• Participation has grown from 3 titles to 13 now counting gender balance in their content
• 46% of the titles reached 50% female content and over during March 2022
• Specialist titles covering travel retail, independent retail and the recycling industry join the project

The latest titles to join are DFNI, The Money Pages, What Mortgage, Independent Retail News and Materials Recycling World, joining existing titles headlinemoney.co.uk, Money Marketing, Mortgage Strategy, Drapers, Retail Jeweller, New Civil Engineer, Ground Engineering and Petroleum Technology Quarterly.

Commenting on the results, Martin Quinn emap 5050 Lead said, “In such a challenging year with lockdowns and Covid the teams have really excelled themselves and the figures prove this”

Lara Joannides, BBC’s Creative Diversity Lead for the 50:50 Project and report co-author, says: “When it comes to women’s representation, 50:50 has enriched the BBC’s storytelling since its launch in 2017. It’s hugely encouraging to see so many partners now joining us in the 50:50 Challenge and publishing their data alongside the BBC. We’re committed to continuing our work with organisations across industries to achieve equal representation of women and men.”

Tim Davie, BBC Director General, says: “The 50:50 Project plays a crucial role in finding new voices and helping us better reflect the audiences we serve.
“It’s already made a huge impact on the BBC and our global partners. There’s potential to do so much more. I encourage any organisations interested in taking up the challenge to get involved.”

Ground Engineering editor Nia Kajastie said: “Ground engineering, which forms part of the wider civil engineering and construction industries, is still a male dominated sector, but the demographics are slowly changing. To help speed up that process and make sure women and minorities feel heard and seen, Ground Engineering magazine wants to play its part.

“When we initially joined the 50:50 project, it was shocking to realise that our first issue included zero female commentators. That was a real wake-up call. It was clear that we needed to work on expanding our pool of contacts. And the work has paid off. For this year’s challenge month, we were able to hit a solid balance of 55% male and 45% female representation on the magazine’s pages.”

Robert Marr, emap CEO commented:
“emap are proud to be the leading business publisher driving real change through the 50:50 Equality Project. We are committed to continuing to work together with the industries we serve to give women a stronger voice. With five more editorial teams joining the project this year, credit is due to the thirteen emap editorial teams whose work and commitment has succeeded in increasing female representation, often in traditionally male dominated industries.”

ENDS

Notes to editors
The initiative, which originated in the BBC’s London newsroom, uses a data-driven methodology to monitor content and fundamentally shift representation within the media. Teams use a self-monitoring system to measure the gender of contributors in their content.

* 72 partners submitted data. Partners apply the 50:50 principles to their own communications with an aim of reaching 50% female representation. Data can be collated across a wide-range of areas, from: spokespeople for media interviews, conferences and events to internal and external communications

** Contributors refer to all reporters, commentators, spokespeople, analysts, academics, and case studies featured across content

*** Data submitted (datasets): Some teams record multiple aspects of their output and submit separate figures for each measure. Each measure is one datase.