HALF OF JOURNALISTS WILL BE OUT OF WORK BY 2035

BERLIN, OCTOBER 22 /SRNA/ - The number of journalists in Germany could fall by as much as 50 percent by 2035, media experts said in a new study.

The report, commissioned by German media organizations ARD, ZDF and Deutschlandradio, states that shrinking audiences and declining revenues, coupled with the rise of artificial intelligence /AI/ and the growing power of technology companies, could lead to a sharp decline in the number of jobs for reporters.

The study, presented at the Media Days conference in Munich, outlined four scenarios in which the number of journalists would decline by between 12 and 50 percent by the middle of the next decade.

The report states that Germany had around 40,000 professional journalists in 2023. In the worst-case scenario, only around 20,000 would remain by 2035, DPA reported.

The study also says that the outcome will depend on how strictly policymakers regulate major technology companies and whether media organizations cooperate more closely.

The study suggests that declining viewership and advertising revenue are likely to hit German media outlets hard over the next decade. Audiences could shrink by between 18 and 47 percent by 2035, while advertising revenue is expected to fall by between 10 and 43 percent.

Large technology companies and AI providers are expected to continue growing, making it harder for newspapers, broadcasters and other traditional media companies to reach their audiences directly and generate revenue from their content.

The outlook is particularly bleak under the scenario in which major technology companies come to dominate the media market to a large extent.

The study was conducted by researchers Christian Cabel of the Technical University of Cologne and Ulrike Rohn of Tallinn University, based on interviews with 34 experts from academia, advertising, production, and media policy.