Meant to post on this a while back (and thanks to the correspondent who sent the link) - it's a microcosm that ought to be more widely noted.
It's a useful microcosm in that the number of newspaper journalists has dropped by the tens of thousands over the last couple of years (around 25,000 this year alone), and tracking what has become of all those former journalists is tough on a national level. What they were doing was journalism: Watching and passing on useful information about the world around them in cases watchdogging and providing necessary oversight.
So what are they doing now?
The blog Safety Net, run by former journalists of the print Seattle Post-Intelligencer, has some answers locally. It surveyed the 140 who lost their jobs, and got 71 responses.
Of the 71, it found "Only 15 percent have found fulltime paid work in journalism. Another 25 percent are blogging, freelancing or working on journalism start-ups like Post-Globe or InvestigateWest for little or no money."
More are working in PR or other corporate jobs, but in all only a third have found full-time paid work of any sort.