It’s no secret that the career industries of journalism and editorial are currently highly unstable. News of job cuts in these fields breaks every week. Hearst Magazines laid off around 200 employees in late November, and this gutting was quickly followed by major cuts from Condé Nast and Vox Media in early December. In 2024, per Press Gazette, at least 2,500 media jobs had been slashed in the U.S., Canada and the UK—a number that is less than 2023’s whopping 8,000 job cuts in the field of journalism, but which is still indicative of the industry’s general trajectory.
Editors and journalists have always faced a competitive job market, but the state of media today presents unprecedented challenges. Threats such as AI, misinformation and the public’s growing distrust in legacy media and increasing reliance on social media, video and individual commentators for news have all factored into the general decline of traditional editorial jobs.
Editors and journalists possess many skills that can aid them in other professions, says Chandra Turner, a recruiter and the founder of The Talent Fairy, an agency that connects brands to writers and editors. But editorial jobs aren’t going away, she says. Journalism is always going to be a vital part of any democracy, and “there’s always going to be a need for storytellers,” she notes. “It’s just a question of what platform they’re going to use and who’s going to be paying for it?”
Branded content and government subsidies: How editorial jobs will be funded in the future
While things may look bleak, Turner sees some short-term growth on the horizon. “I think that things are going to come back in 2025 because there’s a little bit more certainty about the economy, at least from a big corporate business perspective,” she says.
Another trend that Turner predicts for 2025 is an ongoing rise in the prevalence of brand-funded media. Advertisements have historically funded a great deal of media, but this model has been in decline for over a decade. Turner’s 2024 Editorial Jobs and Hiring Report found that people are increasingly leaving traditional ad-funded jobs for jobs helmed by brands, such as Red Bull or Costco—the latter of which currently distributes America’s third-largest magazine.
Karin Wahl-Jorgensen, a journalist who serves as University Dean of Research Environment and Culture at Cardiff University, raises some flags about this. “I think it’s very important to be very transparent about any commercial interest that a news organization has in a particular topic or a particular product,” she says, calling this “potentially dangerous, because it breaks down the boundary between [the] editorial and commercial side of news operations.”
Wahl-Jorgensen also notes that philanthropists have increasingly been funding some smaller publications, and government subsidies may also be necessary for keeping afloat some types of media, such as local news. Additionally, she cites the rising prevalence of subscription models. “Some news organizations, like The New York Times and The Guardian, have been quite successful at cultivating a loyal audience base,” Wahl-Jorgensen says. “I think there’s slightly more optimism now around the ability of established news brands to secure a viable commercial basis through new models.”
Podcast empires and social media news platforms are also seeing success with subscription models, she adds, indicating changes in how people are engaging with media, news and storytelling on the whole.
Going solo: How journalists and storytellers are blazing their own trails
Amid these seismic shifts, many journalists and editors have pivoted toward running their own businesses, either building freelance portfolios or launching their own independent publications on platforms such as Substack.
Journalists are “beginning to brand themselves more and more and are developing their own distinctive identities,” Wahl-Jorgensen says. She notes that it’s important to build a portfolio with a solid body of work if you’re planning to venture out on your own. Turner echoes this, noting that “the most important thing that you can do is specialize the types of content that you work on.”
In addition, Wahl-Jorgensen adds, those in the freelance field may continue to need to diversify their income by utilizing a wide variety of income streams—from contract work with charities to editing academic texts, working on layouts for magazines and translation projects.
Journalists and editors working outside of traditional full-time media jobs also increasingly have to be proficient video editors, social media managers and marketers. Nowadays, “it’s no longer enough that journalists have good journalistic skills,” says Wahl-Jorgensen. “They also have to be good at telling stories that work in the context of different social media platforms.”
The role of AI in the future of editorial jobs
As media industries continue to evolve at a rapid pace, journalists and editors have to deal with AI. AI technology could be increasingly necessary for any media organization looking to remain competitive, particularly as it becomes integral to curating readers’ individual news experiences. No one knows exactly how AI will develop, but though it can streamline certain aspects of editorial work, it may also harm the quality of the news, notes Wahl-Jorgensen.
Turner sees the editorial industry’s shift to AI-driven models as part of a cycle. “If you’ve been alive for a minute, you know that we go through phases where there’s an abundance of storytelling that’s bad, and then we start craving good stories again,” she says. In the future, she adds, and particularly as AI starts taking care of more menial and generic types of writing, “I think there’s going to be a real hunger for authenticity.”
In short, the future of media may be a shift away from content farms and toward higher-quality, personal and original storytelling. This transition will also likely eliminate all but those who can tell truly unique stories from the field, notes Turner.
Across the board, it seems likely that successful editorial enterprises will increasingly be rooted in direct relationships with readers, says Tom Trewinnard, co-founder of a digital consultancy that focuses on innovating sustainable futures in journalism. He also notes that as personalization becomes more important and journalism becomes more competitive, it’s crucial to look beyond standard roles and think outside the box when it comes to what jobs journalists apply for. “Journalism also wouldn’t happen without audience researchers and audience teams, and product skills are something that are really in demand in newsrooms,” he says.
A 2023 report from Deloitte echoed this, predicting a shift away from traditional media and toward niche, personalized content. The report also identified a probable increase in polarization among media consumers, and a possible increased desire for personal and collective improvement-based media.
Meanwhile, a 2024 report from the Media Industry Foresight Study predicted that the future of media could be entertaining, hyper-branded content targeted at increasingly specific and partisan audiences. However, the report did note that local and traditional news could rebound, as deepfakes, misinformation and political and environmental instability send people looking for reliable sources of information.
And according to the Niemen Lab, while traditional media jobs will likely continue to be harder to come by, media on the whole will become more democratized and scattered as power shifts toward civilians who may traditionally not have had a voice in what stories are being told to the masses.
One thing is clear: The media landscape is changing, and anyone who wants to stay in the industry will have to upskill and pivot to evolve with the times.
Photo by PeopleImages.com – Yuri A/shutterstock.com
