Experts warn of “a tsunami of disinformation and misinformation.”
As Americans prepare for yet another consequential election, the news industry has found itself in the midst of a crisis. The media business is shrinking at the national, state, and local levels, affecting thousands of journalists all across the country — and the scores of people who rely on them for information.
Over the last few weeks alone, The Wall Street Journal, NBC, Sports Illustrated, Forbes, and Time have all seriously reduced their headcounts. The Los Angeles Times laid off 23 percent of its newsroom, including six editors of color — which marks one of the largest cuts in the paper’s 142-year history. And, less than a year after it launched, The Messenger shut down, leaving some 300 journalists without a job or even severance pay.
“These were the companies who were supposed to remake the digital journalism landscape and now they’ve been reduced to roadkill,” says Frank Sesno, a journalist and Director of Strategic Initiatives at Georgetown University’s School of Media & Public Affairs.
Some experts, like Tim Franklin, a professor and dean at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, worry about the impact these cuts might have on the likely rematch between former President Trump and President Biden. “These layoffs and the ensuing loss of coverage could have a profound impact on this year’s election,” Franklin says. “More than half of U.S. counties now have either no local news or only one local news source.”
So why are all of these layoffs happening seemingly all at once? We took a look at some of the factors driving these dismissals and how they could impact Americans as they head to the polls in November.
Are these cuts part of a larger trend?
Journalism job cuts were so intense last year that most media observers weren’t expecting another round of layoffs this year. There were at least 20,000 jobs eliminated across the industry in 2023 alone — the highest level of cuts on record, according to a report from the firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
To put this in perspective, about 2,500 local news outlets have closed over the last two decades — and more than 360 of them shuttered their doors over the last three years. And an estimated 70 million people already live in a news desert, which is defined as a community that has either one or no available newspaper — or an area where residents don’t have access to fact-based local news and information.
“Unfortunately, this is where the industry has been going for a long time and it’s coming back for another pass at downsizing,” says Sesno. ”It’s really regrettable because every lost job is another pair of eyes, ears, and brains that aren’t reporting a story or someone’s perspective, or an angle that we should be hearing about, especially going into this incredibly divisive election season.”
And the situation has only gotten worse in 2024 — more than 500 journalists were laid off from news outlets in January alone, according to another report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas. By 2031, one-third of all journalism jobs will be gone, according to data released earlier this month from the Georgetown University Center on Education and Workforce.
Why are so many media jobs being lost?
There are a lot of factors at play. For starters, outlets are having trouble keeping the lights on: The advertising market, one of the main pillars that’s been financially supporting the news industry, has become increasingly weak. For instance, last year, IAC’s Dotdash Meredith, which publishes People and Entertainment Weekly, saw a 12 percent dropoff in ad revenue. Now, analysts predict that digital advertising — which grew by double-digit percentages year over year from 2015 to 2019 — will only grow in the mid-single digits. “The technology and the business models have changed so profoundly,” Sesno tells us. “And the old advertising model is long gone.”
Americans also just aren’t following the news as closely as they once did — media analyst Shannon Jankowski calls it “news avoidance,” and traces that sentiment back to the start of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.
“People at some point became inundated with all of the negativity and decided that they just needed to take a step away,” says Jankowski, who’s a director at the free speech nonprofit PEN America. “And unfortunately, we haven’t really seen a return to the level of news consumption that we had before the pandemic.”
To make matters worse, the public has fundamentally lost its trust in the media as a whole. According to a Gallup poll released last October, only 32 percent of the population reports having “a great deal” or “a fair amount” of confidence that the news is reported fairly and accurately. The only other time it plummeted this low was in 2016, when Trump was elected.
“Until we can address societally that wider trust gap, it’ll be hard for us to [fix] some of the news engagement declines that our industry is suffering from,” says Sara Fischer, a senior media reporter at Axios.
Will media layoffs impact November’s elections?
These layoffs come during an election year, triggering concern over how outlets can sustain comprehensive political coverage. Fischer points out that fewer people on staff means fewer reporters on the campaign trail.
Plus, political coverage isn’t just about what’s happening at rallies and other events — it touches on a vast range of issues, including the economy, the border, the environment, and culture. “Covering what’s happening at the border is essential for the public and policymakers to understand what’s actually happening,” says Sesno.
Amid a decline in journalists, Franklin warns that they’ll be “a tsunami of disinformation and misinformation.” Watchdog groups have also echoed this concern — Jankowski says journalists play a “critical role” in combating spread of disinformation generated by artificial intelligence. This type of content looks more convincing than you might think — most people can only accurately identify AI-generated articles about 50 percent of the time, according to a survey from the computer security company McAfee).
“This is vital and essential work but it requires an investment in training, staffing, and resources, which makes the wave of recent newsroom layoffs even more disturbing,” she says.
Experts also worry that the journalist layoffs and ensuing drop in coverage could lead to a heightened sense of political polarization. “Even more people will be driven to their partisan corners, because they’re not being exposed to different perspectives, as they would be if these journalists were able to continue doing their jobs,” Franklin tells us. “So these layoffs couldn’t be happening at a worse possible time.”
Is there a solution to prevent further media layoffs?
As with any major financial/cultural issue, there isn’t a single solution. “At the end of the day, we’re going to have to find a sustainable business model that includes a variety of different revenue sources,” says Franklin.
Several regional news organizations, including the Boston Globe and the Seattle Times, have already successfully made the pivot from an advertising-based business model to a reader revenue-based business model, or digital subscriptions. Others are getting creative with their medium — the nonprofit Outlier Media in Detroit is delivering news through text message.
“The key here is that these places are producing a product people are willing to pay for,” says Franklin. “The question is, will other parts of the country have the scale to support a reader revenue business model? And that’s a big open question.”
There are also some philanthropic efforts to keep news organizations afloat: Last year, a group of more than 20 charitable organizations led by the MacArthur Foundation pledged to spend at least $500 million over five years. (This is on top of the more than $30 million that the MacArthur Foundation gives annually to PBS and NPR.) It’s not the only org with this aim: Since 2019, The American Journalism Project has raised $168 million for local news.
There are even some developments on the policy front. At least 14 states, including Massachusetts and Illinois, have either passed or are considering legislation to help support local news. The approaches vary by state: Last year, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill into law dedicating $25 million to fund local reporting in underserved parts of the state. And Wisconsin is considering tax incentives, including one that would allow businesses that advertise with local media to recoup up to half their costs up to $5,000.
As for the future of news, there’s plenty of reason to be worried, but many remain optimistic about the incoming crop of aspiring journalists. “There’s a bit of concern, but students don’t seem daunted,” says Franklin. “They’re looking forward to the challenge of helping figure out what the new model for the news media industry’s going to be.”
