Newspaper journalism in crisis: Burnout on the rise, eroding young

journalists’ career commitment

 

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Newspaper journalism in crisis: Burnout on the rise, eroding young journalists’ career commitment

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scott Reinardy, Ph.D.
Ball State University
Department of Journalism
Tel: (765) 285-8692
Fax: (765) 285-7997
srreinardy@bsu.edu

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Manuscript accepted for presentation to the Newspaper Division at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication convention in Washington, D.C., in August 2007.

 

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Newspaper journalism in crisis: Burnout on the rise, eroding young journalists’ career commitment

 

 

 

Abstract

 

 

The three-component Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey was implemented to examine burnout among newspaper journalists (N = 770). With a moderate rate of exhaustion, a high rate of cynicism and a moderate rate of professional efficacy, burnout among journalists demonstrate higher rates of burnout than previous work. Additionally, journalists expressing intentions to leave the profession (n = 173) demonstrated high rates of exhaustion and cynicism, and moderate rates of professional efficacy, making them “at-risk” for burnout. Also, 74.5 percent of journalists 34 and younger (n = 223) expressed intentions to either leave newspaper journalism or answered “don’t know.” The most “at-risk” to burnout appear to be young copy editors or page designers working at small newspapers.

 

 

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Newspaper journalism is in a state of crisis (Project for Excellence in Journalism, 2007; Picard, 2006; Alterman, 2006). Plummeting circulation, declining revenues, new technology, convergence, conglomerate ownership, and layoffs provide a bleak picture for anyone pursuing a career in newspapers. And, along with the quagmire of issues, the readers, the investors, the publishers and the editors want more -- more information, more revenue and more forums to present the news.

In 2006, newspaper stocks declined 14 percent, Sunday circulation continued its downward trend at 3.4 percent, and since 2000, about 3,000 full-time newsroom staff positions have been eliminated (Project for Excellence in Journalism, 2007).  Meanwhile, Web readership continues to grow but fails to provide the revenue stream of print.

The burden falls to those working in the trenches that are asked to generate not just a daily product but a 24/7 information flow that accommodates a no-size-fits-all audience. Economic issues have compounded the old journalism stresses of deadlines, competition and work overload. With the newsroom cutbacks, the approximately 53,000 remaining full-time newspaper journalists (Project for Excellence in Journalism, 2007) are being asked to do more in a variety of ways. For instance, at Gannett -- the nation’s largest newspaper chain with 90 newspapers -- newsrooms are no longer newsrooms but “information centers” that merge the online and print operations. Information is presented in a variety of ways, including paper, Web and mobile devices (Ahrens, 2006).

For those in the newsroom, or information center, ignoring the economic impact on journalism is no longer practical (Alterman, 2006). Along with the traditional journalistic stresses of deadline and competition, news workers must now manage an evolving media and the intangibles that follow.  

Journalists are highly committed to their profession and define such commitment as loyalty,pride in their work, getting facts correct, providing multiple sides of a story and playing the role of governmental watchdog (Becker, Sobowale and Cobbey, 1979; Pew Research Center, 1999). Even though more than 90 percent of journalists are proud to say they are journalists (Pew Research Center, 1999), their commitment has its limits. Surveys indicate that among recent journalism and mass communication graduates only about 20 percent expect to retire in their profession (Becker, Vlad, Tucker and Pelton, 2006). So at what point does dedication and commitment succumb to overwhelming burden?

At the turn of the 20^th Century, “to burn oneself out” was English slang meaning “to work too hard and die early” (Partridge, 1950). One of the first modern-day references to burnout is Graham Greene’s 1961 best-selling novel A Burnt-Out Case about a world famous New York architect named Querry. Querry wrote to a physician:

I haven’t enough feeling left for human beings to do anything for them out of pity. . . A vocation is an act of love: it is not a professional career. When desire is dead one cannot continue to make love. I’ve come to the end of desire and to the end of a vocation (p. 57).

