ThePrint ·
Science journalists in America are alarmed. There was a similar ‘science crash’ in the 1980s too
The loss of Popular Science magazine, the struggling National Geographic, the laid off reporters from The Washington Post, have left science journalists alarmed.
New Delhi: Only 11 out of the 29 popular science magazines in the United States remain today, prompting mass layoffs of science and environment reporters across newspapers and magazines. In 1986 too, a similar panic had taken over the American science journalism community.
An article by NeimanLab titled “Is science journalism dying? Comparing a “science crash” 40 years ago to today” found that eight of these closures have happened since 2000. The authors added that between 2000 and 2025 US newspaper jobs fell by nearly 80 per cent.
NiemanLab’s Bruce Lewenstein and Chris Mooney, both experienced science journalists, compared the “science crash” of the 1980s to today’s crisis. They established the historical parallel but said that the two moments have a different flavour.