This weekend, the Editorial Board, Oberlin students interested in journalism, and other members of the Review staff had the pleasure of attending a journalism career panel organized for the Review’s 150th anniversary. The panel featured Oberlin alumni Peter Baker, who serves as the chief White House correspondent at The New York Times; Sonia Shah, OC ’90, an award-winning science journalist and author; and Emily Nussbaum, OC ’88, a Pulitzer Prize-winning television critic and a staff writer for The New Yorker. While the details of their compelling careers in journalism undeniably inspired the audience, a more dire message was made clear: the journalism of the ’90s and the journalism of today are two different realities.
We are living through the decline of print media. Since 2005, 2,900 newspapers have shut down, and many others have cut issues, laid off staff, and gone digital. Weekly local papers have been disappearing at a rate of 2.5 papers a week as of 2023, and the effect can be seen in our own community. Since the Oberlin News-Tribune closed in 2018, The Oberlin Review has been the only continuous print publication in Oberlin, operating as the newspaper of record for both the College and the City. Statistics are just as dim for employment in the news industry. According to Politico, more than 500 print and broadcast journalists lost their jobs in the month of January alone. And this trend is expected to continue, culminating in an estimated 10,000 layoffs within media professions by year’s end. No publication is unaffected by the challenges of readership, business, and budget cuts. The Los Angeles Times, Sports Illustrated, Business Insider, and The Wall Street Journal have all announced staff layoffs this year, indicating the ubiquitous nature of these challenges.
The point of this editorial is not to incite doom among our readers or to discourage students from pursuing careers in journalism — although, we do believe that an understanding of this reality is important. Instead, we wish to express our gratitude for this publication’s history, memory, and network, and for the College infrastructure and many resources that allow us to continue to publish in print each week. That we have the privilege of producing and physically printing a paper every week speaks to the importance of news and student voices on this campus. College organizations such as the Student Finance Committee, who provide funding for our operating costs and staff wages, cannot go unappreciated. We are so grateful to have a publication where students and the greater Oberlin community can express their opinions and interact with the news.
We also understand that getting a budget from SFC is a privilege that many college newspapers do not have. Not only are we allotted a budget for printing costs, but we are also uniquely afforded wages for our editors, staff writers, and distributors. By incentivizing students with wages, the Review maintains its position as a high-quality resource and archive. The Review, because of its budget, is also more accessible to students on work-study and others who cannot afford to work without compensation. We do not wish to communicate that the Review could function without its budget — it is crucial to the quality, consistency, and actual existence of our paper, and we work hard to maintain our reputation so that funding is not cut — but instead that we are thankful for the Review’s financial position, especially given the reality of the market for journalism in the real world.
Because of SFC’s support, the Review also acts as a professional development outlet for students. Staffers gain marketable work experience and make connections with our robust alumni network, which was made apparent by support and participation in the Review’s 150th anniversary celebration Saturday. While journalism as an industry may be shrinking, the importance of skills acquired at publications like the Review are not. Time management, strong writing and editing, teamwork, and the ability to write a good email are all skills that go beyond a career strictly in journalism.
In the wise words of Peter Baker, “Democracy cannot function without journalism.” It is our belief that this College would not be the same without the forum of free speech that is the Review. So, thank you for your continued support.
Editorials are the responsibility of the Review Editorial Board — the Editors-in-Chief, Managing Editor, and Opinions Editors — and do not necessarily reflect the views of the staff of the Review.
