LNIC Research Reports

SCOPE IT: Understanding How to Measure
Journalism Employment

Jennifer R. Henrichsen, Sakshi Bhalla, Louisa Lincoln, Benjamin Toff, and Lisa Waananen Jones
September 2026 | Download Report (PDF)

Table of Contents

Introduction

About This Report

Conclusion

Bibliography

Appendix A: Sample Survey Questions

Appendix B: Table of Strengths/Weaknesses of Various Approaches

Appendix C: Responses by County to Washington State Staffing Survey

Download PDF
Step 4

Pick Your Time Period

Once you’ve defined your unit of analysis and your geographic scope, it’s important to clarify your time period.

Over what length of time are you interested in studying journalism employment? Are you most interested in recent trends to the profession or do you want to understand how certain flashpoints or critical incidents — such as the COVID-19 pandemic or the introduction of artificial intelligence into the journalism labor market — have affected journalism employment? If the former, you need a baseline to work from and replicable methodologies to ensure measurement remains the same over time.

When selecting your time period, it’s important to keep your study purpose and your research questions front and center as these will inform your selection.

When selecting your time period, it’s important to keep your study purpose and your research questions front and center as these will inform your selection. It’s also important to keep in mind the relationship between the unit of interest and the unit of measurement (e.g., the relationship between bylines collected in a discrete period of time and what they imply for the number of journalists who are working in that time period). This helps to ensure continuity between the relationship of what is represented during the time period of data collection and what it implies more broadly. 

Table of Contents

Introduction

About This Report

Conclusion

Bibliography

Appendix A: Sample Survey Questions

Appendix B: Table of Strengths/Weaknesses of Various Approaches

Appendix C: Responses by County to Washington State Staffing Survey

Download PDF
Send us your Feedback

The LNIC sees this journalism employment toolkit as a living document and, as such, the research team welcomes suggestions and additions to the toolkit. If you would like to share your suggestions with the research team, please contact the lead author at jennifer.henrichsen@wsu.edu.

 

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