The LinkedIn Blog recently released an interesting study of industry trends–and Mizzou J-Schoolers should take note.

According to the data collected from the Economic Report of the President, newspapers are on top (or bottom, however you want to see it) as the fastest-shrinking industry between 2007 and 2011. Not only has the industry made a lot of layoffs over the years, but it is also shrinking business in the process. Uh oh.

However, print and digital students should not despair. The same study also concluded that online publishing is actually the third fastest-growing industry between 2007 and 2011.

This is pretty fantastic news for those interested in going into the print industry. The LinkedIn graph has depicted tangible data to show how the business model is already changing for printed publications.

Now if we could just figure out how to utilize those pay walls, the industry would be on its way to monumental success. Encyclopaedia Britannica must have read the data and followed suit.

If you would like some more linear data, here is a figure depicting the fluctuations of industry over time:

If you’ll notice, the fluctuations of newspaper vs. online publishing are practically inverses of each other. This signifies the change that we have all been waiting for, J-Schoolers. It looks like newspapers are finally going into the digital age.

[Images via]

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