 

Although in 2005 the Center for Disease Control reported that among the top 10 most stressful jobs, journalists are listed seventh, only a few stress and burnout studies have been conducted involving journalists (CDC, 2005). In self-reported surveys, journalists have said they have suffered from some stress-related health problems (Gloede, 1983), described their jobs as “highly stressful” (Fitzgerald, 1995), and said that journalists are susceptible to burnout (Kalter, 1999). Some of the contributing factors to stress and burnout in those studies include meeting newspaper deadlines, pressure to produce good work, low pay, media competition, long hours, implementing new technology, and conflict between work and family (Gloede, 1983; Fitzgerald, 1995; Kalter, 1999; Reinardy, 2006b).

Studies have demonstrated that burnout can affect job performance (Wright & Bonett, 1997; Wright & Cropanzano, 1998; Keijsers, Schaufeli, Le Blanc, Swerts and Miranda, 1995; Parker & Kulik, 1995; Cropanzano, Rupp and Byrne, 2003), job satisfaction (Baruch-Feldman & Schwartz, 2002) and work and family relationships (Netemeyer, Boles and McMurrian, 1996), which in turn can lead to diminished productivity and employee turnover (Netemeyer et al., 1996; Kossek & Ozeki, 1998; Simon, Kummerling and Hasselhorn, 2004; Netemeyer, Brashear-Alejandro and Boles, 2004; Huang, Hammer and Perrin, 2004; Eby, Casper, Lockwood, Bordeaux and Brinley, 2005).

The three-component Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey was developed to measure the rate of burnout among professionals not working in human services (Maslach, Jackson & Leiter, 1996). Modifying the Maslach Burnout Inventory, which was established in 1981, the MBI-GS examines workers who do not have direct personal contact with service recipients. Unlike the MBI, the MBI-GS does not emphasis the relationships with clients but instead focuses on work performance in general. The MBI-GS includes Exhaustion, Cynicism and Professional Efficacy, and signs of burnout are evident if Exhaustion and Cynicism rate high and Professional Efficacy rates low (Maslach, Jackson and Leiter, 1996).

Using the MBI-GS, the purpose of this study is to determine the rate of burnout among newspaper employees, which includes reporters, copy editors, page designers, news editors, photographers and executive/managing editors. This study also examines the relationship between burnout and journalists’ intention to leave newspaper journalism. Previous studies have shown that burnout can lead to a reduction in work quality and quantity, employee turnover and conflict at home and at work. Identifying the rate of burnout among newsroom employees provides an opportunity to minimize or prevent the potential repercussions.

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Literature Review

The first recognized scholar to study burnout was Herbert Freudenberger when he published his 1974 article “Staff Burn-Out” in the Journal of Social Issues. Freudenberger’s article was initiated by his own feelings of exhaustion, fatigue, frequent headaches, sleeplessness, gastrointestinal problems, shortness of breath and lingering illnesses such as a cold or flu. Freudenberger (1974) wrote:

The burn-out candidate finds it just too difficult to hold in feelings. He cries too easily, the slightest pressure makes him feel overburdened and he yells and screams. With the ease of anger may come a suspicious attitude, a kind of suspicion and paranoia. The victim begins to feel that just about everyone is out to screw him, including other staff members (p. 160).

 

Freudenberger (1974) also described the characteristics of those susceptible to burnout, which include people dedicated and committed to their jobs, particularly those in health-care professions working in clinics, crisis intervention centers and therapeutic communities. He said long workdays, pressure to perform the job, monotony of the job, lack of organizational goals, and minimal social and organizational support can cause burnout. Schaufeli and Enzmann (1998) described Freudenberger’s work as a spark that ignited an interest in burnout research that launched its popularity.

