Report: UK journalism jobs down by 1/3 in 10 years

Posted by Leah McBride Mensching on September 8, 2010 at 8:40 AM

The number of mainstream journalism jobs in the United Kingdom has been cut by between 27 percent and 33 percent over the past decade, settling at about 40,000, according to a report called "Laid Off," by the University of Central Lancashire and Journalism.co.uk.

At the same time, the number of journalism university graduates is on the rise and has never been higher, paidContent.co.uk points out. "The reality is that only a fraction of the many thousands of graduates from UK journalism courses will find a place in the mainstream industry," said François Nel, director of the Journalism Leaders Programme at UCLAN and primary author of the report. (Note: Nel is also an SFN research partner).

Although the journalists had experienced hard times, from pay cuts to layoffs, journalism was still found to be a rewarding profession, with almost 70 percent saying that they would still have chosen journalism as a career, even if they had known these difficult times were waiting.

"These voices can help inform media managers, union officials, policy makers, training bodies, educators, would-be journalists, those still working and, perhaps most importantly, the thousands of other journalists who have left - or have been forced out - of the profession," the report states.

The survey was hosted on Journalism.co.uk, which means the respondents were all self-selecting.

Most respondents were from local and regional press, and the largest group (50 percent), were working at regional dailies when they were laid off. Content suppliers (photographers, reporters, designers, etc.) made up the largest group, at 38 percent. This was followed by sub-editors (23 percent), editor/senior management (17 percent), deputy/assistant editor or section editor (10 percent each) and online editor (3 percent).

Click here to download the report:
laidoffreport.pdf