Who Has The Biggest TV News Staff In Providence?
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
You don’t have to be Edward R. Murrow to know that to cover the news – you need people. The more resources you have the more things you can cover. It is one of the basic fundamentals of TV news. Through the years here, all 3 stations have had staff increases and decreases. A recent RTNDA (Radio, Television, News Directors Association) survey found that across the country news staffs went up this year compared to last year.
And that is good news for viewers.
With that in mind, let’s take a look how the three station stack up against one another when it comes to “street” reporters which means people dedicated to cover the news on a daily basis. The best way to look at it overall is to see who has the most *full-time* reporters meaning they cover news full time and do not spilt their duties between anchoring a weekend news cast or a morning news cast etc.
Channel 6 has the Fewest Reporters
Not surprising, but Channel 6 has the fewest reporters on the street according to their website. In fairness to them, they also do the least amount of news hours per day compared to Channel’s 10 and 12. Channel 6 has 4-full time reporters to cover the news in Southern New England. By contrast, to show some perspective, Channel 6 also has 4-weather people as well. The reporting ranks at Channel 6 get a boost on certain days though because they have some anchor/reporter positions who can for example anchor the weekend morning show and then head out with a photographer and report on a story for that evening’s 6 o’clock news cast.
Leading News Station too Lean?
The station which has dominated the ratings for a long time in this market could apparently beef up the street reporting roster when you just look at the numbers. Channel 10 is very anchor heavy meaning their total news employee count from a percentage point of view skews heavy on anchors.
Channel 10 also has three separate reporter positions devoted to “specialized” reporting which in its own right is a commitment to resources. Jim Taracani is Investigative, Bill Rappleye has the Political beat, and Barbara Morse Silva covers Health news. As far as full time street reporters (not including the “specialized” reporters) Channel 10 has 4-people. A big plus for Channel 10 and what saves them from a resource point of view on a day to day basis is that many of their anchors – can jump in to go report a story in the blink of an eye. Gene Valicenti, Dan Jaehnig, Alison Bologna and Mario Hilario all come from long and strong reporting backgrounds. Veteran Anchor Patrice Wood started her Channel 10 career as a reporter but is not regularly used to work the street as a reporter. Channel 10, like Channel 6, also has 4-weather people.
How Does Channel 12 Stack Up?
The station that has come the closest to challenging Channel 10’s rating success as of late is Channel 12. In fact in some recent rating periods, 12 has either tied or beaten Channel 10 at 11 o’clock which is for sure worth noting. LIN TV, who owns Channel 12, appears to be putting up the resources for reporters. Like Channel 10, they too have a full time investigative reporter, and also a Consumer Reporter. In addition to that, they have a full time web reporter and once they fill two street reporter openings listed on their website—they will have a total of 7-full time street reporters in addition to the Investigative, Consumer and Web reporters which is a lot for a market this size. Like Channels 10 & 6, Channel 12 also uses their weekday/weekend morning and weekend night time anchors to help report stories during the week. Channel 12 like the other stations has 4-weather people as well.
If you valued this article, please LIKE GoLocalProv.com on Facebook by clicking HERE.
Related Articles
- News Not So Good News For Channel 6
- What New Owners of Channel 6 Need To Do - Analysis
- EXCLUSIVE: Layoffs at Channel 6 Start
- Channel 10 First to Flip to HD with a new set
- Exclusive: Major Changes Brewing At Channel 10
- Channel 10 SUNRISE Show #1 for 25-years
- Is Channel 10 Safe From Media General Lay-Offs?
- NEW: Channel 10 Legend Lands Job At URI
- NEW: Channel 12 Caught Using Staged Footage From Golf Tournament
