Employment for TV news surpasses dailies for first time

Total local TV news employment has surpassed total employment at daily newspapers for the first time in the more than 20 years that the Radio Television Digital News Association and Hofstra University have been compiling an annual Newsroom Survey.

RTDNA/Hofstra graph; click the image to enlarge it.

 
"The latest survey found that the average TV station hired 6.8 replacements during 2017 and 1.2 staff for new positions. This is a change of 0.3 more replacements than a year ago, but 0.4 fewer new positions. In other words, turnover is slightly up and newly created positions slightly down," Bob Papper of Hofstra University reports. Part of the reason for that is the continued consolidation of local TV news stations. TV staffing totals are up in every market except the smallest, which have primarily rural audiences.

Though the number of multimedia or backpack journalists have steadily increased for the past several years, growth slowed this year for the first time. But in the average newsroom MMJ jobs still increased while reporter jobs decreased. Almost 90 percent of news directors expect their staffing to remain the same or increase in the coming year. Journalists in new positions are increasingly expected to pitch in with digital responsibilities such as social media or uploading and posting content to the website.