• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, March 12, 2024

Journalists are worried – with good reason, judging by a new study from Muck Rack. 

Of those polled, 36% have seen layoffs or buyouts at their companies in the past year. 

Moreover, they are concerned about: 

• Lack of funding—35% 
• Trust in journalism/media—31% 
• Disinformation—28% 
• Decline of local news—24%
• News and media literacy—18% 
• Decreasing readership—17% 

And, the pay grades aren’t all that high. Only 46% of journalists earn more than $70k per year.

Their pay ranges are:

• Less than $40k—10% 
• $40-70k—43% 
• $70-100k—25%
• $100-250k—16% 
• $150-250k—4%
• More than $250k—1% 

They work hard for that money as well. Only 17% produce one story per week, while 22% do 11 and 22% write five to seven stories. Overall, 64% handle at least one story per day.  

Also, 47% work after hours (or before) from one to two days per week, while 17% do so on three to four days and 12% do five to six days; this includes weekend work.  

Muck Rack surveyed 1,106 journalists from January 3 to February 9, 2024.

Those journalists say that 69% of what they write is primarily for digital publication, while 19% cite print. TV, newsletters and other channels are in the low single digits.  

They have not yet turned to generative AI in a big way – 28% are using it and 20% plan to explore it. Another 21% are not sure and 31% have no plans to go into it. 

Of those that are deploying AI or plan to, the uses include:

• Brainstorming—52% 
• Research—51% 
• Drafting headlines—34%
• Drafting outlines—31%
• Drafting social posts—28% 
• Drafting story copy—20% 
• Other—14%

But only 24% say their firms have AI use case policies, versus 45% that do not. But plans are afoot at 13%, and 18% do not know. 

As for social media, 81% are still using X/Twitter, while 19% have deleted, suspending or stopped using their accounts in the past year. And X is still seen as more valuable than other social channels: 

• X/Twitter—36%
• Facebook—22% 
• LinkedIn—17% 
• Instagram—12% 
• YouTube—4% 
• Other—4% 
• I don’t use any of these—2%
• Reddit—2%
• TikTok—1% 
• Signal—1% 
• Snapchat—0%

Meanwhile, 51% feel social media is important to them in their work, 33% very much so. 

Finally, here are some tips for PR people trying to reach journalists:

• Keep ‘em short - 65% prefer pitches that are under 200 words 
• 64% don’t care which day they are pitched; of those, 22% prefer Mondays. 
• 44% want pitches before noon. 
• 51% say one follow-up is ideal and 48% feel it should come within three to seven days later.