The women on my staff are intelligent, energetic, and totally committed professionals," von Lichtenberg said. ". . . I am looking forward to the day when the economy turns and we can gather more resources to serve the community."

When that happens, he will probably have more female candidates to pick from. At least 60 percent of the on-air job inquiries to his station are from female broadcasters, he said.

Johnny Diaz can be reached at jodiaz@globe.com.