Bob Papper

And it means that, every day, there are more and more experienced people available to stations to help fill that void. Bob Papper Director, RTDNA/Hofstra University Annual Survey

It’s not about gloating; the vagaries of business and media make that a poor option. But it does mean that, every day, more and more people need local TV news to step up and fill the expanding voids in local coverage.

But in an unremarked exception, local TV news is doing quite well. The most recent RTDNA/Hofstra University Survey noted that local TV news added 700 jobs last year … to reach the second highest employment level ever – just shy of the all-time record set in 2009.

A comment on this week’s article in Bloomberg: “Journalism Job Cuts Haven’t Been This Bad Since the Recession (of 2009).” Overall, that’s true, and the just-announced closing of Youngstown, Ohio’s only daily paper reinforces the changing and generally diminishing landscape.