Local newsroom employment has changed substantially over the past two decades. U.S. newsroom employment across five news-producing industries was about 114,000 workers in 2008 and about 88,000 in 2019, while nonprofit local outlets employed an estimated 4,650 staff in 2024. The figures below place those shifts in context, with measurement periods and definitions kept explicit.
Contents
- National newsroom employment
- Newspaper newsroom employment over time
- The local newspaper employment decline
- Occupations inside newspaper publishers
- Where newsroom jobs are concentrated
- Nonprofit local newsroom staffing
National newsroom employment
The broadest measure in the supplied Pew Research Center series covers newspapers, radio, broadcast television, cable and other information services. Across those five news-producing industries, U.S. newsroom employment was about 114,000 workers in 2008. It was about 88,000 in 2019, a 23% decline across the period. Newsroom jobs and employment in the U.S.: 10 charts about the industry reports these estimates for the respective years.
The change was not evenly distributed across the period. Employment across the five industries fell to about 90,000 workers by 2014, representing a loss of about 24,000 from 2008. From 2014 through 2019, total employment averaged about 88,000 workers. That pattern describes a sharp early reduction followed by a lower, relatively stable level in the later part of the period.
Newspapers made up the largest share of the measured newsroom workforce at the start of the period. Newspaper newsroom employment was about 71,000 workers in 2008, or 62% of all U.S. newsroom employment. By 2019, newspaper newsroom employment was about 35,000 workers and represented 40% of the total. The newspaper share therefore fell even as other news-producing industries accounted for more of the remaining workforce.
The non-newspaper industries in this comparison—broadcast television, radio, cable and digital-native news—averaged about 43,000 newsroom workers from 2008 through 2014. Their combined employment rose to about 53,000 workers in 2019. These figures describe the changing composition of the national newsroom workforce, not a measure of local coverage alone.
Newspaper newsroom employment over time
The longer newspaper series provides a more detailed view of the contraction. According to Pew Research Center’s Employment in newspaper newsrooms, newspaper newsroom employment totaled 71,640 workers in 2004 and 71,070 in 2008. It then declined through the following years, reaching 60,770 in 2009 and 55,260 in 2010.
The series continued downward, with 51,430 workers in 2012 and 46,310 in 2014. Employment totaled 42,450 workers in 2016, 37,900 in 2018 and 34,950 in 2019. The series recorded 30,820 workers in 2020. Each value is tied to the specific year shown; the figures should not be read as a current estimate beyond the stated measurement period.
| Year | Newspaper newsroom employment |
|---|---|
| 2004 | 71,640 |
| 2008 | 71,070 |
| 2010 | 55,260 |
| 2014 | 46,310 |
| 2018 | 37,900 |
| 2020 | 30,820 |
The two Pew series use different levels of detail. The national comparison describes about 71,000 newspaper newsroom workers in 2008 and about 35,000 in 2019, while the year-by-year chart reports 71,070 and 34,950 for those years. The rounded values are consistent with the more precise chart values, but they should remain labeled according to the source and period used.
The local newspaper employment decline
The Medill analysis in The State of Local News: 2024 Report measures the newspaper industry more broadly than newsroom positions alone. From 2005 to 2023, the U.S. newspaper industry lost more than 266,000 jobs, a 73% decline. Newspaper publishers employed 98,960 people in 2023, the first time in two decades that the industry fell below 100,000 positions.
Newsroom jobs were one part of that broader reduction. Newspaper newsroom positions—defined mainly in the Medill analysis as editors and reporters—lost more than 45,000 jobs from 2005 to 2023. The report describes the decline in newspaper newsroom positions as more than 60% over the same period. From 2022 to 2023, newspaper newsroom jobs decreased by almost 2,000 positions, while more than 7,000 newspaper jobs disappeared across the industry.
The geographic reach of the decline is also broad. In 2023, 20 U.S. states had fewer than 1,000 remaining newspaper-industry employees. Between 2013 and 2023, newspaper-publishing employment declines exceeded 50% in all but seven states. These state-level measures concern newspaper-publishing employment, so they are not interchangeable with the national newsroom series or with the nonprofit staffing measures below.
