TV newsrooms keep growing larger, but there aren't as many of them to work for as there used to be, according to the latest RTDNA/Hofstra University survey.
In 2015, 27,870 people worked in TV newsrooms, which is 270 people, or 1%, more than in 2014, the survey found. The median number of full-time staff, which was 35 across all of TV, was up three people from last year.
In top 25 markets, newsrooms had a median of 77 staffers, the survey found.
The annual study found the growth in employment overcame a small loss in the number of stations producing local news.
Three stations stopped producing their own news, leaving 714 stations originating local news, down from last year’s 717. That number was down two from the previous year’s 719.
“And that puts us back on a slow – but again steady – decline in the number of TV newsrooms,” said Bob Papper, the Hofstra professor emeritus who conducts the survey.
Although some sources show a higher number of news-producing stations, those statistics include TV stations that get their news from other affiliates, he said.
