The State of Entertainment Journalism in 2026 (Copy)

Yes, it's still very much f***ed and we're all doomed.

“Journalism is Fucked and We’re All Doomed” is my ongoing column looking at issues affecting entertainment journalism writers.

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It's been a minute since we last checked in with where entertainment journalism is over the last five months and [checks notes] it's still bad. Very, very bad. I will say that, as a freelancer journalist, I'm making ends meet. Have I gotten less pitches accepted than I did at the beginning of the year? Sure. But that's both a combination of my own tenacity coupled with where sites are right now. I'm still getting stuff accepted and that's half the battle. (Watch me say that and then next month everything goes down the toilet.)

Right now the Bureau of Labor Statistics is still citing job growth in the journalism sector falling by 4% from 2024 to 2034 with 4,100....hundred, not thousand...jobs being created recently. But, remember, that's in the entirety of journalism, not specifically entertainment. So, I thought it'd be informative to look at the highs and lows of where we stand right now. Is Journalism Still Fucked and We're All Doomed? Yes.

AV Club and Variety Hiring: A Lesson in Two Jobs

Earlier this year nearly every entertainment journalist and film critic I know applied for two jobs: film critic at The A.V. Club and Film Critic for Variety. The A.V. Club was seeking a chief film critic, no doubt as a means of bringing in an authoritative voice after relying on freelancers, while Variety was replacing long-time critic Peter DeBruge. Film critic jobs, full-time ones at least, don't pop up often and certainly not one for the most prestigious entertainment site still in existence. (Full disclosure, I did do an interview for The A.V. Club position.)

The roles were filled in a way that showed the distinctions in where film criticism is going right now. The A.V. Club hired Monica Castillo, a New York-based critic and journalist with established bylines in everything from The New York Times and NPR. (I know Monica personally and she's awesome.) In an industry that's becoming increasingly more of a boys club, Castillo's hiring is the first significant role I've seen filled in our industry by a woman since Trump 2.0 started.

As far as the Variety job, it was pretty obvious early on that Variety would hire internally and, no doubt, already had a choice just waiting to be announced. It was doubtful any outside candidates were ever going to be considered. And thus when Variety writer Guy Lodge was promoted, it wasn't a surprise.

But it's interesting to see the two jobs side-by-side. The A.V. Club, run by a woman of color, actively sought out and hired a critic of talent and substance who didn't conform to the status quo. Variety, a site riddled by layoffs and trying to retain readers in a changing environment – owned by a company actively embracing the current political and technical regime – fell back on what's familiar. It gave me hope that smaller sites will try their damndest to change the narratives while the old guard will continue to stay small-minded.

This does bring me to another point....

Women and BIPOC Writers Continue to Disappear

One woman hired in a high-value staff job in the last five months. That's a bleak fact in a landscape that's, historically, already marginalized women writers and writers of color. When the Trump regime started most companies immediately started rolling back DEI-initiatives, removing diversity information, and laying off BIPOC and female writers. After years spent building up a pool of diverse writers – not creating equity with white writers, but at least upping numbers – it's still shocking how quickly everything was undone. It only showcased how performative these initiatives were for these companies.

But, as Fallon Brannon lays out in an excellent piece for The Objective, the problems are how much institutional knowledge is being let go and how it will only continue to belittle and undermine marginalized writers going forward. "Freelance journalism is a white-dominated industry, and Black freelance journalists are potentially reaping fewer benefits from it. One report suggests they earn up to seven times less than their white counterparts, and in a 2025 Peak Freelance survey of 213 freelance writers, 55% reported their income as less than $30K."

It will take decades to bring back numbers to what they were, meager as they already are, and that's if journalism cares to even try that. It also means BIPOC and women writers will continue to leave the industry, taking their institutional knowledge with them. All in the name of making it a film bros world, once again.

Self, Glamour and Other Magazine Shutterings

We're also seeing this male mentality culminate in the closing down of magazine and digital publications geared towards women. Back in April, Condé Nast announced they were shuttering Self magazine, a women's health magazine that had been around for 47 years. According to the company CEO, "Going forward, health and wellness content will be integrated into our other brands, including Allure and Glamour." However, as of yesterday, Glamour's West Coast Senior Editor Jessica Radloff posted to Instagram that the entire editorial team for the magazine had been let go. It's unclear if they're being subsumed into Allure as well or if Allure will eventually close.

This continues to perpetuate the idea that female-fronted publications, and those with deal with other issues affecting women, are no longer a top priority in the journalism sector. This in spite of the fact that women read more (books, magazines, etc.) than men by a near 20% margin.

Film Comment Stars a Digital Publication

We've seen journalists flee to newsletter sites like Substack, Beehiive, and Ghost (hey, that's me!). And with so many places deciding to close down, some are trying to make the move to start publications up. Case in point, Film Comment, which announced last week that they were crafting a quarterly subscription-based digital publication with expanded cover features, interviews, and more.

“At Film Comment, we believe in the value of film criticism—as a means of making sense of a fraught world through its images, and as an essential conduit to beauty and originality,” said Co-Editor Devika Girish in a press statement. “Our new digital magazine is gorgeous, affordable, and sustainable; it ensures that Film Comment remains a bastion for truly independent, nonprofit criticism."

This is heartening to see a company that has some financial stability trying to expand out into journalism.

McClatchy Layoffs (and AI)

McClatchy, the company that owns a variety of newspapers (including my hometown's The Sacramento Bee), as well as In Touch and Us Weekly has been doing layoffs since last year. As of April, the company has continued to pare down, instituting widespread cuts to Us Weekly.

As if that's not bad enough, reporters were withholding bylines last month in response to the company rolling out a Claude A.I. powered "content scaling tool" that was going to be mess with their articles. This is ultimately the saddest and more frightening thing with where we are now in journalism. The few journalists still allowed to have positions now have to be overworked, underpaid, and told to have AI take their work and filter it into slop.

I wish I had better news for everyone but, as I've always said, Journalism is Fucked and We're All Doomed. There are little bursts of light here and there, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't still looking at where to pivot to next.

What are some journalism wins or losses you're seeing out there? Drop them in the comments.

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