Almost simultaneously to Freudenberger’s studies, social psychological researcher Christina Maslach stumbled across the phrase “burnout” while conducting research on emotions in the workplace (Maslach & Jackson, 1984). Maslach and Susan Jackson had been interviewing health care professionals in an effort to understand how those in crisis situations are able to control their emotional arousal and also how they are able to detach themselves from the patient. Controlling emotional arousal allows the worker to conduct his or her work without emotional interference, and detachment allows the worker to identify the patient as a “case” instead of a person who is suffering (Maslach & Jackson, 1984). While describing the interviews to a lawyer, Maslach and Jackson learned that poverty lawyers working in legal services experienced similar feelings as health care workers. Those lawyers called it “burnout” (Maslach & Jackson, 1984). Maslach and Jackson (1984) wrote:

Several points came out of the discussion. One, of course, was the term burnout itself, which seemed to be a more useful label for the phenomenon that people were reporting. Second, the emotional strain was not a unique function of health care but could appear in other service occupations as well. This suggested that there was something about dealing with people per se that was emotionally stressful and that could, if not handled effectively, result in burnout (p. 136).

 

Maslach and Jackson (1981) constructed three aspects of the burnout syndrome: burnout is an increased feeling of emotional exhaustion; it is the development of negative, cynical attitudes and feelings toward one’s clients (depersonalization); and it is the tendency to negatively evaluate oneself (personal accomplishments) – workers are unhappy with themselves and dissatisfied with their job accomplishments. Maslach and Jackson (1981) described burnout as a “syndrome of emotional exhaustion and cynicism that occurs frequently among individuals who do ‘people-work’ of some kind” (p. 99). Using the Maslach Burnout Inventory, higher scores on emotional exhaustion and depersonalization coupled with lower scores on personal accomplishment would indicate burnout (Maslach & Jackson, 1981).

Initially, burnout research was regarded as “pop psychology” by some academics and professionals, and ignored outright. When Maslach and Jackson attempted to publish their manuscript that outlined the MBI scales, they were met with resistance. That has since changed. Between 1976 and 1996, 93 percent of 498 journal articles referred to the MBI (Schaufeli & Enzmann, 1998).

In 1996, Maslach, Jackson and Leiter developed the MBI-General Survey to measure burnout in other occupational groups not working in health care. Maslach et al. (1996) wrote: “The MBI-GS defines burnout as a crisis in one’s relationship with work, not necessarily as a crisis in one’s relationships with people at work” (p. 20). Unlike the MBI, the MBI-GS does not emphasis the relationships with clients but instead focuses on work performance in general.

With the MBI-GS, exhaustion examines fatigue, cynicism examines “indifference or a distant attitude toward work,” and professional efficacy measures expectations and accomplishments (Maslach, Jackson and Leiter, 1996, p. 21). In their 2001 retrospective, Maslach, Schaufeli and Leiter wrote that while exhaustion is reflective of the stress aspect of burnout it does not examine the relationship workers have with their work. The authors contend that people experiencing exhaustion create distance by becoming indifferent or cynical. The link to efficacy isn’t as clear. Byrne (1994), and Lee and Ashforth (1996) determined that inefficacy was a product of either exhaustion or cynicism or a combination of the two elements. Maslach et al. (2001) argue that a lack of efficacy develops in correlation with exhaustion and cynicism.

However, burnout does not occur without warning. An increase in stressors creates stress, and stress paves the path to burnout. In citing data reported in three studies, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health wrote that 40 percent of workers reported that their jobs are “very or extremely stressful,” 26 percent of workers are “often or very often burned out or stressed by their work,” and 29 percent felt “quite a bit or extremely stressed at work” (NIOSH, 1999, p. 4). NIOSH defined job stress as “the harmful physical and emotional responses that occur when the requirements of the job do not match the capabilities, resources, or needs of the worker” (p. 6).

Emotional and mental stressors are not only associated with unpleasant experiences. Accepting a new job or promotion can be just as stressful as being laid off. Emotional and mental stressors in the workplace include fear (of sanctions), joy (of promotion), anger (over injustice), challenge (of a new position), shock (after sexual harassment or racial taunt), competition (with colleagues), conflicts (with subordinates or managers), contradictory instructions, negative thoughts, time pressure, structural changes, monotonous tasks, night shifts and overtime (von Onciul, 1996).

Experiences, values and adaptability largely determine how an individual reacts as stressors accumulate. If a familiar support system falters, a solitary stressor can become exacerbated -- for instance, a person rushing to a meeting gets stuck in traffic because of an accident (von Onciul, 1996). Similarly, a reporter’s stress is compounded when he or she is hurrying to post a story on the Web and the computer crashes.

