Though election season — a notoriously busy time for journalists — has come and gone, stress and burnout among reporters remains high, according to a Muck Rack study on work-life balance released Tuesday.
The study, based on a survey of 432 journalists from Jan. 2 to Feb. 17, found that exhaustion and burnout have caused half to consider quitting their jobs in the past year. That’s on par with the results of Muck Rack’s August survey, a finding that surprised data journalist Matt Albasi. When he ran the August survey, he theorized that much of the stress and anxiety journalists were reporting came from the election, and results would improve afterward.
“I really expected this survey, which was post-election, to show some changes, and it didn’t,” Albasi said. “In fact, this year, we asked whether or not there had been a change in your mental health over the last year, and the majority of journalists actually said, no, there hadn’t been a change.”
Only 17% of respondents said their mental health had improved over the past year. A plurality reported no change, while 38% said their mental health had worsened. Asked to rate their stress levels on a scale from zero to 10, with 10 being the most stressed, two-thirds of respondents gave a rating above 5.
The most commonly cited reason for declining mental health was “uncertainty about the future.” That category encompasses both worries about the financial future of the industry, as well as recent attacks on press freedom.
“Journalism is in such a tough spot and has been for the last few years,” Albasi said. “But especially now, you see all these headlines in the media reporting about what’s going on in newsrooms and how they’re shifting. It’s no surprise that uncertainty about the future is impacting a lot of journalists.”
During the survey period, at least nine outlets, including CNN, NBC News and Vox, announced layoffs, continuing a trend that started in 2023. That period also included President Donald Trump’s barrage of attacks on the press. During his first month, Trump’s administration reopened Federal Communications Commission complaints against broadcast networks, launched investigations into public radio stations, canceled media contracts, kicked certain news outlets out of dedicated workspaces at the Pentagon and banned The Associated Press from presidential events.
To cope with work-related stress, 27% of survey respondents talked about exercising and 16% mentioned seeking support from friends and colleagues. Others spoke about taking breaks, getting adequate sleep (only 42% of respondents got at least seven hours of sleep a night) and setting clear boundaries on work hours. One person said they took comfort in “the infallible knowledge that the great asteroid is coming.”
Asteroid aside, the responses point to easy steps newsrooms could take to bolster their journalists’ well-being. For example, news organizations could offer a gym stipend to employees or organize support groups, Albasi said. One respondent suggested that once a year, news organizations give their journalists a week to work on a beat-related story of their choosing, rather than something assigned to them or dictated by the news cycle.
Offering mental health support and giving employees flexibility to choose a hybrid/remote work arrangement that best suits their needs would also help, Albasi said. Only 19% of respondents said their workplace offers mental health services, while 61% said their workplace does not. Other policy changes respondents requested include increasing headcount, giving workers more time off and raising salaries.
“If there’s one thing that news organizations (should) take from this, it’s that there’s people in your organization that are struggling right now,” Albasi said. “And there are things that you can do, everything from large, systemic overhauls of the newsroom, which I understand are tough, to simple changes that you can make today to help them.”
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