Newsroom employment down, digital-native news sector up

From 2008 to 2018, newsroom employment in the U.S. fell by 25 percent, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment Statistics survey data.

In 2008, around 114,000 newsroom employees (reporters, editors, photographers and videographers) were employed in five news industries: newspaper, radio, broadcast television, cable and “other information services” (the best match for digital-native news publishers). By 2018, that number had dropped to about 86,000, down some 28,000 jobs, according to Pew.

Pew reports that the drop in newsroom employment is attributable mostly to the newspaper sector. The number of newspaper newsroom employees fell by 47 percent between 2008 and 2018, from about 71,000 workers to 38,000, according to Pew.

Of the five industries examined, noteworthy job growth happened only in the digital-native news sector. Since 2008, the number of digital-native newsroom employees has risen by 82 percent, from about 7,400 workers to about 13,500 in 2018.

News and Tech