Radio stations continue online platform development
By Tim Mirabito, Keren Henderson and Bob Papper
Aug. 8, 2025 — In radio, the percentage of news directors and general managers saying they started something important digitally inched up from a year ago. Almost half (43.7%) said they started something important online in 2024 — an increase of 5.7% over a year ago.
Major markets (57.1%), non-commercial stations (65.3%) and stations with the largest staff (76%) were most likely to start something important digitally, continuing a years-long trend.
The most prevalent response revolved around “content,” which is a normal finding for this question. We defined content as adding, improving, or supplementing information, often tied to the platforms it appears on, such as podcasts, social media and other digital outlets. This year, 65.7% of the responses were in the category of content.
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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.