This year, Nieman Reports contributors explored some of the most pressing challenges facing the future of journalism: how to create sustainable newsroom business models, how to navigate the complex relationship with AI companies, and how to find your way in a job market rocked by layoffs and volatility. As we approach the start of 2025, take a moment to revisit our top five opinion pieces from this past year.
For reporters facing layoffs and a tough job market, freelance writer and columnist Katherine Lewis reminds us that leaving journalism doesn’t have to last forever. Lewis writes about the careers of several reporters and editors who left the industry for a time, gaining skills in other fields before returning to work at prestigious media outlets. “The decades of a shrinking journalism workforce create the false notion that we’re playing a massive game of musical chairs, and if you give up your spot in a newsroom, you’ll never get it back,” says Lewis. “This is not only untrue, but it harms us collectively. The scarcity mentality that’s pervasive in our industry puts unneeded pressure on people at a vulnerable moment in their careers.”
As small-town papers continue to downsize or close altogether, journalist Paul Farhi highlights another casualty of the decline of local news: the newspaper editorial. The trend was set by Gannett, the nation’s largest newspaper chain, which started to eliminate local editorials from its more than 300 daily and weekly newspapers in 2022. While a newspaper’s institutional voice can be predictable and self-serving, it can also offer moral clarity and shape public opinion, Farhi says, the way that Pulitzer Prize-winning editorials on prison reform, income inequality, and the environment have done over the past several decades.
Since tech billionaire Elon Musk bought Twitter, the social media site he renamed X, news organizations and journalists have slowly left the platform in favor of news-friendlier networks such as Bluesky, Mastodon, and Substack. Journalist Gina Kaufmann spotlights the exodus and shows how journalists are adapting by finding new sources and engaging with audiences.
Tech giants like OpenAI and Google have used news content, often without permission from its creators, to train their generative AI systems. While the companies contend that their actions constitute “fair use,” major publishers like The New York Times and Getty have filed suit, saying such practices undermine journalism's value. The conflict echoes the news industry’s struggles with social media platforms that disrupted theirrevenue streams while monopolizing digital advertising. Tech scholar and journalist Courtney Radsch urges policymakers to act by clarifying fair use, ensuring compensation for publishers, and reining in Big Tech’s dominance. Failure to do so risks not only the survival of journalism but also the health of democracy, Radsch argues.
Columnist Katherine Lewis flips the switch on an aggressive approach to productivity still prevalent in newsrooms today, one that enshrines the adage “You’re only as good as your last byline.” Lewis proposes a new mantra: “You’re as good as your best byline.” Instead of output being prioritized above all else, Lewis suggests that, by slowing down, “we can lay the groundwork for deeper reporting and asking tougher questions so the stories we create have more of an impact. That’s how we’ll rebuild trust in media and pride in the jobs that we do.”
