A study has revealed that the number of jobs in journalism has shrunk by between a quarter and a third within the UK newspaper industry in the last year.

The ‘Laid Off’ report, principally authored by Francois Neil, director of the journalism leaders programme at the University of Central Lancashire in Preston, in collaboration with journalism.co.uk, highlights the experiences of 144 journalists who responded to the initial 32-item questionnaire.

“Changes in technologies, consumer preferences and demographics, along with dire economic conditions, continue to squeeze the media industry, putting news workers – journalists, sub-editors, designers and photographers, even editors and management – out of jobs,” the report says.

By reviewing further studies which has taken into account the number of job losses within the industry since 2001, the report also estimates that around 20,000 journalism job cuts have been made, with around 40,000 still working in the industry with the largest number losing their jobs on regional daily newspapers.

Three out of five respondents who had lost their jobs were managers and production staff, while the bulk of those who had lost their jobs on regional daily newspapers were reporters.