Stressors create stress but defining stress has been a challenge. In his book, The Stress of Life, Hans Selye (1956), considered by many to be the father of modern stress research, defined stress as:

. . . the rate of wear and tear on the body. Anyone who feels that whatever he is doing – or whatever is being done to him – is strenuous and wearing, knows vaguely what we mean by stress. The feelings of just being tired, jittery, or ill are subjective sensations of stress. But stress does not necessarily imply a morbid change: normal life also causes some wear and tear in the machinery of the body. Indeed, stress can even have curative value, as in shock therapy, bloodletting, and sports (p. 3).

 

Selye said stress is a necessary part of our lives, and not all stress is bad. He writes: “. . .it is the spice of life, for any emotion, any activity causes stress. But, of course, your system must be prepared to take it. The same stress which makes one person sick can be an invigorating experience for another” (p. vii).

Others contend that stress increases when job responsibilities exceed a person’s ability to adapt (Lazarus and Launier, 1978), which results in unhappiness, decreased performance and physical ailments (Brill, 1984). While a person suffering high degrees of stress might stabilize and actually improve (Brill, 1984), burnout victims generally cannot (Maslach, et al. 2001). Stress-related illnesses take its toll on individuals and organizations. Webster and Bergman (1999) reported that occupational stress sufferers miss on average 23 workdays a year. Additionally, accidents, absenteeism, turnover, reduced productivity, medical and insurance costs, and workers’ compensation caused by job stress cost U.S. businesses between $200 and $300 billion each year (The American Institute of Stress, 2006).

In two separate Associated Press Managing Editor surveys, 39 percent of editors said they suffer from stress-related health problems (Gloede, 1983) and 47 percent described their jobs as “highly stressful” (Fitzgerald, 1995). In the 1995 study, nearly 67 percent said their stress levels increased with the implementation of a new pagination system.

Although Maslach and Jackson (1981) take minimal steps in defining stress, they recognized its impact on burnout, writing, “chronic stress can be emotionally draining and poses a risk of ‘burnout’” (p. 99). Two stress-related theories emerged in the early years of MBI development (Maslach, Schaufeli and Leiter, 2001): One, people who are incredibly dedicated to their work exceed their limit when pursuing their ideals; and two, burnout occurs during extended exposure to job stressors, which would result in burnout occurring later in people’s careers. More than 25 years of burnout research has established a direct link from exhaustion to cynicism (Maslach, et al., 2001). Maslach et al. (2001) wrote: “Burnout scores are fairly stable over time, which supports the notion that burnout is a prolonged response to chronic job stressors” (p. 405).

In newspaper journalism, stress is an acceptable byproduct when pursuing deadlines, scoops, and the demands of editors and readers. Stressors are compounded when working long hours, the job conflicts with family and the increased pressure to produce not only on a daily basis but perhaps on an hourly basis. Reinardy (2006a) wrote: “The emotional stressors provide an additional element of fear (of getting scooped), joy (of getting the scoop), anger (of being ignored by sources), competition (with other reporters and other media) and conflicts (when chasing a controversial story)” (p. 400).

The MBI-GS has been utilized in a multitude of studies, including the examination of managers, clerks, foremen, technicians and blue-collar workers in multinational companies (Schutte, Toppinen, Kalimo and Schaufeli, 2000); police officers, air traffic controllers, construction managers and journalists (Richardsen and Martinussen, 2005); industrial white-collar and blue-collar employees (Toppinen-Tanner, Kalimo and Mutanen, 2002); workers who use technology in their jobs (Salanova, Peiro and Schaufeli, 2002); information and communication technology professionals (Kouvonen, 2005); a general population of Finnish employees (Ahola, Honkonen, Isometsa, Kalimo, Nykyri, Koskinen, Aromaa, Lonnqvist, 2006); and a general population of Swedish workers (Lindblom, Linton, Fedeli and Bryngelsson, 2006).

