ASNE census: 2,600 newsroom jobs lost in 2012

by Rick Edmonds 

The American Society of News Editors released its annual newsroom census today and found an unexpected acceleration of job losses. Roughly 2,600 full-time professional editorial jobs at newspapers disappeared in 2012, a 6.4 percent decline compared to 2011′s total, leaving industry news employment at 38,000.
That brings the number of reporters, editors and other journalists down almost one-third from a peak of 56,400 in 2000 and down 30.9 percent since 2006. The greatest losses — 13,500 in all — came in the recession years of 2007-2009. But a modest stabilization in 2010 and 2011, when losses slowed to 900 jobs over the two years, now appears to be over.

FULL-TIME PROFESSIONAL NEWS JOBS AT NEWSPAPERS

YEAR         TOTAL        GAIN/LOSS

2007           52,600            -2,400

2008           46,700             -5,900

2009            41,500             -5,200

2010            41,600               +100

2011             40,600             -1,000

2012             38,000              -2,600