David Rosenfeld was a journalist for two decades. Then the pandemic hit, and like an alarming number of journalists, he reached a career-breaking point this past August.
A former reporter for the Daily Breeze, a local publication under the Southern California News Group (and owned by hedge fund Alden Global Capital), Rosenfeld led SCNG’s reporting on the pandemic for L.A. County, which includes six newspapers. He’d known even before the pandemic that his time in the industry was coming to an end. “I just couldn’t afford to make so little money anymore,” he said. Rosenfeld was bringing home $45,000 a year and said he wasn’t offered a raise since taking the job in 2017.
The pandemic “magnified a lot of those things that are already present for journalists: burnout, stress and anxiety. It accelerated a lot of those feelings,” Rosenfeld said.
The effects of the pandemic on journalists are ongoing. People are continuing to quit their jobs, leave the industry or shift roles, citing burnout from the pressures of working under the shadow of a pandemic while already in a stressful career path. The pandemic seems to be pushing journalists who were already on the verge of leaving to the brink, and those that have left are not looking back.
In addition to Rosenfeld, Digiday spoke to three other former journalists who quit their jobs within recent months because of burnout.