Only a few studies have utilized the MBI or MBI-GS to examine burnout among journalists. Cook and Banks (1993) used the MBI to determine burnout among 117 full-time reporters and 43 copy editors from five different daily newspapers with circulations ranging from about 23,000 to about 250,000. Cook and Banks determined that the journalist most “at-risk” for burnout is a young, entry-level copy editor working at a small newspaper. He or she makes less than the average salary, “expresses intentions to leave the field, has found journalism to be much different from what was expected and demonstrates a low overall level of job satisfaction” (p. 116).

Among 120 reporters and copy editors, Cook, Banks and Turner (1993) also reported that young copy editors demonstrated higher rates of burnout compared to older journalists and reporters. However, journalists at larger newspapers reported lower levels of personal accomplishment than those at smaller papers. Additionally, reporters were more satisfied in their jobs than copy editors. Craig (1999) also found high levels of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization among copy editors at the Daily Oklahoman.

In comparing human service workers, social work administrators and journalists, Peckham (1983) reported that journalists were less burned out than the service workers and “slightly more” than the social work administrators.

Reinardy (2006a) examined the rate of burnout among sports writers, desk personnel and sports editors. He reported that while all sports journalists score high in personal accomplishment, they rate in the moderate range of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization on the MBI. Desk personnel had a lower level of emotional exhaustion than either sports writers or editors but sports writers had the lowest level of depersonalization among the groups. Also, sports editors clearly suffered from a higher rate of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization and a lower rate of personal accomplishment than the other groups.

In a follow-up study using the MBI-GS, Reinardy (2006b) reported that sports editors (n = 184) demonstrated a moderate rate of emotional exhaustion and cynicism, but have a high level of professional efficacy. Richardsen and Martinussen (2005) reported similar results among 93 journalists.

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This study builds on previous research involving journalism burnout and will examine the following research questions and hypotheses:

 

RQ1: Overall, how do daily newspaper journalists rate on the three-subscales of the MBI-GS (exhaustion, cynicism and professional efficacy)?

 

RQ2: Does job title (reporter, copy editor/page designer, news editor, executive/managing editor or photographer) affect burnout among journalists?

 

H1: Journalists at smaller circulation newspapers will report significantly higher rates of exhaustion and cynicism than journalists at larger circulation newspapers.

 

H2: Younger journalists will report significantly higher rates of burnout than older journalists.

 

H3: Journalists who express intentions to leave newspaper journalism will report significantly higher rates of burnout than those who are not intending to leave.

 

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Methodology

The Editor & Publisher International Yearbook (2006) was used to extract e-mail contacts at 1,452 U.S. daily newspapers. Most of the contacts were managing editors. An e-mail was then sent to the managing editors in January 2007, explaining the study and requesting the staff e-mail lists of their full-time newspaper employees. If e-mail addresses of managing editors were not available, the recruitment e-mail was sent to a general news mailbox.

Of the 1,452 e-mails, 338 were dead accounts. Of the remaining 1,114, 74 newspaper representatives responded and provided access to their staffs’ e-mail lists. From that list, a database of 2,791 journalists was established.

Procedures for the survey and the study was approved by the Ball State University Institutional Review Board. The 73-question survey consisted of six sections but only two will be used in this study, including job relationship and background. The “job relationship” section included the 16-question MBI-GS, which uses a Likert-type scale (0 = never to 6 = every day). In the “background” section, demographic questions such as experience, age, gender, race, job title, newspaper circulation size, salary, marital status, parental responsibilities, intention to leave journalism and work hours per week were included. The section also included questions regarding newsroom staff reductions, online responsibilities and newspaper ownership group.

An explanatory e-mail was sent to 2,791 full-time newsroom staffers in February 2007. The e-mail included a Web link to a freeonlinesurvey.com survey. The survey was voluntary and anonymous. Of the 2,791 staffers, 120 were dead accounts, leaving 2,671. A reminder e-mail was sent in March 2007.

Of the 2,671, 770 respondents completed the survey, providing a response rate of 29 percent, which is similar to Web survey response rates in other studies (Reinardy, 2006a; Asch, as cited in Schonlau, Fricker & Elliott, 2002; Everingham, as cited in Schonlau, et al., 2002; Jones & Pitt, 1999).

