How Many Newspaper Jobs Have Been Lost?
The American Society of News Editors’ annual newsroom census found that 2,400 full-time professional editorial jobs were lost in calendar 2007. Another 5,900 jobs were lost in 2008. That brought total newsroom employment at American daily newspapers down to 46,700 from 56,400 as 2001 began.7 And early indicators are that 2009 will be more of the same or worse. In the first six weeks of the year, some papers and companies made cuts that had clearly been planned during budgeting last fall. With January 2009 advertising declines even worse than those of fourth quarter 2008, chains including Gannett, McClatchy and A.H. Belo announced downsizing plans for the year. So by any count, the news force is being depleted at an accelerating rate. And the effects, as we will explore later, are becoming all too evident to readers. But getting a reliable and current count is trickier than it may sound. Our earlier estimate (5,000 jobs lost in 2008) when State of the News Media was published in mid-Mar
