Why So Many People are Leaving the Business
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Why are so many TV news Journalists leaving the industry? The Boston Globe reports that in their market, a significant number of experienced journalists are swearing off TV news altogether, driven by burnout, a shift away from fulfilling storytelling, and shrinking newsrooms.
Former WHDH reporter Sabrina Silva told the Globe that a key factor in her 2024 departure for real estate was the repetitive nature of the coverage, noting that many stories "felt the same." She lamented how her scripts for one fire were identical to those she wrote for a previous one. Silva, who learned English partly by watching local TV news after coming to the US from Brazil, decided she'd had enough of the grind. She explained, "The issue here was, 'If it bleeds it leads,' and I felt as though we were prioritizing breaking news that we didn’t have a lot of information on over stories that we had been working on for a while." Her decision was reinforced by the need for more time to visit her sick grandmother, but burnout helped motivate her to leave news entirely.
Silva's story is one example among a string of recent high-profile departures in the Boston market, including anchors and reporters from stations like WBZ and WFXT. For instance, former WBZ morning anchor Liam Martin publicly discussed the severe toll the job took on his mental health when he left the station last year. The trend coincides with a national decrease in local TV news employment; a survey from the Radio Television Digital News Association found that full-time local TV news employment fell 2.9 percent nationally at the end of 2024.
According to the Globe, the departures are often met with news stations being slow to replace staff or not filling roles at all, leading to emptier newsrooms and a massive increase in workload for those who remain. Jim Morelli, a former reporter at Boston 25 (WFXT), noted that when he joined in 2015, the day shift had roughly seven to nine reporters, but by the time he left this year, it was down to two or three. Morelli attributed these changes to private equity giant Apollo Global Management's purchase of Cox Media Group (parent of Boston 25) in 2019, which resulted in layoffs and salary cuts. He said, "You can’t do much when you’ve got two reporters or three, even, in a city the size of Boston."
The decline in audience and advertising revenue has led to job cuts, even as stations increase local news hours because it is cheaper to produce than paying for national content. Former WBZ sportscaster Bob Lobel commented that "For profit seems to be more important than for content." This shift also means stations are hiring younger staff at lower salaries, leading to a loss of veteran expertise. Former WBZ reporter David Robichaud felt there was "no respect given to veteran reporters" who possessed deep local knowledge of the area.
Many former journalists who spoke to the Boston Globe confessed they rarely watch the news anymore, feeling they can get better information on social media or websites. They critiqued the persistent focus on tragic, repetitive events and the lack of in-depth reporting. Jackie Bruno, a former NBC10 Boston anchor, admitted she often finds herself frustrated when she does tune in, saying, "I end up throwing things at the TV, going, 'Oh my god. Why did they do that?'"
For the journalists who remain, the pressure is immense as they juggle more duties than ever. Melissa Pagano, a former producer at WBZ, left in 2022 after years of a grueling late-night shift, influenced partly by wanting better hours to start a family. She recalled that what once had dedicated producers for the 4:30 a.m., 5 a.m., and 6 a.m. slots was reduced to only two morning producers, meaning they were often building shows while on the air. "As newsrooms start shrinking, that luxury kind of goes out the window a little bit, and you kind of go into survival mode," she said.
An exception to the staffing cuts appears to be market leader WCVB-TV (Channel 5). President and general manager Andrew Vrees told the Globe the station has not cut staff and has invested in new positions, such as a digital content producer, to grow its digital footprint. Many industry insiders, like WCVB investigative reporter Mike Beaudet, believe that TV stations are uniquely positioned to leverage their video capabilities to reach new audiences, provided they are bold enough to adapt.
