I think technical writing is one of the best writing niches in an economic depression. The reason is simple. Think of all the things that people stop doing during a financial depression. First of all, they stop buying and buying. That takes some of the income from copywriters overall because when people start saving money, most copywriters have less to do, as the main goal of business copy is to sell something.
SIDEBAR: That may actually work well for high-level elite copywriters with well-established backgrounds, as in a mistake-forgiving environment, employers wouldn’t want to take any chances with novice writers. Business owners and direct sellers would act safely and hire only “proven entities.” Therefore, veteran copywriters may see an increase in their income. But during a recession, the vast majority of average copywriters can see a drop in their turnover or in the fees they charge.
The same goes for journalism. At the time of this writing, print journalism is in deep decline. There are hardly any daily newspapers in the United States that make a profit simply because people, especially the generation under thirty, do not buy or read newspapers. Especially not when the average weekday edition sells for 50 or 75 cents these days and goes up to $ 5 for weekend editions! People don’t have that much money to spare in a recession for an item that throws away in 24 hours.
And when it comes to online journalism, the alternatives are so many that it is again difficult to make money upfront as an online journalist in this new environment where every blog is a potential source of free news and commentary.
But technical writing has less (what economists would call) “elasticity of demand” in economic downturns simply because people still need to learn how to operate systems, how to take drugs, what to do with their lives, health, property, and money. . And it’s a technical writer privilege to describe how a savings account works, the benefits of a new training program one can take while the economy improves, or how new time-saving productivity software needs to be set up correctly. The primary purpose of technical writing is to instruct, explain, and tutor. And the need for that will never diminish in good times or bad.