Local news needs the help! These stats from Pew Research: From 2008 to 2019, overall newsroom employment in the U.S. dropped by 23%. In 2008, there were about 114,000 newsroom employees – reporters, editors, photographers and videographers – in five industries that produce news: newspaper, radio, broadcast television, cable and “other information services” (the best match for digital-native news publishers). By 2019, that number had declined to about 88,000, a loss of about 27,000 jobs.