News Library Staffing Survey 2003

Megan Gallup of the Daytona Beach News-Journal conducted this survey of newspaper libraries via Newslib in December 2003. E-mail Jessica Baumgart to add or update any of the data.

Download this table as an Excel spreadsheet (.xls).

Newspaper

Daily Circulation

Sunday
Circulation

Editorial Staff Size

Total Library Staff

Full Time Staff

Part-Time Staff

Hours open

Staff breakdown

Other

Allentown (PA) Morning Call

116,000

177,000

155

6

6

0

Sun.- 11 to 7pm; M-Thurs. - 9 to 10pm; Fri.- 9 to 8pm; Sat. - 10 to 6pm

3 FT researchers/enhancers, 1FT assistant, 1FT clerk, 1 FT Library director

 

Anchorage Daily News

80,000

85,000

92

2

1

1

M-F 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.

 

 

Arizona Daily Star

100,000

165,000

150

5

5

0

 

 

Also have the equivalent of one person at a 20 hour week dealing with archiving issues.

Boston Herald

248,816

156,267

180

4

3

1

M-F 10 a.m. - 10 p.m.; Wknds 11 a.m. - 7 p.m.

 

 

Buffalo News

223,957

306,102

210

3

3

0

6 a.m. - 5 p.m.

 

 

Charlotte Observer

234,000

285,000

275

6

3

3

M-F 8 a.m. - 6:30 for research; enhancers work seven days/wk.

3 FT (manager/researcher, researcher, photo librarian); 3 PT enhancers who total 100 hours per week

 

Cincinnati Enquirer

200,000

309,000

190

3

3

0

 

1 Librarian, 2 assistants

 

Columbus Dispatch

262,000

390,000

240

7

7

0

M-F 8 a.m. - 8 p.m.; Sat-Sun 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Library staff performs archiving functions, reference during day, librarian in newsroom at night. Provides research on projects including GIS, CAR support, some training. Owns & operates editorial intranet with large numbers of public records

6 on staff have MLS. Two vutext SAVE systems using XTQ to process Quark pages, adding text archive to NICA now image archive NICA 420,000 images graphics archive NICA about 3000 graphics PDF archive NICA 66,000

Daytona Beach News-Journal

100,528

117,854

160

5

5

0

M-F7:30 a.m. - 9 p.m.

1 library director, 4 FT who do archiving and researcher, 1 FT clerk

 

Fort Worth Star-Telegram

228,573

323,373

375

16

15

1

M-F 9 a.m. - 8 p.m.; Processors work 8 p.m.-4 a.m. to deliver daily content to vendors.

Librarians and database manager handle research requests, quality control and photo archive. Processors do text archiving and assist with photo archiving.

 

Free Lance-Star

46,000

52,000

100

3

2

1

M-F 8 a.m. - 6 p.m.

News Librarian (full-time) does research, some archiving, staff training, CAR support, intranet, edits book review page Assistant (full-time) does most of the archiving, some research Clerk (half-time) takes care of mail, newspaper distribution and supplies for news staff.

 

Globe and Mail (Toronto, Canada)

317,400 M-F, 389,000 Sat.

-

280

13

8

5

8:30 a.m. - 9:30 p.m.

7 FT day staff, 1 PT student: 1 Chief librarian (manager and backup on reference and photo reference); 2 FT reference librarians; 2 FT photo librarians; 1 FT cataloguer/serials/backup on reference; 1 FT photo/business collection library technician; 1 PT student (filing/processing pictures, quick reference questions); Night Staff: 4 PT and 1 FT -database indexer and enhancers who work 9 p.m-5 a.m.

 

Journal News (White Plains, NY)

139,170

164,195

275

3

2

1

M-F 8:40 a.m. - 5 p.m.

 

 

Las Vegas Review-Journal

166,274

234,862

120

2

2

0

M-Sat. 8:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.

1 professional, 1 clerical

 

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

244,000

438,000

315

6

6

0

 

1 Manager/researcher/trainer/text reuse sales; 1 asst. manager/researcher,archivist/tex reuse sales; 1 photo researcher/photo sales; 3 archivists

 

New York Daily News

700,000

800,000

370

8

8

0

M-F 9 a.m. - 11:30 p.m.; Sat 10 - 6; Sun 10 a.m. - 9:30 p.m.

 

Main duties include archiving and research.

News & Record (Greensboro, NC)

90,432

110,846

n/a

4

3

1

M-F 8 a.m. - 6:30 p.m., 5 hrs. on Sat. & Sun.

3 FT, 1 clerk, 1 PT

 

Oklahoman

199,581

289,605

180

9

8

1

 

1 News Research Editor, 1 Asst. News Research Editor, 5 Research specialists, 1 Database Editor, 1 PT Data researcher

 

Omaha World-Herald

196,798

247,574

200

6

6

0

M-Sat. 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.

 

 

Oregonian (Portland, OR)

350,354

419,515

400

11

10

1

News research: M-F 8 a.m. - 8 p.m., S/S 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Library staff: M-F 8:30 a.m. - 6 p.m., S/S 8:30 a.m. - 5 p.m.

