Local TV newsroom employment numbers went up 1.1% in the past year, with 300 positions added, according to a study from the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) and Hofstra University. That puts total TV news staffing at 27,600, the third-highest total on record, behind 2012 and 2000. Among the top replacement hires were reporters and producers, with multimedia journalists surpassing photographers for the first time. The larger stations tended to add staff, while more than 20% of stations with ten or fewer staffers made cuts.
The average TV station hired six replacements during 2014 and 1.3 new, additional positions. In contrast, the survey notes, the latest numbers from the American Society of News Editors in July of 2014 found that newspaper newsroom staff fell 3.2% from the year before.
Radio staffing remained mostly unchanged in the past year.
After a big jump in hiring expectations last year, there's a four point drop in news directors who expect to increase staff in 2015 and a 1% increase in those expecting to cut.
In terms of web staffing, TV stations are up almost a half a full-time person from a year ago.
The RTDNA/Hofstra University Survey was conducted in the fourth quarter of 2014 among all 1,688 operating, non-satellite television stations and a random sample of 3,704 radio stations.
