Profitability of radio newsroom websites dipped slightly, 3%, this year compared to last.

That’s according to a study commissioned by the Radio Television Digital News Association.

The largest local radio groups fared the best, along with stations in the Northeast, so says Hofstra Journalism professor Bob Papper, who conducted the study. See here for more information. Stations in the West were least likely to make a profit on their websites, according to the findings from a survey of 260 radio station news directors representing 743 stations.

The average radio newsroom has one full-time and one part-time person working on the web. Major markets have three persons working on the web, while large and medium markets average two and small markets have one person working on the site.

The average number of radio page views was 917,500, and the average number of unique visitors was 151,900. That’s double the number of pages views over last year, but it’s down about 25% in unique visitors. However, Papper cautions radio web traffic numbers are still reported by too few news directors to be reliable.