Grover, pictured on “Sesame Street” in 2011, introduced on Monday that considered one of his many roles is in journalism. The social media response underscored the precarious state of the business.

Richard Drew/Associated Press

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Richard Drew/Associated Press

Grover, pictured on “Sesame Street” in 2011, introduced on Monday that considered one of his many roles is in journalism. The social media response underscored the precarious state of the business.

Richard Drew/Associated Press

Grover, the self-described “cute, furry little monster,” has famously held all kinds of jobs since he arrived on Sesame Street in 1970.

In addition to his common stint as a bumbling waiter, the furry blue Muppet has additionally labored as a mailman, professor, door-to-door salesman, driver, actor, flight attendant and hot dog vendor, to call only a few of his profession strikes.

On Monday, he shocked his social media followers by including one other career to the checklist.

“As a news reporter, I always do my research before I break a story. I am confident to report that you are so special and amazing!” Grover posted on X, the platform previously generally known as Twitter.

The announcement cheered some customers, who thanked Grover for his arduous work and type phrases. A variety of journalists welcomed him to their ranks and joked good-naturedly about his fact-checking skills.

But others within the journalism business — which has been decimated by unrelenting layoffs over the past yr — had been much less excited concerning the information, responding with darkish humor as a substitute

“UPDATE: Unfortunately, Grover was part of the latest round of newsroom cuts,” tweeted the account Stuff Journalists Like.

“I regret to report a hedge fund has since purchased Grover’s paper and laid him off,” reporter S.P. Sullivan wrote in a tweet with over 1,000 likes.

“[Grover] has been laid off without severance despite being part of his paper’s bargaining unit,” tweeted the Washington Post‘s Angel Mendoza. “[He] found out this morning while at the [Capitol] via a push alert from the [New York Times].”

Grover’s tweet did not fairly hit as large of a nerve as his pal Elmo did last month, when he requested how everybody was doing and was inundated with frank replies from each nook of the Internet. But it did shine a light-weight on the precarious state of the business.

“It’s hard not to be pessimistic about the future of journalism when we see friends and colleagues lose their jobs, when newsrooms shutter, and when trust in the work journalists do every day is at record lows with the public,” Christopher Ortiz, the previous journalist behind Stuff Journalists Like, informed NPR over electronic mail.

In that means, Ortiz added, it is much like the response that Elmo’s check-in garnered.

“We’re not doing ok,” Ortiz mentioned. “Journalists are not doing ok.”

News shops are chopping jobs and shutting down altogether

Nearly 3,000 journalism jobs had been slashed in 2023, the worst yr for the business because the COVID-19 pandemic began. Media firms total made greater than 20,000 cuts that yr, according to a report by the manager outplacement agency Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

And 2024 has ushered in a recent wave of job cuts. Some shops have shuttered altogether.

Online information web site The Messenger shut down after lower than a yr, taking roughly 300 jobs with it. Former workers have filed a class-action lawsuit alleging the corporate failed to offer them correct discover.

Media firm Condé Nast mentioned final month that it will roll the music site Pitchfork into GQ Magazine, chopping jobs within the course of. The Los Angeles Times laid off nearly a quarter of its newsroom in its second spherical of layoffs since last summer.

“You’re going to see this take real effect in its pages and what it offers online,” NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik told All Things Considered final month. “But [there’s also] the human toll of all these journalists who clearly loved this institution — talking about having stayed up all night last night in dread of this, finishing investigative projects.”

The Wall Street Journal laid off nearly 20 staffers in its D.C. bureau earlier this month. In January, Time journal laid off 15% of its union-represented editorial employees, simply days earlier than Business Insiderintroduced it will minimize 8% of its workers. That similar month, the writer of Sports Illustrated mentioned it will lay off most of the journalists on workers, leaving the journal’s future unsure and including to the growing void in sports journalism.

Meanwhile, journalists at places like the Chicago Tribune, Orlando Sentinel and Condé Nast — the mum or dad firm of publications like The New Yorker and Vanity Fair — have staged walkouts this yr to protest deliberate wage and job cuts, respectively.

While not all of the responses to Grover’s tweet had been favorable, a number of journalists appeared to view it as a small vibrant spot in a bleak panorama. Some tweeted that it made them emotional.

“It’s nice to get support from a colleague in my field,” wrote one.

Ortiz mentioned Grover deserves thanks for “doing what all good journalists do — being thorough and accurate.”

“For the record, @Journalistslike thinks Grover has a promising future in journalism and wishes him nothing but the best!” he added.