More News, Fewer People

There was some good news in 2020.

According to a study by the RTDNA, more stations produced more local news in 2020 than ever before.

The study shows that 1,116 TV stations aired local news in 2020, up 18 from last year’s all-time high. 710 stations reported producing news, up 5 including 4 small, independent broadcasters. 406 additional TV stations aired local news, up 13 from 2019.

Now the bad news.

The study shows that 2020’s growth in the amount of news produced came amid a year of cutbacks for news budgets. Just 16.3% of TV stations report budget increases in 2020 versus 36.8% that did in 2019. 29.3% report experiencing budget cuts in 2020 vs 9.1% that did in 2019. Stations in the top 50 markets were most affected by budget cuts.

In other words, more news, fewer people.

You can read the full report at the RTDNA’s website