After nearly a 10-point drop in the first year of the COVID pandemic, TV news profitability is starting to climb, according to the latest RTDNA/Newhouse School at Syracuse University Survey. After a nearly 10-point drop in the year of COVID, profitability went up 4 points and loss fell by more than 3.
Radio news profitability, which also dropped in the first year of COVID, started to climb, too, but gains there were more modest. Both TV news and Radio news profitability are less than what was reported before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Radio news profitability in 2022 looks a lot like 2021, edging up ever so slightly from 12 to 12.2%. Break even moved up 2 points while loss moved down by 2. Note that “don’t know” came in on top, as usual, at nearly 40%.
There was no discernible pattern to profitability based on staff size (profitability peaked at 3 staffers), number of stations in the local cluster (groups of 3 or more stations and AM/FM combos came out on top), or market size (medium and large markets edged out small markets with major markets well behind … but that’s where most of the non-profit stations are). Stations in the Northeast were less likely to be profitable and more likely to report losses than any other region.
A quarter (24.2%) of radio news directors and general managers reported the percentage of station revenue produced by news. That’s low enough to view the numbers cautiously, but it’s high enough to report. The managers reported, on average, 10% of station revenue came from news. But the median — or typical — percentage was just 5%. The average is down from last year’s 13.4%, but the median is identical to the last four years.
Radio website profitability up and down
The numbers on radio website profitability in the latest RTDNA/Newhouse School at Syracuse University Survey look a lot like last year. Profitability edged down 0.2, break even rose by 3 and loss fell by less than a point. Large markets and small markets rose in web profitability, with the biggest gains in small markets.
For whatever reason, stations in the West were a lot less likely to have shown a profit on the web. The West lagged last year, too. Missing percentages represent non-profit stations.
Radio news budgets
The big winner in radio news budgets — as usual — is “same,” with nearly two-thirds of the stations reporting no change in budget. The percentage reporting a budget increase rose by 4 points versus last year, while the percentage reporting a cut fell by 9. All in all, that’s not a bad year. No real patterns based on staff size, number of stations or market size. Stations in the West did the best; stations in the Northeast fared the worst.
About a fifth of radio stations get news from an outside provider
The survey found that the percentage of radio stations getting news from an outside service largely held steady from a year ago, falling from 22.5% to 22.2%.
Commercial stations dropped a point to 23.4% this time around. Non-commercial stations rose (again) from 14.5% two years ago to 17% last year to 18.8% this time around.
Generally, the smaller the staff, the more likely that the station gets its news from an outside service. No surprise there. Number of stations in a group made no difference one way or the other. Market size was again inconsistent, although small markets remained less likely to use an outside service than any other market size. Geography made a difference, with stations in the South and Midwest less likely than others to use an outside contractor.
For those who said local radio news came from an outside service, we asked for the name:
- 30% Various local TV stations … up almost 10 points from last year
- 20% Various local newspapers (clearly with and without some sort of agreement) … up 3 points
- 12.2% 24/7 News Source (formerly Metro Networks and Total Traffic Networks) … the number seems to bounce up and down in alternate years… this year up by 2
- 8.9% Various statewide radio networks … down 2 from a year ago
- 8.9% VirtualNewsCenter … up almost 3
- 5.6% The internet … without noting which sites … up slightly
- 2.2% Another radio station
- 1.1% Remote News Service … back on the list after missing last year
- 1.1% Declined to name
- 10% Other … single mention only
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