• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, September 1, 2009

Newspapers might be interested in expanding their digital offerings, but you wouldn't know it from a recent survey conducted by the Associated Press Managing Editors, which found that the wave of layoffs over the last couple years has disproportionately affected younger employees, in effect constituting a purge of people under the age of 35 from the newspaper business.

While there are some good reasons behind this trend, it clearly bodes ill for a medium trying to break out of an antiquated business model.

According to the August survey of 95 editors, their newspapers have laid off at least 10% of their staff on average, but the proportion of young employees (ages 18-35) was much higher. This is due, in large part, to the seniority rules that govern newspaper staffing, often summarized as "last hired, first fired" -- meaning that new employees are usually the first to go.

Veteran staffers may also be considered more experienced and therefore critical to newsroom operations.

But the APME also pointed out that the elimination of younger employees is dangerous, as managers often look to younger journalists and IT administrators to inject new thinking into calcified, outdated parts of the newspaper business.

They do this by bringing awareness of new platforms for both reporting and distributing digital content. Younger demos also recognize topical stories that will appeal to younger readers.

Younger reporters have already been deterred by the much-publicized financial meltdown of the newspaper business, which appears to hold out little prospect of long-term (or even short-term) careers.

According to figures posted by the Newspaper Association of America last week, overall newspaper revenues fell 29% in the second quarter of 2009 compared to the same period last year, from $9.6 billion to $6.8 billion. That makes it the worst quarterly decline since the Great Depression, and the 12th straight quarterly decline since 2006.