The losses extended beyond editorial positions. Newspaper sales-department employment shrank by almost 75% from 2005 to 2023. Production and distribution lost almost 90,000 jobs over that period, a 90% decline. Together, these figures show that local newspaper employment statistics cover an operating system with editorial, commercial, production and distribution roles—not only reporters and editors.
Occupations inside newspaper publishers
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics offers an occupation-level snapshot for newspaper publishers in May 2023. In Special edition of BLS data for Newspaper Week, news analysts, reporters and journalists accounted for 15,250 jobs, while editors accounted for 14,670. These are occupation counts within newspaper publishers for May 2023, not a total for every local newsroom in the country.
Advertising sales agents accounted for 10,740 jobs. Other measured roles included 3,810 graphic designers, 3,780 general and operations managers, 3,720 printing press operators and 3,590 office clerks. The same source counted 2,140 writers and authors, 1,220 photographers and 990 producers and directors.
| Occupation in newspaper publishers | Jobs, May 2023 |
|---|---|
| News analysts, reporters and journalists | 15,250 |
| Editors | 14,670 |
| Advertising sales agents | 10,740 |
| Graphic designers | 3,810 |
| General and operations managers | 3,780 |
| Printing press operators | 3,720 |
| Office clerks | 3,590 |
| Writers and authors | 2,140 |
| Photographers | 1,220 |
| Producers and directors | 990 |
Pay also varies by occupation. The annual mean wage for editors in newspaper publishers was $71,400 in May 2023, according to the BLS source. That wage is an occupation-specific mean for the stated industry and month; it is not a reported wage for every newsroom worker or every local outlet.
Where newsroom jobs are concentrated
Newsroom employment is geographically concentrated in large metropolitan areas. During 2013–2017, New York, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., together accounted for 22% of U.S. newsroom employees, compared with 13% of all U.S. workers. The comparison comes from Pew Research Center’s Newsroom jobs and employment in the U.S.: 10 charts about the industry.
The New York metropolitan area alone contained 12% of all U.S. newsroom employees during 2013–2017. Los Angeles contained 5%, and the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area also contained 5%. These percentages describe newsroom employees in the specified period, not the number of local-news employees currently working in each metropolitan area.
Regional concentration was also visible outside the three metros. The Northeast was home to 24% of newsroom employees during 2013–2017, compared with 18% of workers overall. Internet publishing had a particularly concentrated pattern: the Northeast contained 41% of newsroom employees working in internet publishing, while the West contained 28%.
For readers assessing local news capacity, these figures are a reminder that a national newsroom count can conceal differences in where workers are located. The metropolitan and regional percentages do not establish how many reporters serve a particular community, but they do show that newsroom employment was more concentrated than employment overall in the measured years.
Nonprofit local newsroom staffing
Nonprofit local newsrooms represent a distinct staffing pattern. The 2025 INN Index reports an estimated 4,650 staff at INN member outlets in 2024. About 70% of those staff worked in editorial or news-related roles. These figures come from The 2025 INN Index and describe INN membership, not the entire nonprofit news sector.
Local outlets made up 51% of INN membership in 2024, up from 48% in 2023. Within the 2024 membership, local nonprofit news outlets had a median of four full-time-equivalent employees, compared with a median of eight full-time-equivalent employees for nonlocal INN outlets. Across all INN member outlets, the median staff size was 5.5 full-time-equivalent employees, according to Staff & Leadership — The 2025 INN Index.
The median is important here because it describes the typical outlet more directly than the estimated 4,650-staff total. A local nonprofit outlet at the median had four full-time-equivalent employees in 2024, while the broader membership included larger nonlocal organizations. The corresponding Coverage Quality — The 2025 INN Index reports the local and nonlocal medians.
The 2024 INN sample also provides leadership and community measures. Women held 53% of executive roles at the news outlets in the sample. Forty-two percent of outlets reported at least one executive of color among their three top executives. Twenty-three percent of local INN outlets served rural communities.
Finally, the membership data indicates a change in the age of participating organizations. Startups launched within the prior three years represented about 15% of INN membership in 2024, down from 27% in 2021. That comparison spans 2021 and 2024 and describes the share of INN membership represented by recently launched startups, rather than a forecast of future nonprofit newsroom formation.