There Are Far Fewer Reporters In America Today Than Ten Years Ago

Here's an alarming fact for you: the number of working journalists in the United States dropped by nearly 20,000 in just six years, according to the Pew Research Center.

The decline of print media, as well as a host of other factors, has led to a tidal wave of job losses, Pew said. There were 55,000 journalists working in 2006; there were just 38,000 in 2012. That is a loss of 17,000 journalists.

Look:

Pew said that, along with the battering print has taken, the decline could be traced to the decisions by news organizations to devote more money and staff to digital advertising, social media and Web-friendly content.

The evidence of those losses has been all-too-visible in recent years. Tribune Co. cut approximately 700 jobs in 2013, more than 200 staffers were reportedly laid off at Gannett in August and as many as 500 people were cut from Time Inc. in February as the company prepared to spin off from Time Warner. The Chicago Sun-Times axed its entire photography staff in May of 2013.

(h/t: Judd Legum)