Editor’s Note: The Institute is committed to providing journalists resources and connections that support their personal and professional lives. In 2025, we are collaborating with several groups to widen those networks of support.
The holiday season is a stressful time.
As a person who has worked for both legacy print media and a small town multi-weekly paper, the deadlines and job demands that come with being a journalist during the last few months of the year are hectic to say the least.
When I worked in the smaller newsroom, we were of course expected to work on holidays. If we didn’t want to work on Christmas Day, we had to proactively produce enough copy, design the paper, and send it out early to the plant. This was on top of the regular day’s paper we still had to put out as well.
Then there is the holiday evergreen story quota, to which no one is immune! And any government officials answering questions the last two weeks before Christmas? Forget it.
When you leave the newsroom, the holidays are just as hard on their own. There can be tricky family dynamics, financial stress, and overpacked social schedules (that often entail baking something).
Coupled together, the holiday season was something that was hard to juggle, and I coped with drinking. It still is a challenge now that I don’t drink to cope.
While every person has their own challenges to navigate at any time of year, the Journalists Recovery Network is ready to support sober journalists inside and outside of the newsroom. If you want to reach out and speak to a journalist with lived experience, our communications are confidential.
For anyone seeking support with substance abuse, please reach out to the Journalists Recovery Network anytime. Click here for additional resources.