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Results

To replace missing values in the data set of 770 respondents, mean substitution was implemented but no more than 1 percent of any variable was replaced during this process.

Descriptive statistics determined that the average age of the 770 respondents was 41.6 years with an average of 17.8 years of journalism experience. The average salary was $48,493 and the average circulation size of their newspapers was 183,500. A large majority of the respondents were Caucasian (90.9 percent), 57.6 percent were male, 59 percent were married, 49.7 percent had children and on average they worked 45.7 hours per week. Of the respondents, 648 provided their job title. To better establish overall trends, job titles were collapsed into larger categories. For instance, a business reporter was not distinctive from a general assignment reporter. Reporters (44.8 percent) made up a majority of the respondents, followed by news editors (23.5 percent), copy editors/page designers (13.6 percent), executive/managing editors (9 percent) and photographers (6.6 percent).

To answer RQ1 (see Table 1), descriptive statistics were utilized to analyze the MBI-GS data to determine the rate of burnout among journalists. According to the MBI-GS, a mean score greater than 3.2 indicates high levels of exhaustion, a mean score greater than 2.2  indicates high levels of cynicism, and a mean score less than 4 indicates low levels of professional efficacy (Maslach et al., 1996). Journalists in this study indicate moderate rates of exhaustion (2.92) and professional efficacy (4.90), but high rates of cynicism (2.63). To summarize, journalists are suffering from moderate rates of exhaustion but high rates of cynicism. Efficacy, which is connected to job satisfaction, is also at a moderate rate.

To examine RQ2 (see Table 2), which inquires about differences in job title and burnout, an analysis of variance (ANOVA) was utilized. Journalists were divided into five groups – reporters (n=290), news editors (152), executive/managing editors (58), copy editors/designers (88) and photographers (43). Because of the homogeneity of variance assumption violation (i.e. unequal group sizes), comparison of means was performed using the Games-Howell approach, which is a liberal post hoc test that allows for differences between groups to be significant more easily than other post hoc tests. The results indicate significance between the groups on two of the three MBI-GS subscales – cynicism and professional efficacy. For cynicism, there were significant differences between copy editors/page designers and executive/managing editors, F (4, 643) = 3.26, p < .05. The results indicate that copy editors/page designers report higher rates of cynicism than executive/managing editors. As for professional efficacy, there were significant differences between reporters and news editors, F (4, 643) = 4.29, p < .05, and reporters and executive/managing editors, F (4, 643) = 4.29, p < .01. Results indicate that news editors and executive/managing editors report higher levels of efficacy than reporters.

In determining if journalists at lower circulation newspapers reported higher rates of burnout than those at larger circulation newspapers, an ANOVA was used to examine H1. The newspapers were divided by circulation into three relatively equal groups: small (38,000 and below), medium (38,001-190,000), and large (190,001 and above). Results indicate that there are significant differences on the exhaustion subscale among the three groups, F (2, 612) = 4.79, p < .01. Journalists in the small circulation group reported higher levels of exhaustion than those in the largest group. However, there were no significant differences between the groups and the subscales cynicism and professional efficacy. Therefore, H1 was partially supported.

In examining H2 (see Table 3), which states that younger journalists will report higher levels of burnout than older journalists, an ANOVA was implemented. The journalists were divided into three relatively equal groups: 34 and younger, 35-48, and 49 and older. Results indicate that there were significant differences between the groups on the subscale exhaustion, F (2, 676) = 9.80, p < .001. The journalists in the 34 and younger, and 35-49 age groups rate significantly higher on exhaustion than those in the 49 and older group. There were not differences between the groups in the other areas, thus H2 was partially supported.

An ANOVA was used to examine H3, which states that journalists who express intentions to leave newspaper journalism will have higher rates of burnout than those who are not intending to leave. When the journalists were asked if they had intentions to leave newspaper journalism, 25.7 percent answered “yes” and 36.2 percent answered “don’t know.” Journalists who expressed intentions to leave the profession had significantly higher rates of exhaustion than those who did not intend to leave, F (2, 671) = 67.81, p < .001. Those intending to leave also had significantly higher rates of cynicism, F (2, 671) = 66.35, p < .001, and lower rates of professional efficacy, F (2, 671) = 19.28, p < .001. Therefore, H3 was supported.

