More than 6,150 news employees laid off and more than 100 newsrooms shuttered in 17 months; see interactive map

Newsroom cutbacks (including reductions of hours) and closures, March 2020 to August 2021
Screenshot of Tow Center for Digital Journalism map; click the image to enlarge it or click here for the interactive version.

The pandemic has been rough on newsrooms, as the recession forced many businesses to cut back on their advertising budgets. New data from the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University shows just how rough: At least 6,154 news workers were laid off from March 2020 to August 2021, and at least 100 news organizations have closed, Gabby Miller reports for Columbia Journalism Review. The list of newsrooms includes weeklies and other non-daily publications, and relies heavily on data compiled by Poynter's Kristen Hare. Here are more top findings:

• Fourteen of the closed news organizations have since resumed operations to some extent.
• Another 42 newsrooms were eliminated through mergers or acquisitions.
• The layoffs were made by 35 chains and 343 individual outlets.
• The first three months of the pandemic were the worst; there were 832 layoffs in March 2020, 905 in April, and 1,165 in May. In June 2020 there were 317.
• The federally funded Paycheck Protection Program helped many local publications stay afloat through forgivable loans. Nearly 2,800 news companies employing 40,000 workers got one.