Journalism in 2025

By Evan Dawson,

Published May 20, 2025 at 3:54 PM EDT

Five people wearing headphones sit at a table in a radio talk studio: a woman front left has long light brown hair and is wearing a white top and blue pants; a woman front center has long blonde hair and is wearing a black top, grey pants, and grey sneakers; a man back left has short brown hair and a brown mustache and beard and is wearing glasses and a navy blue hoodie with the letters "WXXI" in white; a woman back center has long blonde hair and is wearing a grey top; a man at right has short dark hair and is wearing a navy blue hoodie with the letters "WXXI" in white, jeans, and sneakers — (foreground from left) Roisin Meyer, Natasha Kaiser, (background from left) Gino Fanelli, Veronica Volk, and host Evan Dawson on "Connections with Evan Dawson" on Tuesday, May 20, 2025

A smiling man with short dark hair wearing a blue button-down shirt and a grey blazer. He is holding a pair of eyeglasses. The word "Connections" appears on the left side of the photo in vertical letters.

In a report earlier this month, the group Reporters Without Borders said, "Trump's second term as president has brought a troubling deterioration in press freedom."

For two decades, the number of American journalists has been in decline. The Star-Ledger in New Jersey is an example of a high-profile newsroom that stopped producing a print edition and cut more staff in 2024. Fewer than a quarter of American newsrooms are in growth mode.

We discuss the state of the profession with our guests:

Gino Fanelli, investigations and City Hall reporter for WXXI News
Veronica Volk, senior producer for WXXI News
Natasha Kaiser, rising senior in the photojournalism program at RIT
Roisin Meyer, rising senior in the international relations and economics program at the University of Rochester