In the past five years, the Slovenian media landscape has been marked by a significant number of high-profile departures of journalists from the industry. The exit of established journalists attracts public interest and raises numerous questions about the future of media organizations and the increasingly precarious conditions in journalism. This master's thesis seeks to answer the research question of why journalists leave the media sector. We were particularly interested in how the resources and connections they acquired through their journalistic work assist them in transitioning to other professions. For our research, we employed a qualitative method using in-depth interviews and included a sample of ten journalists who decided to leave the media industry between 2020 and the end of 2024. Our findings reveal that there is no single dominant reason for leaving journalism; rather, it is a combination of individual factors and broader structural pressures within the media industry. The interviewees highlighted several key reasons for their departure, including the need for a more structured schedule, better work-life balance, improved financial stability, and career advancement. Additional reasons included pressure from employers to produce profitable media content, demands for additional work, which in some cases led to health problems, and a deteriorating work environment due to staff changes and political influence. These reasons illustrate the wide range of factors influencing the decision to leave journalism, where individual circumstances intertwine with structural pressures within the media industry.
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