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Employment in Local TV Surpass Newspapers; First Time in 20 Years

Y2kTheNewOldies

Y2kTheNewOldies

http://www.adweek.com/tvspy/employm...pass-newspapers-first-time-in-20-years/203136

Interesting study though By RTDNA though.

“Despite all the talk about alleged news deserts across the country, our research clearly shows broadcast and digital journalists are serving their communities throughout America,” said Dan Shelley, executive director of RTDNA.

Highlights from the survey include:

2017 saw a slight decrease in the number of TV news jobs, with 2 fewer newsrooms and a decrease in the median newsroom size, but the average local TV newsroom employment remains just below its all-time high.

Nearly 90% of news directors expect their staffing to increase or remain the same in the coming year.

The number of multimedia journalists (MMJs) or backpack journalists has been steadily increasing for several years, but this year growth slowed for the first time. In the average newsroom, MMJ jobs still increased while reporter jobs fell.

Website responsibilities are increasingly integrated into job descriptions across newsrooms and, among newsrooms that hired in 2017, the largest proportion – nearly 20% – of newly created positions were digital-focused: web, social media or other digital media positions.

The study is part of a series of reports that look at salaries, diversity, news coverage and business operations. While TV newsroom employment is up compared to newspapers, the study noted that hiring has decreased in markets 151 and below in down.
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The main factor here is the extended hours of local news in most markets. More hours of local programming creates, (for the most part), more jobs. While automation and remote control from centralized locations do tend to reduce jobs, the massive expansion of morning news, and evening/late night on Fox and independent stations affiliating with local network stations also helps this expansion. I don't find this surprising in the least. One piece of good news for newspapers is they seem to be somewhat steady over the past decade after a downfall earlier.
 
seatownmedia said:
The main factor here is the extended hours of local news in most markets. .
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The main factor here is the cratering of newspapers. They have been laying-off people in massive numbers, all across the country. They are running out of places to cut and I predict we are going to see a wave of established papers start to disappear soon.

Even if employment in television just held steady they'd be pulling ahead.
 
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FreddyE1977 said:
The main factor here is the cratering of newspapers. They have been laying-off people in massive numbers, all across the country. They are running out of places to cut and I predict we are going to see a wave of established papers start to disappear soon.

Even if employment in television just held steady they'd be pulling ahead.
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I get that local TV stations are expanding news, which may be expanding job opportunities at those stations, but this is clearly more of an indication of how endangered newspapers are. In San Francisco, the once famed Chronicle, owned by the once powerful Hearst Corporation, has turned into a puny little tabloid with almost no advertising, and truncated news coverage. Their free website, SF Gate, is an awful melange of tiny stories and click-bait slideshows, and seemingly getting worse on purpose, so they convince you that you need to subscribe to their pay site, but with so many free online sources for news, it's a tough sell. I know that I'm not buying
 
LKellerIII said:
I get that local TV stations are expanding news, which may be expanding job opportunities at those stations, but this is clearly more of an indication of how endangered newspapers are. In San Francisco, the once famed Chronicle, owned by the once powerful Hearst Corporation, has turned into a puny little tabloid with almost no advertising, and truncated news coverage. Their free website, SF Gate, is an awful melange of tiny stories and click-bait slideshows, and seemingly getting worse on purpose, so they convince you that you need to subscribe to their pay site, but with so many free online sources for news, it's a tough sell. I know that I'm not buying
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Yet, if one looks at the stats provided in the link, newspaper employment has leveled off in the past half-decade. Meaning, they are not dropping as much as previously. I guess you could argue the damage has already been done, but newspaper internet sites have kept the decline to a minimum. Sorta.

That said, the only newspapers I read anymore are when I get a free copy at a hotel, or when I'm waiting for my car to be serviced. Not a great business model.
 
seatownmedia said:
Yet, if one looks at the stats provided in the link, newspaper employment has leveled off in the past half-decade. Meaning, they are not dropping as much as previously. I guess you could argue the damage has already been done, but newspaper internet sites have kept the decline to a minimum. Sorta.
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Plus they've adjusted staffing to the way news today is covered. Not as much with a guy wearing a trench-coat and fedora, smoking cigarettes covering a beat. More someone working the phones and the internet in the office.
 