Further examination reveals that 31 percent of young journalists (34 and younger) expressed intentions to leave the profession, and 43.5 percent answered “don’t know.” Additionally, for those between 35-48 years old, 25.9 percent said they intend to leave journalism and 42.9 percent answered “don’t know.”

For those who expressed interest in leaving newspaper journalism, a follow-up question asked: “If you are intending to leave newspaper journalism, what would be the reason(s) for leaving?” Of the 223 journalists 34 and younger who said they intended to leave or answered “don’t know,” 36 percent said money or salary was the reason, 27 percent said hours or schedule and 19 percent said stress or burnout. Also, a reference to family life was mentioned in 13 percent of the responses.

Many of the responses listed several reasons for possible leaving the profession. A 30-year-old man said, “To find a better paying job – or a less stressful job that allows more time for my personal life, even if it pays less money.” A 26-year-old woman said, “It’s too stressful, doesn’t pay enough and isn’t satisfying.” Another 26-year-old woman said, “The loooow pay, late hours and lack of perks, few awards, no cash bonuses, work through blizzards when any other city worker stay home really gets to you after awhile.” And a 25-year-old man said, “Tired of the hours, lack of pay, work overload.”

Some journalists said there were several stresses contributing to their displeasure with the profession. A 26-year-old woman wrote, “I mostly have only a professional life, and I work in a bureau with very few people. Plus, it’s incredibly stressful trying to write well all the time.” A 30-year-old man wrote, “Stress, not having adequate human and technological resources for work demanded of me, tired of being stuck indoors all day, tired of deadlines, tired of tired news.” A 27-year-old man said:

The majority of mainstream coverage is frivolous and mind-numbing. It seems we’re intentionally trying to dumb down the public, rarely tackle real issues that make a difference or expose deceits of authorities. . . I feel my soul being drained every day. . . And as soon as the right opportunity presents itself, I’m outta here!

 

A 27-year-old woman wrote, “It’s an environment where everyone is under constant stress and I think it’s very unhealthy for me both mentally and physically.” A 30-year-old woman wrote, “If I were to leave, I think it would likely be due to continuing pressures to produce more with less resources and less support.” A 27-year man wrote, “My family life has suffered tremendously. I have almost no free time outside work.” A 33-year-old man wrote:

Poor quality of assignments, lack of planning ahead on management decisions, poor hours, no investment in technology, no recognition from upper management combined with no information provided to employees, lack of job security. . . no vision on the future of newspapers.

 

And a 26-year-old female wrote:

Bad pay; bad hours; not enough co-workers on the copy desk; city desk or sports desks to help read and design; favoritism; bad software; not enough reporters to cover events; no bonuses; bad attitudes due to stress; people with less experience can be promoted; people who are strong and outspoken are treated differently and badly; people who "kiss ass" are treated with respect and work is never distributed equally.

 

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Conclusions

This study explored the rate of burnout among newspaper journalists, including reporters, copy editors, page designers, news editors, photographers and executive/managing editors. It examined differences between burnout and job title, circulation size of newspapers where journalists work, age, and intentions to leave newspaper journalism.

The results indicate that the 770 journalists in this study have a moderate rate of exhaustion, a high rate of cynicism and a moderate rate of professional efficacy. Copy editors/page designers report higher rates of cynicism than executive/managing editors, and news editors and executive/managing editors report higher levels of efficacy than reporters. Journalists at small newspapers reported higher levels of exhaustion than those in the largest group, and younger journalists reported higher levels of exhaustion than older journalists. Additionally, journalists expressing intentions to leave the profession had significantly higher rates of burnout than those not intending to leave.

In previous burnout studies, journalists have demonstrated moderate rates of exhaustion and cynicism but high levels of professional efficacy (Reinardy, 2006a; Reinardy, 2006b; Richardsen and Martinussen, 2005). It has been argued that efficacy in a job acts as a counterbalance to exhaustion and cynicism. That does not seem to be the case in this study.

