More Good News

Maybe I should just accept the fact that I'm probably not going to be working for a newspaper and start thinking about other careers. If the fact that newspapers are dying wasn't going to make it tough enough for people like me to find a job, now it appears that younger journalists have even more odds stacked against them.

For an industry that is trying to become more relevant online and with younger readers, you might think that newspapers would want to keep their younger employees around, but it turns out that's not the case. As more newspapers are forced to layoff employees to cut costs, younger employees are usually the ones fired, mostly thanks to union rules.

Newspaper Death Watch summarizes the situation:

"The survey of 95 editors found that newsroom staffs have shrunk more than 10% in the last year and that workers between the ages of 18 and 35 were the most likely to be shown the door. This information comes at a time when newspapers are desperately struggling to become relevant to precisely that age group. It’s not that the editors want to lay off all the young staff, but union rules require them to preserve the jobs of older – and more change-averse – employees at the expense of younger and cheaper workers."

In terms of shear numbers, more than 10 percent of newsroom jobs across the country have been cut in the past year. That's a total of more than 5,900 jobs.