Are Journalists Losing Jobs to ChatGPT, Bad Code, and Shrinking Revenue?

In 2025, the journalism industry faces a crisis that echoes through every newsroom, from traditional broadsheets to online start-ups. A triple threat has emerged: artificial intelligence (AI) tools like ChatGPT, unskilled coders generating filler content, and a continuing decline in advertising revenue. Each force alone might challenge legacy media. Together, they’re accelerating a transformation that could redefine what journalism is—and who gets to practice it.

ChatGPT: The Friend or Foe of Journalists?

AI writing tools like ChatGPT can now generate press releases, sports recaps, and basic news reports with astonishing speed. These models learn patterns from massive datasets and mimic human language with eerie fluency. For editors under pressure, ChatGPT can feel like a lifeline. For journalists, it often feels like a pink slip.

Several news organizations, including CNET and Gizmodo, have already experimented with AI-generated articles—with mixed results1. While AI can handle routine stories, it stumbles on nuance, ethics, and context—qualities that define strong journalism. Nevertheless, the allure of cost-cutting tempts media executives to replace seasoned reporters with lines of code.

According to a 2024 Pew Research Center survey, nearly 28% of local newsrooms in the U.S. reported experimenting with AI-generated content2. While this might sound innovative, it often leads to layoffs, especially among entry-level and mid-career journalists.

From Ink-Stained Wretches to Line-Break Errors

In some cases, media companies aren’t even using sophisticated AI. Instead, they rely on inexperienced coders to produce templated stories from raw data—crime stats, real estate listings, or sports scores. These articles, sometimes riddled with formatting issues or grammatical errors, serve one purpose: filling space around digital ads.

“This isn’t journalism. It’s a software patch,” said one anonymous editor at a regional digital paper now owned by a hedge fund. “We’re past the era of copyboys and into the era of copy-paste.”

Many of these stories are created using low-cost CMS plugins that scrape public data and auto-publish “articles” under fake bylines or pseudonyms3. This content adds nothing to public discourse, yet it crowds out authentic local reporting.

The Ad Collapse—and the Clickbait Crisis

The deeper root of journalism’s decline is economic. Print subscriptions have dwindled for two decades, but digital advertising—once seen as a savior—is no longer reliable. Tech giants like Google and Meta control much of the digital ad market, siphoning revenue away from newsrooms4.

Even online newspapers with millions of readers face monetization issues. The New York Times and Washington Post have leaned heavily into subscription models. Smaller outlets, however, chase ad impressions with clickbait headlines and listicles, often at the expense of real reporting.

In 2023, U.S. newspapers shed over 2,500 newsroom jobs, a figure not seen since the Great Recession5. Meanwhile, publishers continue to rely on programmatic ads, which pay mere pennies per click and fluctuate wildly.

Journalism’s Existential Test

Some experts argue that the AI boom may eventually benefit journalism—if used responsibly. Tools like ChatGPT can assist in transcribing interviews, summarizing documents, and drafting outlines, freeing journalists to focus on investigative work6. But without ethical leadership, media companies may prioritize volume over value.

Moreover, as newspapers lean on automation and outsource their storytelling to bots or untrained developers, they risk alienating readers. Trust in the media is already fragile. A 2024 Gallup poll found that only 32% of Americans have “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of trust in news media7. If readers sense that machines—not reporters—are telling their stories, that trust could erode further.

Not Just a Tech Problem, But a Leadership One

The crisis in journalism isn’t just about ChatGPT or code. It’s about leadership choices, broken business models, and short-term thinking. While AI and automation are tools, they cannot replace the human judgment, cultural awareness, and courage that real journalism demands.

To preserve what’s left—and rebuild what’s been lost—newsrooms must resist the urge to cut corners and instead invest in talent, transparency, and trust. Without that, the future of journalism may be written not by reporters, but by algorithms—and read by no one.

Footnotes

  1. Vincent, J. (2023). CNET is quietly publishing entire articles generated by AI. The Verge. https://www.theverge.com ↩
  2. Pew Research Center. (2024). State of the News Media Report. https://www.pewresearch.org ↩
  3. Havens, R. (2023). Automated News and Fake Bylines: A Growing Concern. Columbia Journalism Review. https://www.cjr.org ↩
  4. McKay, A. (2024). How Google and Facebook Broke the News Business. Wired. https://www.wired.com ↩
  5. Local News Now. (2024). Layoff Tracker: U.S. Newsrooms Continue to Shrink. https://www.localnewsnow.org ↩
  6. Lynch, J. (2023). AI in Journalism: Tool or Threat? Poynter Institute. https://www.poynter.org ↩
  7. Gallup. (2024). American Trust in Media Falls Again. https://www.gallup.com ↩