“The American Society of News Editors released its annual newsroom census figures [June 25, 2013] showing a severe decline in the size of newspaper staffs. In all, there were about 2,600 fewer full-time professional editorial jobs at newspapers in 2012, a 6.4% decline from 2011. That leaves the industry at 38,000 full-time professional editorial employees and is the first time that figure has been below 40,000 since the census began in 1978. The losses are also more than twice the level estimated in March by Rick Edmonds, coauthor of the chapter on newspapers in the Pew Research Center’s State of the News Media report. Edmonds discussed the losses in a piece published earlier today on the Poynter Institute’s website. Although the decreases announced by ASNE today are substantial, Edmonds points out some caveats about the data. Several large newspapers did not fill out the survey this year, resulting in missing data from some major outlets. These papers include USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, the Baltimore Sun, the Arizona Republic, the Miami Herald, the (New Orleans) Times-Picayune and several others, according to Edmonds. In all, 978 of 1,382 dailies responded to the survey.”