The Pew Research Center recently conducted a report on the current state of jobs in the news industry, and the results were fairly shocking. According to the data, the total amount of jobs in newsroom settings have dramatically declined from 114,000 in 2008 to 86,000 in 2018, most of which came from the print newspaper industry which as shrunk a staggering 47% within the past 10 years. While the landscape of how we receive our news is undoubtedly changing, what does this mean for the future of the industry?
The only form of news media that has thrived in the past decade is the digital-native sector, which has increased 82% from 7,400 workers to 13,500 within a 10 year span. This highlights society’s transition from print to digital media as smart phones have changed the way people gather information. To keep up with the times, many newspaper companies have had to downsize their offices and shrink their budgets to maintain their subscribers and prevent them from going to other digital outlets.
Newspaper outlets now make up less than half of the entire news industry, which is a major fall from 10 years prior, and while digital and broadcasting news continues to be on the rise, newspapers will have to pivot quickly to find a way to keep consumers reading and their printing presses printing.
Do you think newspapers will still be used by the public ten years from now? How do you think the newspaper sector of the industry will regain popularity, if at all? Let us know down below!
