News ReleasesTelevision News Jobs and Salaries Decline As Amount of News Increases, RTNDA/Hofstra University Survey Shows
For Immediate Release: April 19,
2009
Jobs in local television news dropped by
4.3 percent and salaries dropped by 4.4 percent last year. At the same time,
stations set a record for the amount of news on the air while the net number of
stations originating news declined by only 4 in the past 16 months.
These are the results of the 2009
RTNDA/Hofstra University Annual Survey, released today at the Radio-Television
News Directors Association convention in Las Vegas. The survey showed that more
than half of stations are making a profit on local news.
"It's clear that stations are banking on
local news to carry them into the future," said Bob Papper, director of the
survey and professor and chair of the department of journalism at
Hofstra University. "Television is clearly suffering from the same stress as the
entire economy, but stations are by no means giving up on
local news."
Papper said he expects jobs and salaries
to continue to decline in 2009, but looks for improvement in 2010.
Among the survey
highlights:
-
Television news shed 1,200 jobs in 2008.
The 4.3 percent decline was greater than the 3.8 percent drop in overall U.S.
employment. U.S. newspapers reported cutting newsroom staff by 5,900 jobs
or 11.3 percent in 2008.
-
Almost four times as many stations
reported cutting jobs as adding jobs.
-
Hardest hit by salary cuts were news
reporters (-13.3 percent), news anchors (-11.5), weather casters (-9.1) and
sports anchors (-8.9).
-
The typical station added a half-hour of
local news per weekday in 2008, setting a new record for the amount of news --
4.6 hours per weekday. Weekends stayed the same.
-
The number of stations running news in
2008 dropped from 774 to 770. So far in 2009, three stations have stopped
originating news, but three stations have started or announced plans to start
local news, keeping the total at 770.
-
Of the four stations that stopped
originating news in 2008, two are running news from another station. In 2009,
two of the three stations that stopped originating news are running news from
another station.
-
Radio staffing stayed the same with the
same percentage reporting cuts as those reporting hires, typically of one
person.
-
Radio salaries declined 1.8 percent and
the amount of news dropped slightly.
The RTNDA/Hofstra University Survey was
conducted the fourth quarter of 2008 among all non-satellite television stations
and a random sampling of radio stations. Results on minority and women staffing
and digital media will be released later in the year.
RTNDA is the world's largest professional organization devoted exclusively to electronic journalism. RTNDA represents local and network news professionals in broadcasting, cable and other electronic media in more than 30 countries.
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