The digital transformation of their industry, the economic crisis and the loss of confidence in their profession presented journalists with new challenges and caused them concern.
This is the finding of a study by the union-affiliated Otto-Brenner-Foundation, which of course rests on a narrow empirical foundation.
According to this, 60 percent of those surveyed had repeatedly thought about giving up their job in the past twelve months.
This is especially true for younger journalists.
One in ten people who took part in an online survey even think about it several times a week.
This is the result of the study "Work Pressure - Adaptation - Exit" by Burkhard Schmidt, Rainer Nübel, Simon Mack and Daniel Rölle after "guideline interviews" with twenty full-time journalists, 37 percent of whom stated that the stress in their job led to a loss of quality or could lead to this in the future.
The stresses included time, performance and competitive pressure.
Concern about job security also leads to frustration and feelings of insecurity.
This is related to declining advertising income and staff savings in the media houses.
According to the study, the findings of the twenty interviews served as the basis for an online questionnaire that was sent to 161 journalists.
The survey is not representative.
According to the report, the journalists met the challenges of their job in a “factual manner”.
Ninety percent of those surveyed said they consciously communicated and defended journalistic values.
59 percent said they were doing even more thorough research.
More than half of those who were intensively surveyed consider criticism from the public to be partially correct and state that the media are partly responsible for a certain loss of trust. In the online survey, a majority rejected this.
In the context of digital and social change, however, journalism has lost quality (48 percent), importance (50 percent), reputation (84 percent) and attractiveness (66 percent).
The German Association of Journalists (DJV) and the German Union of Journalists (dju) are taking the draft as an opportunity to demand better working conditions.
"The journalism industry is on the verge of a collective burnout," warns the dju national chair Tina Groll.
Good working conditions are essential for a functioning media system and for free democracy.
According to DJV national chairman Frank Überall, the fact that more than half of those surveyed had considered giving up their job is an “alarm signal for all of journalism”.
HR managers must make increased efforts to reduce the work pressure and accompany journalists through the digital transformation.