The total TV staffing was virtually unchanged from a year ago -- down just 48 to a total local TV news staff of 27,605. Overall, there are now 717 TV stations originating local news ... running that news on those stations and another 235 stations ... for a total of 952 stations airing local news. That's down eight stations originating news from last year's 725, and they're running news on seven fewer additional stations than last year. Most of the stations that stopped originating local news are involved in some form of consolidation.
In contrast, the latest numbers from the American Society of News Editors (ASNE) found that newspaper newsroom staff fell 6.4% from a year ago. That's approaching three times the previous year's drop of 2.4%. That takes the total daily newspaper news staff down from last year's record low of 40,600 to a new record low of 38,000, spread among nearly 1,400 newspapers (twice the number of local TV newsrooms). The average U.S. daily newspaper now has 27.5 news staffers; the average local TV news staff is 38.5.
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