50% of UK media jobs to go by 2013

[video:youtube:vpAdAG8ktAk] Robert Andrews has a thoroughly depressing (but realistic?) post up on the excellent media watch blog PaidContent about the number of job lay offs forecast for the UK media industry in the near future.

“We calculated the total jobs in the media in the UK at about 400,000 … at the end of 2007. Between the beginning of 2008 and 2013 we’re expecting half of those jobs to go. The big employers are the regional press, magazines, local advertising sales. Real numbers are in print.” link

Meanwhile Rafat Ali, publisher of PaidContent, talks about the economic downturn and what it means for the media industry in the video above on Bloomberg TV. So, is it “pay-back time for social media”??