TheBigA said:
Plus they've adjusted staffing to the way news today is covered. Not as much with a guy wearing a trench-coat and fedora, smoking cigarettes covering a beat. More someone working the phones and the internet in the office.
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In the late 70s and early 80s, I operated a retail business, and we advertised in the SF Chronicle. The corporation that printed both SF dailies - the Chronicle and Examiner - were effectively a monopoly and they charged whatever the hell they pleased. Their advertising department was arrogant and rude, and provided horrible customer service - at least to small retailers like myself who ran small ads. And they were expensive - over $100 per day for an add the size of a postage stamp. This was in 1980s dollars - so the equivalent to over $300 per day.

In the late 90s, early 00s - I worked in Human Resources doing recruiting and hiring. It was great when we're able to move our job postings to the internet, and were able to tell the newspapers to take their tiny "Job Opportunity" classified ads and shove them up their printing press. We also saved a fortune in advertising costs.

Also - think of the trees that have avoided slaughter as newspapers shrink and die.

So as selfish as it sounds, I have taken some pleasure in watching that business model circle the drain. Thanks, internet!
 
The Charlotte Observer often has stories from the local TV stations or articles written by their reporters which use the stations as sources.

I mention their customer service on another thread.

Advertising doesn't seem to be a problem. Pages and pages of all or mostly ads. Not nearly as much news as they once had.
 
Back in the 70's if you picked-up one of the two daily Pittsburgh papers you would find the entire front section peppered with department store ads.

At the time there were 3 full-service department store chains operating in Pittsburgh: Kaufmanns, Hornes and Gimbels. Kaufmanns and Hornes were locally owned. All three of them ran multiple full-page ads on a daily basis.

Today, 2 of them are gone. Macy's has absorbed Kaufmanns, and they pursue a national ad strategy which does not rely on newspaper ads. The loss of revenue to the newspapers is irreplaceable.
 
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FreddyE1977 said:
Back in the 70's if you picked-up one of the two daily Pittsburgh papers you would find the entire front section peppered with department store ads.

At the time there were 3 full-service department store chains operating in Pittsburgh: Kaufmanns, Hornes and Gimbels. Kaufmanns and Hornes were locally owned. All three of them ran multiple full-page ads on a daily basis.

Today, 2 of them are gone. Macy's has absorbed Kaufmanns, and they pursue a national ad strategy which does not rely on newspaper ads. The loss of revenue to the newspapers is irreplaceable.
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Traditional department stores...another outdated business model. San Francisco's two Macy's stores closed recently. And to give you how out-of-touch their model was, I went into their "HUGE CLOSING STORE SALE - UP TO 60 % OFF!"

There were a couple of items I saw in the store that I wanted, but went on my phone and checked Amazon. Nope. Still too expensive at Macy's.

I thought maybe the mall that housed Macy's would be upset at losing their "anchor" store. Nope, again. They were thrilled. The mall already has smaller retailers, and reportedly a multi-plex theater, lined up ready to move in and take up Macy's former space.
 
LKellerIII said:
Traditional department stores...another outdated business model. San Francisco's two Macy's stores closed recently. And to give you how out-of-touch their model was, I went into their "HUGE CLOSING STORE SALE - UP TO 60 % OFF!"

There were a couple of items I saw in the store that I wanted, but went on my phone and checked Amazon. Nope. Still too expensive at Macy's.

I thought maybe the mall that housed Macy's would be upset at losing their "anchor" store. Nope, again. They were thrilled. The mall already has smaller retailers, and reportedly a multi-plex theater, lined up ready to move in and take up Macy's former space.
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Are multiplex theaters still a growth industry?
 
CTListener said:
Are multiplex theaters still a growth industry?
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I was surprised at that, too. There is actually a tired old 2 screen theater about a block from that mall. I assume that a multi-plex in the mall would run them out of business. I got Movie Pass recently, so I'm going to more films in theaters. I'll go Friday or Saturday nights, and even the "blockbuster" films are never very crowded. Not surprising considering that they're playing on 8 or 10 other screens within a ten mile radius.

I surprised recently to learn that Mark Cuban's corp owns the Landmark Theater chain (hence "Landmark?"). They have a few theaters in SF, and run more "high-brow," films, not really the big hit films, and seem almost deserted half the time. Perhaps it's a vanity purchase for Mr. Cuban, who can no doubt afford to lose a few bucks.
 
I went to the multiplex last week, and today I learn that the county health department has closed down
their concessions stand due to "extremely high numbers of mouse droppings".

Good thing I didn't buy anything to snack on!
 
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FreddyE1977 said:
I went to the multiplex last week, and today I learn that the county health department has closed down
their concessions stand due to "extremely high numbers of mouse droppings".

Good thing I didn't buy anything to snack on!
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I wondered why those jalopeno pepper slices in my theater nachos weren't hot. Damn!
 
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