Steve Outing is one of the brightest commentators on the subject of the online news media. His company, Planetary News , has just released a study describing the staffing patterns in Online News . If you're in the newspaper business online, it's a must read. The typical online news Web site employs 8 people today. Most online news sites expect significant growth in staff size to occur within the next 12 months.
Small sites expect growth, too.
Voluntary staff turnover at online news sites is modest. Nearly half of all sites reported no employee departures in the last year. Among those that did lose people, most lost only 1 or 2 online employees. Job satisfaction at this stage of the industry appears to be high. The majority of news sites do not have anyone devoted full time to marketing themselves.