Talking Points Memo

Today was another dark day in the world of journalism. 

Executives at the Los Angeles Times laid off more than 115 people, or about 23% of the paper's newsroom. TIME management also announced that cuts were on the way. This follows the news from last week that both Sports Illustrated and Pitchfork would be shut down — or specifically, in the case of Pitchfork, merged with GQ, which is a euphemistic way to say it's over. National Geographic management also announced cuts, which admittedly is confusing because back in June they made the seemingly definitive announcement they were laying off the magazine's entire writing staff.

This happens a lot. Discussing layoffs and scanning social media to see which of our friends and colleagues in media survive a round of layoffs, and which don't, has become a recurring ritual at TPM, and, surely, at most publications these days.
 

I don't think it really needs to be explained why this is troubling but I will anyway: Fewer and fewer journalists means less publicly available information, fewer investigations into wrongdoing, and a less informed public generally. And, of course, many more people without jobs or benefits. The publications listed above reflect a mix of business models: Some sell ads, some have subscribers, some have a wealthy backer who is funding their journalism as a public good or to bolster his brand as a civic-minded individual. But none of it was enough to save these journalists' jobs.
 

As previously stated, we'd love for you to support the journalism we do here at TPM by purchasing a membership. But the very next best thing is to support some journalism, somewhere, that you find meaningful before it's not there for you to support anymore — especially if it's something local.