More stations producing local news

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.