Black journalists said Tuesday they are concerned about the next generation of black writers and editors in mainstream media who will likely face layoffs in their newsrooms, significant job cuts, expanded workloads and tough economic times.

Larry Bivins, Washington editor for Gannett News Service, said he would have a difficult time encouraging high school or college students to pursue print journalism.

"With all the downsizing that's going on, it would seem almost cruel to promote a career in our industry," Bivins, a veteran journalist, told BlackAmericaWeb.com. "If newspapers are cutting back, then they aren't hiring. So what does that say about the future for blacks and diversity? Not a lot that's good when you consider that traditionally we are the last hired" and sometimes the first fired.

Reaction from black journalists about the media's future comes as the nation's minority writers and editors are meeting in Chicago this week for the Unity 2008 conference where African-American, Hispanic, Asian and Native American journalists gather to network.

The conference also coincides with an industry report from the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press that surveyed more than 500 journalists about the state of the industry.

"The state of the American news media in 2008 is more troubled than a year ago," according to the report. "And the problems, increasingly, appear to be different than many experts have predicted."

"But more and more it appears the biggest problem facing traditional media has less to do with where people get information than how to pay for it -- the emerging reality that advertising isn’t migrating online with the consumer." the report said. "The crisis in journalism, in other words, may not strictly be loss of audience. It may, more fundamentally, be the decoupling of news and advertising."

Meanwhile, the Pew study said of newspapers: "The newsroom staff producing the paper is also smaller, younger, more tech-savvy and more oriented to serving the demands of both print and the web. The staff also is under greater pressure, has less institutional memory, less knowledge of the community, of how to gather news and the history of individual beats. There are fewer editors to catch mistakes."

But Richard Prince, who writes a diversity column for The Maynard Institute, wrote that the Pew survey "did not ask a single question about diversity."

This year alone, newspapers like The Detroit Free Press, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Dallas Morning News, The Baltimore Sun and The Los Angeles Times have all offered buyouts to hundreds of newsroom employees, forced layoffs and warned of additional job cuts in the future. Of newspapers with circulations over 100,000, a full 85 percent have cut newsroom staff in the past three years. A little more than half of the smaller dailies -- 52 percent -- report shrinking newsrooms.

And this month, nearly 1,000 journalists lost their jobs -- some of them black.

"The last few weeks in the newspaper industry have been horrible, leaving many people scared, frustrated and wondering what this business will look like in five years," according to a statement by The National Association of Black Journalists. "What will it look like in a year? Or a month even?"

Last year, as reported by the American Society of Newspaper Editors, newsrooms suffered through the biggest loss of jobs in three decades, while doing little to increase their percentage of minorities. Daily newsrooms shrank by 2,400 journalists in the past year, and there were nearly 300 fewer journalists of color working in those newsrooms. Blacks made up only 5.3 percent of the workforce," NABJ said.

Diversity, the NABJ statement said, is not a fad.

"If ever the country needed the insights and expertise of black journalists it is now," NABJ said in its statement. "The industry needs to make sure black journalists give you their informed perspective not only with the presidential election, but also on issues like housing, predatory lending, the impact of the economic collapse in our communities, the Iraq War, the abandonment of cities, the war on poverty and even the culture of music, relationships, family and education."

Monte Young, a seasoned reporter for Newsday, said the next generation of black journalists must adapt to a fast-paced multi-media environment.

"What young black journalists can expect is a tough and demanding job market." Young told BlackAmericaWeb.com. "But, it is a profession that will welcome those who can report, write short and sweet, shoot their own video and post it on the company's Web site. And just before they leave for the day, sit down and do it all over again for the next day's paper."

Last week, NABJ announced the creation of The Media Institute, "which offers professional development opportunities, educational programs, conferences, workshops, entrepreneurial guidance as well as Web seminars which will consist of quality content and provide resources for journalists of color."

"There is a fierce commitment to journalism education," NABJ President Barbara Ciara said in a statement. "As a result of the layoffs and buyouts that have occurred, African-American journalists need resources to stay competitive due to the technological changes taking place. The goal of the Institute is to provide black journalists with the tools necessary to prepare them for the newsrooms of tomorrow."

The Institute also will feature seminars designed for those who aspire to advance to management level in newsrooms or networks, according to an NABJ statement, and participants can learn how to transition into freelancing and to make it a successful business.

"We want to encourage companies not to just pay lip service to the issue of diversity, but to make a commitment and support associations in training and keeping those who love journalism competitive," said Kathy Times, NABJ vice president/broadcast. "We want to prepare journalists for the transformation taking place in newsrooms across the country so that they can better position themselves for future career success."

In the meantime, the number of black bloggers has increased over the years as more black journalists leave media organizations and as more blacks feel that mainstream media does not adequately report on issues of concern to the black community. "Without us, you wouldn't have that unique perspective," Gina McCauley, a black blogger who writes at What About Our Daughters, was quoted on a PBS website.

This year, Democrats provided credentials to 120 bloggers for the party's convention in August-- an unprecedented number. Recently, however, black bloggers charged that they were left out of the credentials process for the convention.

"The claim reflected long-simmering racial tensions in the liberal blogosphere, rooted in divisions between black and white bloggers over influence, inclusion and the power to help set the political agenda," according to a PBS website.

"I don't get the excuses they make. It's almost insulting. All they'd have to do was do the outreach," blogger L.N. Rock, known online as the African-American Political Pundit, told PBS. "It's almost as extreme as 'we couldn't find any black people for that position."