Money question

You can make decent coin in management in small town.

 

Amen to that. A friend of mine, we're in the same market, doing very similar jobs. Both in management.
She's been at her paper for several years, I just made the leap to this one, third gig in, wow, three or four years.
One day she asked how much I was making, and she about shit when I told her.
Loyalty isn't worth shit in this business. You want to make decent money, then go someplace where they'll give it to you. Or else they'll shit on you, give you as little as possible with your 3 percent raise for as long as they can.

 

If making 10K more than your age is considered successful, I'm good to go. And all this time, I thought this place sucked.

 

I used to think that...I got a sports editor gig a 13K paper. Waay better money than I was making in the big, bad city working for a shitty paper.
But with the hours I'm putting in due to understaffing and general clusterfuckness, I might as well be making convict wages.
Of course, that might just be a sad consequence of working for a Gannett paper.

 

The biggest raise you'll ever get is the one before you start. Look at it this way - you're offered a job for 30K. 90 percent of the time they're lowballing you and will have some flexibility. You counter with 33K. That's a 10 percent raise before you walk in the door. In this day and age of 3 and 4 percent raises, it'll take you 2 years of standard raises, and then some before reaching that same 33K. If there's one bit of advice I'll offer, it can't hurt to ask for a bit more than they offer. Bosses get emotionally attached to the people they want, and typically won't let 2 or 3K get in the way. And there's really no downside for asking for a bit more, so long as you're not an asshole about it.
The flip side of that, as it was stated earlier, is that a lot of places will budget for a given salary and really need to be sold on giving someone more than a 4-5 percent raise. So, sorry to say, moving is the only time you have a legit shot at making your own deal.
As for not being able to make big money in this job, that depends. If you're talking 200K, it's highly unlikely without moving to the biz side. But no reason someone who is ambitious and gets into the areas of scarcity (design, copy desk, web) can't be making 55K in a decent market within 10 years in the business. I've seen too many people do to think it's impossible. From 55K at 30 years old, you're on a pretty good path. Never gonna get rich, but combine that with a wife who has a decent job and that's a solid living in most cities/town across the country.

 

That's one of the smarter things I have read here lately. The logic is spot-on, too.

 

I make 29 1/2 at a medium sized paper in New England. I think I qualify for food stamps.

 

In Canada, that's how it works. You have to be really lucky to make money in the small markets, especially if there are no professional sports teams in the smaller markets.

 

3 and 4 percent raises?

What sugar daddies are you guys working for???!!!

But the business has a way to guilt you about wanting more.

"What's important is doing what you love."

Ever heard that one?

Then there are the friends and relatives who gush to you about the "perks" you get to have working in this business ("perks" meaning covering games and writing about sports. You know, your job).

 

Another thing to consider is whether a state has an income tax.

At one point in my career, I changed jobs and went from making roughly 40,000 to 50,000 per year. Plus, I went to a state where there was no income tax. The difference in my take-home pay was significant.

 

3 percent?

Ah, to see that some are so lucky.

 

I found the key (for me anyway) is a medium market within reasonable driving driving distance (one to three hours) of a big city.

I make better coin than the competing sports reporter, it's the most I've ever made in the business, but at the same time, the cost of living is cheap and the big city lights can be seen from the countryside.