How do we keep journalism’s lights on, and what happens if they go out?

Plus: a good sour, a late-night debate, and more

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1. A take I haven’t written elsewhere

How do we keep journalism’s lights on, and what happens if they go out?

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My industry is not in good shape. You may have seen the last two weeks’ news of mass journalism layoffs, but if not, here’s the short version from media columnist Jack Shafer at Politico:

Patrick Soon-Shiong, the billionaire publisher of the Los Angeles Times, laid off 20 percent of his newsroom. Over at Time magazine, its billionaire owners, Marc and Lynne Benioff, did the same for 15 percent of their unionized editorial employees. This latest conflagration had ignited at Sports Illustrated the previous week as catastrophic layoffs were dispensed via email to most staffers. Business Insider (whose parent company Axel Springer also owns POLITICO) jettisoned 8 percent of its staff while workers at Condé Nast, Forbes, the New York Daily News and elsewhere walked out to protest forthcoming cuts at their shops.

I won’t miss Sports Illustrated, personally, but this trend is not great! As Shafer observes, in times past, journalism’s fortunes have risen and fallen with the economy. But for the last two decades, they just fall.

There are exceptions, of course. Politico is one of them, with a strong subscription-based revenue model and a number of products marketed to businesses and lawmakers that the average reader never really sees. The New York Times has come to look like a well-stocked medieval citadel—you’ll survive if you can get inside its walls, but tough luck for free lances. Christianity Today is in good shape, for which I am thankful.

Beyond that, I doubt I need to make the case that this is a troubled industry. The question is: What happens if this keeps up? “Democracy dies in darkness,” says The Washington Post’s much-mocked slogan, and yes, it comes off as self-aggrandizing and Too Much. But also, what if a critical mass of journalistic lights do go out?