Congratulations are owed to all the newspaper reporters out there – you’ve done it! You have made the No. 1 slot for worst job of 2013.

How does it feel to finally win something? Is it everything you ever hoped for?

Careercast.com puts out a list yearly of the best and worst jobs that year. Last year, newspaper reporters were ranked No. 5 being beaten by lumberjack worker, enlisted soldiers, waitresses and dairy farmers.

This year, though, we’ve done the seemingly impossible. We’ve earned the right to say we literally have the worst job around.

This could be due to the meager pay (I haven’t gotten a raise in four years), the long hours (although overtime is strongly discouraged having your staff continuously cut down and high turnover makes it impossible), and the lousy working conditions (you’re in the elements, the people you have to work with often hate you, and you’re always on call).

Here’s what Forbes reported:

Tony Lee, publisher of CareerCast.com, says the profession has always been ranked among the worst jobs due to low pay, high levels of stress from working under deadlines, a poor hiring outlook and the requirement to be on duty twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

“But with newspapers cutting back so dramatically, the job actually has a negative growth outlook, meaning there will be fewer newspaper reporters in the future,” Lee said.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics anticipates that the number of traditional print newspapers reporter jobs will decline 6% by 2020. The median salary for these professionals—which is currently a meager $36,000 a year—is also expected to shrink.

Now back to me:

Last year I was a little more hopeful and gave a list of best and worst reasons to stay in this field. This year, I’m just keeping my head down and chugging along.

It breaks my heart to think about the future of newspapers and newspaper reporters. These are bleak times we are in, but this is a longstanding profession that has managed to stick around for hundreds of years.

I believe in the power of journalism and I believe in the importance of the newspaper.

This country needs us.

They need reporters who stay longer than 30 minutes at the scene. They need folks who are willing to sit on the phone for an hour to get the one quote needed for a story. They need the tireless efforts of editors and fellow reporters to rip apart stories only to help put them back together again.

Reporters are a part of the fabric of this country and I pray they continue to exist and to, one day, actually thrive while doing their jobs.