@atomicpoet

It's that, yes, but I think the "soc. status" feature extends further & is a more complex problem (still no excuse to stay, IMHO). For example, having various social media accts (incl. Twitter), having high follower counts, & being active has become a demand from many orgs (even some publishers look at a writer's Twitter acct to check follower counts, etc.). So, it's a competition. If they leave while other journos don't, they look like they have no soc. status to their employers.