RTDNA/Hofstra Study Looks At News Directors' Ages, Tenure, And Even Names

Study

The latest from the annual RADIO TELEVISION DIGITAL NEWS ASSOCIATION/HOFSTRA UNIVERSITY newsroom study shows that the average age (mid-to-late 40s) and tenure (5.7 years) of news directors is holding steady.

The study's leader, Professor Emeritus BOB PAPPER, admits that, as in last year's study, the News Director information is "a few, largely irrelevant, data points," but he adds that the segment ended up the most widely distributed section of last year's report.  In that spirit, he notes that news directors range in age from 18 to 84, with radio NDs averaging 48.2 years old and being slightly younger in larger markets.  Radio ND tenures average 9.4 years, but the median is 5, meaning that a few very long-term NDs are bringing up the average.

In addition, 28.6% of radio news directors said they were not full time employees at their stations.  71.7% of radio NDs said they had other responsibilities at the station beyond news, down from 75.7% last year but up from two years ago (64.5%, a new low), and down behind the record set 7 years ago (83.1%).  

And in the totally irrelevant category of most common news director names, Mike/Michael and its variants led for males and Cathie/Cathy and its variants led for women.  "I have no idea why people found this interesting last year (or why I did this anyway)," PAPPER writes, "but since they did, I'm doing it again."

Read more at rtdna.org.

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