Local TV news employment moves down … along with hiring

Sep. 3, 2025 — Layoffs this year have affected ABC stations, Scripps, Gray, Sinclair, Allen Media, Tegna, Nexstar and others. Given the carnage of 2025, the drop in local TV news employment in 2024 may seem almost quaint. The latest RTDNA/Newhouse School at Syracuse University Survey shows the total full-time local TV news employment down 2.9% in 2024 from the year before to 27,066. That is a reversal from the increases of the last couple of years. Why the drop? It’s a mixture of factors: the total number of local TV newsrooms fell slightly from 697 last year to 695 this year; some of the latest round of station layoffs had already begun in 2024; and there was a 20% drop in the number of top 25 market stations reporting in this year’s survey. 

Every market size grouping went down in full-time employment, in both mean (average) and median (typical). It was not a good year for TV news jobs. Total employment is down 3.3% from the all-time high of 28,000 set in 2021.

Interestingly, average part-time employment is generally down from a year ago, but median part-time employment is up slightly. Perhaps that reflects the tentative nature of the business.

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About the Authors

Bob Papper is Research Professor of Broadcast and Digital Journalism at Syracuse University and has worked extensively in radio and TV news. 

Keren Henderson is Associate Professor of Broadcast and Digital Journalism at Syracuse University and has worked as a news producer and video editor. 

Tim Mirabito is Assistant Professor of Broadcast and Digital Journalism at Syracuse University and worked in television, radio, print and online media. 

This research was supported by the S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University and the Radio Television Digital News Association.

About the Survey

The RTDNA/Newhouse School at Syracuse University Survey was conducted in the fourth quarter of 2024 among 1,918 operating, non-satellite television stations and a random sample of 4,763 radio stations. The television response rate is different for every question, but valid responses came from as many as 1,406 television stations (73.3%) and 599 radio news directors and general managers representing 1,632 radio stations. Some data sets (e.g. the number of TV stations originating local news, getting news from others and women TV news directors) are based on a complete census and are not projected from a smaller sample.