I feel like data driven journalism is a legitimate niche, and there's a lot of software involved in that, both in terms of analysis and presentation. D3.js was created at the New York Times, for example. If you are interested in exploring that possibility, I would suggest you emphasize learning data manipulation/analysis/visualization tools over front-end development. It's a harder route than trying to just become proficient in a web stack, and front-end work is easier to find, but it will probably be a lot more rewarding in the long run if you stick with it.