The future is looking dim for journalists with jobs getting cut, newsrooms becoming smaller and the fear of “fake news”  becoming common occurrence. Fairfax is cutting costs by $30 million and is believed to be losing 115 staff across The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Brisbane Times and WA Today within the future.

The previous year Fairfax axed 120 jobs from the newsrooms in Sydney and Melbourne. These two events bring forth the realisation that careers in journalism are not dependable and thus these jobs are not secure.

Last month Fairfax workers went on strike due to the funding cut and axing of staff within the company. The strike began on Wednesday the 3rd of May and lasted a week. It is believed that 1 in 4 newsroom jobs will be cut.

The future of journalism based careers are not secured and due to the recent funding cuts and axing of staff by Fairfax it has become apparent that freelance journalism is becoming necessary.

Big companies like Google and Facebook have a combined ad-revenue of $3.2 billion, which have taken away the spotlight from journalists and made it harder for journalists to get their content in the forefront of the media.

Freelance journalism I believe is now the path for journalists to pursue due to the unreliability of newsrooms and the lack of job security within Australian media companies it now becomes apparent that journalists may now have to become freelancers.

Freelance journalists, although may find it harder to start, will find their career a more rewarding approach. However a portfolio is needed and it is made more difficult as journalists are entering a job market that is diminishing quickly. This means journalists are forced to come up with more creative and engaging work to combat the growing competition within the market.

With the journalism job market diminishing quickly it is now paramount to turn to freelance journalism to increase your job security and be more in control of your future.

Click here to find out how to become a freelance journalism writer.