Journalism & News Media

Press Gazette tracked at least 3,434 journalism job cuts in the UK and US in 2025 alone, following at least 3,875 redundancies in 2024. The broader media industry saw nearly 15,000 media jobs eliminated in 2024. Major outlets affected include the Los Angeles Times (cutting more than 20% of its newsroom in January 2025), CNN (approximately 200 jobs), and Time (15% of its newsroom). Since 2005, more than 270,000 newspaper jobs have vanished -- a loss of more than 75% of the workforce.

The Reuters Institute reports that freelance journalism is no longer viable for most reporters. A 2024 UK survey found median income for primary-occupation freelance journalists at just GBP 17,500 -- below minimum wage. In the US, one 2022 survey found most independent writers' freelance income was less than $30,000 a year. While US inflation rose 22% from January 2020 to January 2024, freelance rates have not kept pace: a journalist paid $1,000 per story in 2020 would need nearly $1,200 today just to maintain purchasing power, yet many rates have declined.

PetaPixel reports that the majority of photojournalists surveyed believe their career is economically unsustainable, identifying rights-grabbing contracts and low assignment rates as the primary barriers. One freelance photographer with 25 years of experience wrote: "I hate being pessimistic because we need quality journalism now more than ever, but you're cursing yourself to poverty and worse by being a photojournalist." Standard day rates and declining frequency of editorial work mean photojournalists cannot survive without other income streams, while AI-generated imagery and stock photo oversaturation further erode the market.

Research from Columbia University's Initiative for Policy Dialogue, published by WAN-IFRA, estimates that Google owes US news publishers approximately $10-12 billion annually and Meta owes approximately $1.9 billion -- for a combined $11.9-$13.9 billion per year in fair value for news content that drives engagement on their platforms. Current platform-publisher payment arrangements fall vastly below these fair-value estimates. Meanwhile, Google and Meta's advertising revenues have soared as traditional media ad income collapsed, with platforms capturing the economic value generated by journalism without adequate compensation to the creators of that content.

The Radio Television Digital News Association reports that total full-time local TV news employment fell 2.9% in 2024 to 27,066 positions. Major station groups implemented significant cuts: Nexstar Media Group, the largest local station owner in the US, cut 2% of its workforce (approximately 260 employees) in December 2024, while E.W. Scripps laid off employees across multiple local TV stations in 2025. Across all entertainment and media, over 17,000 jobs were slashed in the first 11 months of 2025 -- an 18% increase over the prior year.

The Medill State of Local News Report 2025 finds that news desert counties rose to 213 in 2025 (up from 206 the prior year), while another 1,524 counties have only one remaining news source. Some 50 million Americans now have limited or no access to local news. Newspaper closures ticked up to 136 in the past year -- more than two per week -- with most closures hitting smaller, independently owned papers rather than chain-owned outlets, signaling that long-time family publishers are surrendering to economic pressures.

WAN-IFRA's coverage of the Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024 finds that only 17% of people in surveyed countries pay for online news, with the proportion showing signs of stalling. Of those who do pay, at least 60% pay less than full price via discounts and promotions. Meanwhile, news avoidance has risen to 39% of respondents (up from 29% in 2017), with audiences increasingly reluctant to pay as cost-of-living pressures tighten budgets. The median national news brand achieves only a 0.9% subscription penetration rate, making digital subscriptions an inadequate replacement for lost print and advertising revenue for most outlets.

The Columbia Journalism Review documents that in 2025, press freedom came under direct attack in the United States, with the government turning rhetoric against the press into concrete action to restrict, punish, and intimidate journalists. There were 170 reports of assaults on journalists in 2025, with 160 of them at the hands of law enforcement. Assaults on journalists soared more than 50% in 2024 compared to the previous year, and 314 incidents of violations of press freedom were documented in 2024 alone, ranging from legislative bans on reporting to physical attacks.