One of the most compelling aspects of this study is that it diverts from previous results. While reporting moderate rates of exhaustion, the journalists in this study demonstrated high levels of cynicism and moderate rates of efficacy. And although the journalists reported “moderate” rates of exhaustion, the rate in this study (2.93) was higher than previous work conducted by Reinardy (2.45) (2006b), and Richardsen and Martinussen (2.62) (2005). The same can be said for efficacy. Previous studies have reported high levels of efficacy or personal accomplishment (Reinardy, 2006a; Reinardy, 2006b), although Richardsen and Martinussen’s (2005) efficacy results are closely aligned with the results in this study.

In essence, with high levels of cynicism and climbing rates of exhaustion, journalists are moving closer to reaching burnout as defined by the MBI-GS. And the protective buffer efficacy – a feeling of accomplishment – continues to dwindle. Maslach et al. (2001) have theorized that burnout is sequential from exhaustion to cynicism, and inefficacy develops in concert with the other two aspects of burnout. That appears to be the case here.

In this study, journalists reported high rates of cynicism but only moderate rates of exhaustion. Cynicism “reflects indifference or a distant attitude towards work” (Maslach and Jackson, 1996, p. 21). So it does not appear that journalists are exhausted in doing their jobs – although they might be heading that way -- but perhaps are exasperated with the work. Meanwhile, accomplishment or efficacy continues to decline. Has the mounting journalism crisis – declining circulation and revenues, new technology, convergence, conglomerate ownership, and layoffs – diminished the commitment that has defined previous generations of journalists? That certainly could be a topic for additional research.

The most “at-risk” to burn out appear to be young copy editors or page designers at small newspapers, which replicates previous results (Cook and Banks, 1993; Cook, Banks and Turner, 1993). However, of the groups, reporters rated the lowest in professional efficacy. So while the results of H1 and H2 were only partially supported, the findings provided some interesting insights, particularly in terms of younger journalists.

It isn’t surprising to discover that journalists who expressed interest in leaving the profession registered higher rates of burnout. Previous studies have demonstrated that burnout leads to job turnover (Netemeyer et al., 1996; Kossek & Ozeki, 1998; Simon, Kummerling and Hasselhorn, 2004; Netemeyer, Brashear-Alejandro and Boles, 2004; Huang, Hammer and Perrin, 2004; Eby, Casper, Lockwood, Bordeaux and Brinley, 2005). However, this is the first study to document the link between burnout and turnover intentions among journalists.

Interestingly, younger journalists not only reported higher rates of burnout than their colleagues, but those journalists are most likely to express intentions to leave the profession. Among journalists 34 and younger, 74.5 percent either answered “yes” or “don’t know” when asked about leaving newspaper journalism. For young journalists, there clearly appears to be a distinct connection between burnout and career change. The open-ended responses indicate that dissatisfaction with pay, job demands and high levels of stress is whittling away at the commitment of young journalists. And because there is no clear resolution in reversing burnout (Maslach, et al., 2001), leaving journalism might be the only alternative.

This study has several limitations, including the sample. Because managing editors were asked to provide staff e-mail lists, the sample was by no means random. Also, only 5 percent of U.S. daily newspapers were represented. Another limitation is the job title groups. Because job titles were divided into five general categories, individual jobs might not be well represented.

Despite the limitations, the results of this study offer unique insight into burnout among newspaper journalists. While external issues are oftentimes presented as the cause for the crisis in journalism, this study demonstrates that the crisis might be internal as well. Previous studies have demonstrated burnout affects job performance, job satisfaction and work and family relationships, which can affect productivity and exacerbate employee turnover.

So in an effort for newspapers to raise revenues, maintain circulation and provide readers with more information in more ways, another crisis might be upon us. Perhaps lost in this evolutionary period of newspaper journalism is the news worker. When he or she is no longer able, or no longer willing, to provide quality journalism, the journalism of crisis won’t be found on Wall Street or in the circulation data. It’ll be found in the newsroom.

 

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