RTDNA Research Profiles Newsroom Staffing
| RADIO ONLINE | Monday, July 25, 2016 |
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Research by the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) shows local radio staffing remained flat, with the average radio station having a news staff of one person, and on average, a radio News Director does the news on 2.4 stations, with 22 percent handing news on four or more stations. TV news employment hit a near-record high in the past year, growing by one percent across the country and adding 270 people. That puts TV news staffing at 27,870 people, below the all-time peak in 2001.
The average TV station replaced 6.8 positions in the past year and added 1.6 newsroom jobs. The top replacement hires were producers, reporters and multimedia journalists, and replacement hires for photographers also went up. For new hires, producers and digital/web/social media personnel led the way.
Nearly half of local TV stations doing news added newsroom staff in the past year and just over 40 percent of television newsrooms plan to increase staff size in the coming year, with stations in the South most optimistic about making new hires and stations in the West the least optimistic. Only about ten percent a radio newsrooms anticipate staff growth in the coming year.
