Local TV Newsroom Investment

As reported last year, stations are increasingly spreading their content across a wide variety of outlets. The most popular type of sharing continued to be the providing of content to station Web sites, followed by local radio outlets. That was followed by the sharing of content with another broadcast station, and lastly, with a local cable channel.

The percentage of content shared with all four kinds of outlets rose by a small amount from the year before.

Other Outlets for Local TV News Content by Affiliation

2004

Design Your Own Chart

Source: RTNDA/Ball State University Surveys

Based on survey responses of news directors

Conclusion

Investment in the local news market was more or less steady in 2005. Strong stations got slightly stronger. Weak stations appeared to become even weaker. And the largest group of middle-market operations essentially held the line. Changes, if any, were most visible in markets 26 to 50. Those, in contrast to the others, projected some amount of growth for 2005 in the amount of news on the air, in news budgets, and to some extent in newsroom staff.

Another area that bears watching is the smaller independents and Hispanic stations in the top markets. While the market group looked steady overall, there was significant growth in the station types, perhaps masking what’s happening at the top of the food chain.