Think the news industry was struggling already? The dawn of 2024 is offering few good tidings

Hardly a day goes by without news of another set of layoffs or business failure in journalism, an industry in the midst of a decades-long decline that has only seemed to accelerate lately. The news website The Messenger, in business for less than a year, folded abruptly on Wednesday. That follows announcements of job cuts at all manners of publications like the Los Angeles Times, Business Insider and Time. Popular digital outlets Pitchfork, Jezebel and BuzzFeed News have disappeared or been folded into other publications. A severe advertising downturn, along with a host of problems new, old and unique to certain outlets, is at play.