RTDNA Releases Annual Radio/TV Staffing Survey

RADIO ONLINE | Monday, July 27, 2015

Research by the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) shows radio newsroom employment and staffing remained mostly unchanged in the past year. The typical radio news operation has a full-time news staff of one, with the typical radio News Director overseeing the news on an average of 2.4 stations. Nearly 80 percent of multi-station local groups use a centralized newsroom. Almost 30 percent of stations say their news director is not a full-time employee.

Television newsroom employment increased by 1.1 percent in the past year, with 300 new positions added. That puts total TV news staffing at 27,600, the third-highest total on record. There are two fewer TV newsrooms producing news than last year, with consolidation slowing. Among the top replacement hires were reporters and producers, with multimedia journalists surpassing photographers for the first time. The larger stations tended to add staff in the past year, while more than 20 percent of stations with ten or fewer staffers made cuts.

Overall, web staffing went up in TV newsrooms and down in radio, with television stations averaging half a staffer more than last year.

To see the numbers and learn more, see RTDNA's latest report on its annual newsroom survey at rtdna.org.