News Research team: 5 including director (research, training, intranet, blog). Library staff: 6 including chief librarian and PT clerk (text and photo archiving, manage print collection, permissions, photo and library intranet)

 

Orlando Sentinel

244,154

362,170

344

7

7

0

M-F6 a.m. - 5 p.m.; Sat. 6 a.m. - 2 p.m.

News Research -- 7 plus manager; responsible for electronically archiving text & photos; do research, reference requests for newsroom & bureaus and CAR all staff is cross trained and works all areas but each has a specialty; Production specialty 3; CAR specialy 2; Research specialty 2

 

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

243,000

407,000

270

4

3

1

M-F 6:30 a.m. - 6 p.m.

Manager, 2 FT -enhancing, research, public service; 1 PT (3 days in library, 2 with web team)

 

Press Democrat (Santa Rosa)

89,000

97,000

100

5

3

2

 

 

 

Providence Journal

170,000

230,000

280

5

5

0

M-F 8 a.m. - 8 p.m.

Two have MLS degree

 

Republican (Springfield, MA)

90,000

134,000

150

6

3

3

 

1 Librarian, 2 FT assistants, 3 PT assistants

 

Salt Lake Tribune

142,400

165,300

175

2

2

0

M-F 9 a.m. - 5:30, Sat. about 6 hours

Text & photo archiving, staff research, printing photo orders, some public research

 

San Antonio Express News

251,460

356,377

270

6

5

1

 

 

 

San Jose Mercury News

272,000

303,000

330

8

6

2

 

1 library director, 2 FT researchers, 2 FT archivers, 2 PT archivers, 1 clerk

 

Sarasota Herald-Tribune

107,000

130,000

200

4

3

1

M-F 7 a.m. - 6 p.m.; Weekends: 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.

1 News Research Manager, 2 FT library assistants, 1 PT assistant-job sharing. Manager handles most research requests from newsroom and bureaus; library assistants handle electronic archiving of text and photos; basic research requests for newsroom & bureaus; answers customer requests for back issues, photo reprints and general inquiries.

 

Savannah Morning News

40-50,000

60-70,000

80

2

2

0

M-F 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.

 

 

Singapore Press Holdings

600,000

-

1200

50

49

1

M-F 6 a.m. - 1 a.m.; Wknds 8:30 a.m. - midnight

Users Services (quick reference, research, copyright clearance, sales of pictures): 4 executive, 13 non-executive; Training & application development: 2 exec.; Archival services (text, photos, web papers and videos): 3 exec., 15 non-exec.; Digitisation project (of film negatives) 2 exec., plus 1 part-time exe.; Corporate archives: 1 exec., 1 non-exec.. Of the 14 exec. staff, 8 have post-grad library or information studies qualifications. The other 6: one has non-library degree, the other 5 were raised from the rank (with 2 having library diploma qualification).

SPH Information Resource Centre supports editorials of 11 papers (6 papers have circulation figures of above 100,000 each) and 2 TV news bulletins in 3 languages published/produced by Singapore Press Holdings.
Total editorial staff strength = 1,200 journalists housed in News Centre (one location) and foreign bureaus (14 cities)

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

250,000

360,000

360

13

11

2

4 a.m. - 9 p.m. - enhancers start at 4 a.m.; open for requests 9 a.m.-9 p.m.

 

 

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

287,424

468,134

355

10

10

0

M-F 6 a.m. - 10:30 p.m.; Sat/Sun noon - 8 p.m.

Responsible for electronically archiving text & photos; do research & reference requests for newsroom & bureaus

 

Star-Tribune (Minneapolis-St. Paul)

380,354

677,929

400

11

10

1

M-F 7 a.m. - 9 p.m., Sat. 11 a.m. - 7 p.m., Sun 4 - 8 p.m.

Head librarian, Asst. librarian, 2 news researchers, 1 photo archivist, 5 database archivists (1 PT), 1 administrative asst>./photo archivist. The archivists and administrative asst. all provide research backup as needed.

 

Tennessean (Nashville)

180,000

260,000

220

7

4

3

M-F 7 a.m. - 5 p.m.; a researcher works one evening a week 7-10 PM; a clerk is in for another 3 nights (roughly 3-10).

2 FT, 3 PT (about 45 hrs. per week total, 1 Systems Editor/Library manager who spends about 20-25% of his time on the library

A reporter at the largest bureau does photo/text archiving for their daily section.

Vancouver Sun and The Province

150,000 (Sun) and 167,000 (Province)

240,000 (Sun) and 198,000 (Province)

300

11

8

3

M-F 8 a.m. - 9 p.m., Sat. 12 p.m. - 7 p.m., Sun. 10 a.m. - 9 p.m.

2 FT librarians, 2 PT jobsharing, 6 FTE assistants, 1 PT assistant

Reference, research, digital image archiving, permissions & reprints sales, training, photo workflow, FOI filings. Text database is centralized, but we check database vs. hardcopy; prepare papers for microfilm. Page archives of PDFs & Quark layouts, coordinate paper award submissions. Book & journal processing & filing; refiling microforms, older photos & negs. Ref & research for 'sister' newspapers and tv stations.


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Updated: 02/16/2004
Jessica Baumgart
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