Covering the highest levels of political power can be a journalist’s dream career, but the relentless pace of the modern news cycle can exact a heavy personal toll.
Covering the White House and Capitol Hill during some of the most intense political cycles in modern American history might look like the pinnacle of professional success. But as the volume of information becomes a deluge, the line between living a life and covering a beat can vanish.
“The information is moving faster and faster, and it just creates this inevitable cycle of just work, work, work,” said Darren Samuelsohn, a veteran Washington journalist and editor who has spent nearly three decades covering the capital’s shifting administrations.
That pace can create a structural trap. While newsroom leaders frequently remind teams that political reporting is a marathon and not a sprint, Samuelsohn noted how easily that staggering pace creates an inevitable, uninterrupted cycle of work that leaves reporters running on fumes.
Samuelsohn, who left his role as White House and Congress Editor at USA Today earlier this year, spoke to the National Press Club Institute about the gradual erosion of burnout, the reality of sudden layoffs, and why true recovery requires a complete systemic detox.
The slow fade of the inner fire
Journalistic burnout rarely arrives in a single, dramatic flash. Instead, Samuelsohn describes burnout as a gradual wearing down — a slow, almost imperceptible fading of the professional drive that pushes reporters to dive into stories with gusto.
“The fire kind of burned out for me,” Samuelsohn reflected, describing his final chapters managing major political teams in Washington. “It doesn’t happen in one moment. It takes time, and it’s sort of a gradual wearing down. And if it’s gradual and it’s slowly fading away, how do you know when it’s truly gone?”
This gradual erosion is what makes newsroom burnout so hazardous. Journalists are naturally trained to look outward, to question authorities, and to validate the stories of others, Samuelsohn said. Consequently, they rarely turn that same analytical lens inward to check on their own mental and emotional state.
Industry culture can further contribute to burnout, by often rewarding the constant search to find new stories or scoops, while admitting anxiety or pure exhaustion is frequently stigmatized as a professional weakness.
Relieved after a sudden crash
Compounding the daily grind is an industry shifting at a terrifying speed. Samuelsohn has experienced the jarring reality of modern media layoffs firsthand, including the abrupt collapse of The Messenger, where more than 200 journalists lost their jobs simultaneously when the company vanished overnight.
Yet it was an earlier layoff — leaving Business Insider just days before the 2022 midterm elections — that brought Samuelsohn an unexpected revelation. After sprinting indefinitely, the sudden, forced silence brought a paradoxical feeling of profound relief.
“I just remember running, running, running so damn fast and then, all of a sudden, it was gone,” Samuelsohn recalled. “It felt like all of the pressure of the world had gone off my shoulders. As much as it sucked to lose your job, I was relieved to be out of the fire and able to take a breath.”
Stepping away from the 24/7 cycle unlocked a wave of creativity that had been thoroughly suppressed by decades of constant deadlines, Samuelsohn said. That breathing room allowed him to launch love, journalism, a Substack newsletter that explores why journalists do the work despite the adversity they face.
Going analog: The architecture of a digital detox
True burnout cannot be cured by a long weekend or a short vacation, Samuelsohn said.
“A lot of us have been running on fumes for a long time,” he said. “Burnout recovery isn’t even over in a week or two. It can take weeks, it can take months, it could take years to overcome.”
For those currently in the thick of the cycle, Samuelsohn advocates for aggressive digital boundaries. Having undergone a genuine “news detox” himself — moving away from chaotic social media streams to deliberately reading a single print newspaper each day — he emphasized the necessity of physically turning off screens.
His blueprint for maintaining sanity is intentionally analog: keeping the phone out of the bedroom, turning it face down during human conversations, engaging in physical exercise, working with one’s hands, and deliberately cultivating a life and friendships entirely outside of the media industry. “Anything but journalism,” Samuelsohn noted, “is going to make you a better journalist.”
Re-engineering newsroom communication
The responsibility for mitigating burnout cannot fall solely on the shoulders of exhausted reporters. Newsroom leaders, editors, and executives must evolve from merely managing stories to actively managing human beings, he said.
“If managers understand how their direct reports like to communicate, you’re going to meet them on their terms,” Samuelsohn explained. In an industry explicitly dedicated to communication, he finds it maddening how poorly newsrooms communicate internally. Simple, structural interventions – such as exercises that help detail individual preferences in learning, communication, and engagement – can preemptively smooth over systemic friction.
Protecting the mental health of journalists is deeply tied to defending the fabric of information itself. When burnout forces seasoned professionals out of the newsroom, the collective quality of public oversight suffers.
“Mental health is health,” Samuelsohn concluded. “If you don’t have your head on straight, your body will revolt. You need to have a clear mind and a clear head in order to be able to just do this job and come to work every day.”
Key advice for dealing with burnout:
- Recognize that burnout is a slow erosion, not a sudden event: Journalistic exhaustion builds invisibly over months or years. Identifying it requires turning analytical lenses inward, trusted gut checks, and pushing past newsroom stigmas.
- Take a prolonged “news detox”: Overcoming deep-seated burnout cannot be fixed with a long weekend. Consider implementing strict digital boundaries, removing chaotic digital feeds, and stepping out of constantly reading the 24/7 news cycle.
- Cultivate identity outside the newsroom: Engage in physical movement, work with your hands, and nurture close friendships outside the media industry to stay grounded.
- Encourage better human management tools in the newsroom: Newsroom leaders must move beyond just managing content and actively work to understand their teams. Implementing voluntary, structured frameworks to understand how employees work and communicate can preemptively smooth over systemic newsroom friction.
For more insights into the challenges journalists face, check out our related post on mental health in the newsroom.