Bob Papper

The future of local television as a vital source of news and information likely depends on the medium’s ability to transcend media fragmentation. This four-part Knight Foundation report looks at the state of the industry, how newsrooms are innovating, and what the future may hold for both TV local news and streamed video. Among the authors’ recommendations:

This is the fourth of nine installments for 2017 in a series of reports developed from Radio Television Digital News Association's (RTDNA) annual survey of newsrooms across the United States. The latest RTDNA/Hofstra University Annual Survey found that 2016 marked an extraordinary year for the local TV news business. At 65.7%, newsroom profitability tied the highest level (with 2013) since 1996. Elections are still good news for local TV, and almost every category of station went up in profitability during 2016. Every market size rose except the smallest, which pretty much held its own. Staff sizes were all up except 11 to 20. ABC and CBS affiliates went up; NBC held steady; Fox affiliates dropped about 6 points.

This is the eighth in a series of reports developed from RTDNA's annual survey of newsrooms across the United States. Topics in the series include what's new online, social media and mobile strategies, television and radio budgets and profits, stations doing news, news director profiles, and our most popular areas of research; newsroom salaries, women and minorities in newsrooms, and broadcast newsroom staffing.

The women and minorities survey highlights:

• Record number of minority TV news directors
• Mostly down minorities numbers in radio
• Record number of women TV news directors and women in TV

The latest RTDNA/Hofstra University Annual Survey finds the minority workforce in TV news rose to 23.1%. That’s up almost a full point from a year ago … and is the second highest level ever in TV news. The minority workforce at non-Hispanic TV stations also went up to the second highest level ever.

The latest Radio Television Digital News Association/Hofstra University Annual Survey finds the minority workforce in TV news, at 22.4%, the highest it's been in 13 years and the second highest level ever.

The minority workforce in radio rose to the highest level since in the mid-1990s. In TV, women news directors rose to the highest percentage ever, and women in the workforce rose to the second-highest level ever. The picture for women in radio news was more mixed. Still, as far as minorities are concerned, the bigger picture remains unchanged.

In the last 24 years, the minority population in the US has risen 11 points; but the minority workforce in TV news is up less than half that (4.6), and the minority workforce in radio is up 2.2%.

The latest RTDNA/Hofstra University Annual Survey found a mixed picture on TV news staffing. The average size of a local TV newsroom fell slightly, but the median size remained exactly the same.

The average dropped because fewer than usual really large stations returned the survey in 2014. That happens some years. The number of TV stations originating local news actually went up by two in 2014 -- to 719 stations. That reverses an eight-year trend of fewer newsrooms.

I put the total local TV news employment at 27,300, down about 400 from 2013. That same year, ASNE found that newspaper newsroom staff fell 6.4% from the year before. That's approaching three times the previous year's drop of 2.4%. That took the total daily newspaper news staff down from the record low of 40,600 in 2012 to a new record low of 38,000 the following year, spread among nearly 1,400 newspapers (twice the number of local TV newsrooms).

The RTDNA/Hofstra University Survey was conducted in the fourth quarter of 2013 among all 1,659 operating, non-satellite television stations and a random sample of 3,263 radio stations.

The number of TV stations originating local news actually went up by two this year to 719 stations. However weakly, that reverses an eight-year trend of fewer newsrooms. Those 719 TV stations run news on those and another 307 stations; a record total of 1,026 stations running local news.

For the second year in a row, the average amount of news on local TV dropped slightly from the year before -- down 6 minutes after a 6 minute drop in 2013. But the latest RTDNA/Hofstra University Annual Survey found the median remained at 5 hours per weekday, and both average and median remained the same for both Saturday and Sunday.

Generally, the bigger the market and the bigger the news staff, the more news a station is likely to run. The median amount of local radio news fell by 10 minutes per weekday from 2013. The weekend remained the same, with the typical radio station running no local news on Saturday or Sunday.

In cases of two or more stations in a market, overwhelmingly, 85.6%, there is a centralized newsroom handling the news for all the stations. Overall in the survey, 75.3% of local radio groups reported that at least one station in the group runs local news.

In total, 70% of radio stations run local news -- 76.2% of AM stations and 67.1% of FM stations. The overall percentage is down 7.7 from 2013, with AM stations down 2.6 points and FM stations down 10.1.

The latest RTDNA/Hofstra University Survey continues to show that the TV news business isn't limited to TV anymore, but the numbers also show a stabilization in the outside reach of a TV newsroom.

The percentage of stations involved with other media slid about two and a half points from 2013 to 75.9%. Still a very high number. The group least likely to be involved with others: the smallest stations in the biggest markets -- which came in around the 66 percentage mark -- and Fox affiliates, which came in around 57%.

Generally, the bigger the newsroom, the more likely to have the station supplying news to other places. Fox affiliates were more likely to be involved with cable channels but less likely to be involved with another TV station in the local market or a radio station. Stations in the Northeast were noticeably more likely to be involved with another local TV station, a cable channel and TV in another market than stations elsewhere.

Out of stations supplying news to other media, a majority of stations have a cooperative arrangement with another medium.

[Papper is Professor Emeritus, Hofstra University]