Folks,
Around 2002, during the lead-up to the War on Iraq, I first started writing as a high school student for local newspapers. I quickly fell in love with being a journalist and having the power to go out and hold power accountable.
Now, a new study by the Local Journalist Index, a joint project of Rebuild Local News and Muck Rack, shows that nearly 80% of journalism jobs are gone since I first started writing as a journalist, underscoring how difficult the field is for those who remained
The study says, “The 2026 Local Journalist Index finds a national average of 7.8 Local Journalist Equivalents (or what we refer to as LJEs, essentially a full-time equivalent) per 100,000 residents, down 81% from roughly 40 per 100,000 in 2002, and representing an estimated 26,680 LJEs nationwide. It’s also down from last year’s national average of 8.2.”
When I regularly tell my therapist about the shame I feel about how little I make as a 40-year-old labor reporter with nearly 20 years on the beat, he reminds me that the vast majority of my colleagues are no longer employed in my profession, therefore I beat the odds.
The only way I beat the odds was by writing about workers, and many workers chose to fund my writing. Over 10 years, 1,500 articles, and one Emmy nomination, Payday has been scraped by and cited by major publications like The New York Times,The Washington Post, and even NPR’s “This American Life.”
Then, we got hit by three giant forces outside of our control:
- The decline of Twitter cost us 25,000 followers and our crowdfunding base.
- Americans stopped reading and consuming half the news they did a decade ago.
- This year, Payday lost a $35,000 grant, or $3,000 a month, due to Trump cuts, and is struggling to stay afloat.
- Freelance work to supplement Payday’s earnings has virtually disappeared over the last ten years
Payday continues to scrape by and is adapting to our circumstances in the following ways:
- We gained 5,300 Bluesky followers in less than a year (less than ⅕ of what I had on Twitter, but better than nothing)
- Payday began offering media trainings and partnerships to unions (we have had some progress, but not quite enough)
- Just this month, we recruited a volunteer fundraiser with experience raising money from unions (this program is just starting, but we are optimistic)
In the interim, though, it’s a time of tremendous difficulty. I am behind on nearly all my bills and find myself exhausted by the effort of raising money, even as Payday keeps scraping by.
If you can help us stay afloat, please fill out this survey. Any assistance with fundraising, sponsorship, or interest in media training would be greatly appreciated.
Email me at melk@paydayreport.com with any ideas on how to stay afloat.
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