It's not your imagination, there are more journalism jobs

Have you been noticing more posts and tweets for journalism jobs lately? Me too.

But to make sure it wasn’t the spiked eggnog that was making me feel more positive about the journalism industry’s financial state, I shot a quick email to the folks at JournalismJobs.com.

They immediately responded, confirming “jobs are up overall over the past 15-18 months.”

Well, not to sound cynical, but nearly EVERYTHING is up when you compare it to a year and a half ago.

“At our lowest point, we fell to 650 or so job listings in mid-2009,” added Dan Rohn, founder of the site, when I asked for more information. “We have a little more than 880 total listings now. That’s about a 25 percent increase over the past 15 months.”

He also said that at the site’s peak in 2007, they had about 1,200 job listings, not including include 150 internship posts.

Eric Wee, president of JournalismNext.com, also confirms an increase.

“We have been seeing an increase in postings in the last 6-8 months,” he said. “It seems to be pointing to some sort of recovery and even expansion (online) in the media world.”

Jobs listings are also up at Online News Association‘s Career Center as well, according to ONA Web Editor Sean Connolly.

The listings have doubled when you compare the first half of 2010 to the second. And, naturally, nearly doubled year over year.

Yes, there are still many of us looking for work. Yes, furloughs are still part of our realities. And, yes, we’re all still underpaid.

Yeah, yeah, yeah… we’ve got a ways to go. But you can’t deny that this is a positive trend and potentially a sign of growth and rebuilding.

Let’s celebrate with some spiked eggnog, shall we?

Robert Hernandez is a Web Journalism professor at USC Annenberg and co-creator of #wjchat, a weekly chat for Web Journalists held on Twitter. You can contact him by e-mail ([email protected]) or through Twitter (@webjournalist). Yes, he’s a tech/journo geek.

About Robert Hernandez

Robert Hernandez, aka WebJournalist, is an assistant professor at USC Annenberg. Hernandez has been working in Web journalism for more than a decade. He has worked for seattletimes.com, SFGate.com, eXaminer.com, La Prensa Gr

Comments

  1. To advance Robert’s point, let’s not forget that this data doesn’t include jobs that are created when journalists become solo entrepreneurs, starting their own income-producing publications.

    Nor does it include the additional jobs being created for people with journalism reporting and production skills at start-ups which don’t advertise openings on websites frequented by traditional journalism industry folks.

    If you are willing to look beyond a traditional newsroom gig in a traditional newsroom, plenty of opportunities are waiting for you.

  2. 198.49.125.26 says:

    While hiring may be increasing, I suspect salaries are not. It’s been a major tide-change in newsrooms across the country and those being hired are probably newbies and multi-platform journalists — i.e. doing more with less. I foresee that even this new crop will see journalism at best as a temporary stop on the way to something better and more lucrative.

  3. 156.62.3.23 says:

    I’ve just completed a small research project on job ads in USA, Canada, UK, Australia & New Zealand.

    You might find some of the numbers and

  4. 24.156.104.173 says:

    maybe but I have a feeling they are only up in specific catagories and some of the increase is longer running ads while waiting to fill the position. Also rate decrerases have resulted in more entities using Journalismjobs as a result of E&P and others dropping listings. I myself have checked JJ.com and never saw more than 2 circulations jobs in any week for over a year.