Key Documents: Section IV. Data on the Status and Practice of Journalism - Journalism Employment/Careers

The Real Story of TV News Staffing and other Numbers for TV and Radio in 2008 RTNDA/ Hofstra University Survey - 2008

By Bob Papper

I spoke to a number of local TV news directors in July and August who said that they were among the “lucky ones” that haven't had to cut staff or leave positions unfilled this year. Actually, I think their experience has been typical. In a follow-up to the RTNDA/Hofstra University Survey of more than 300 stations, almost three-quarters have reported either no staff cuts or staff increases. Unfilled positions were counted as staff reductions, and news directors were quick to point out that most of those TV news staff reductions happened through attrition, or by hiring freezes, rather than letting people go. TV news' itinerant nature makes that easier to accomplish.

TV News Staff Changes Since January 1, 2008

In an era of generally increasing TV news staff, those figures are comparatively depressing. Most years, the percentage of stations with increases would be 10 percent higher, and the percentage of stations with decreases would be at least 10 percent lower. This year, there were more layoffs than additions, far more people were cut than added, and some of those layoffs involved dozens of people at one time. In a number of cases, station cuts outside of news meant that the spared newspeople had to pick up the slack.

Stations that increased staff added an average of 2.9 people (median 2); stations that cut dropped by an average 3.8 people (median 2). Subtracting gains from losses and projecting across all stations, local TV news, nationwide, has lost about 360 people since the frst of the year. There are about 24,500 people who work full-time in local TV news.

Recession aside, news directors expect the remainder of the year to be far better.

TV News Staff Changes Expected Over the Next Few Months

While nearly three-quarters of the news directors expect no change in staff size, almost twice as many expect to add people as cut them. The industry-wide projection would be a net increase in TV [Page 1851]newspeople of 151 through the remainder of the year. That would result in a 2008 net loss of 209 jobs. I'll know in more detail after the next full RTNDA/Hofstra University Annual Survey, but TV news staffing appears to have slipped to its fourth highest level ever—behind 2007, earlier this year and 2001.

The pain of this year's layoffs has not been spread evenly across all stations. The biggest markets, 1–25, and markets 101–150 have been hit the hardest. In both cases, just over a third of the stations have cut staff. Not surprisingly, the smallest markets, 151+, already on the lean side, were the least likely to see staff reductions (16.7 percent) and the most likely to remain unchanged (70.8 percent).

Stations in the South and Midwest were also hit harder than stations in the Northeast or West. While almost half the stations for every region remained the same, more than 30 percent of the stations in the Midwest and South had cutbacks. That is seven to 10 points higher than stations in the Northeast or West.

...