Milwaukee Journal Sentinel -- Green Bay Packers reporter

What fan base isn't? Cover a prep beat last fall, plenty of thanks and plenty of criticism from that schools fans. Covering college this year, it's the same mix. Fans are passionate, what else would you expect in this business?

 

I've never been good at math, but... $800 times 52 weeks... equals $41,600. Didn't the San Diego paper say it was between $35-$40K? Seems pretty close to me...

 

I'd also think cost of living would be a major factor.

$41K would go pretty well in Wisconsin. In San Diego, it'd get you a cardboard box.

 

It's not at all accurate to compare the San Diego job to the Sentinel job from a financial perspective. Even if the Sentinel hires someone with zero experience (highly doubtful), the upward arc at the Sentinel is way better, I can say with certainty, than it is in San Diege. After four years of experience, the floor is 1,188 per week or 61,776. That's the minimum salary they'd have to pay. No way a non guild paper runs its writers up the financial ladder at that rate. Furthermore, the cost of living in Milwaukee is way cheaper than it is in San Diego --at least by 20 percent. Also, if you read further down the contract, you'd see that sports guys (anyone that works afternoons) get a differential. It appears to add at least another $3,500 per year onto the salary. The Milwaukee job is much better than the San Diego even if they're trying to hire young.

 

Yeah, this is a great job. It's a great job for someone to come in, stay 2-3 years and then bolt for a huge paper and more $$$ if they do well (which the last two have). But, for the money being offered, this is not a long-term stop. Nothing wrong with that. That's the business these days. It's actually probably a pretty damn smart way to do it.

 

Well, the job is always based in Green Bay, which I would assume is cheaper than Milwaukee.

Which job is better? Both are great jobs. The JS is a clear No. 3 job. I'm not sure how they're doing it in San Diego. The last two people to have the JS job went to the Boston Globe and USA Today. San Diego had a Chargers writer hired by SI a few years back.

 

$42K for an NFL beat guy at the biggest paper in one of the NFL's most rabid markets?

Sorry, but that is sad. Even for the No. 3 guy on the beat.

I guess we're assuming the J-S will hire a "young and hungry" kid and pay the low end of the union scale, right?

 

Do a little detective work and you'll find that indeed Green Bay is a cheap place to live. You can get a two-bedroom for $525. Double that and that might get you a studio in San Diego... more than likely it'll get you one little room.

And even if you lived in Milwaukee, there are a lot of suburbs where the cost of living is lower than California.

 

I don't think anyone is debating that Green Bay is a cheaper place to live than San Diego.

I'm not even arguing that $42K isn't enough to pay a full-time NFL writer. It just means that with what this job pays, people without NFL experience probably have a shot. I seriously doubt that was the case when Bedard was hired back in 2007, especially based on the others who were up for the job.

 

They don't have enough people left to hire from within. And I'm not joking.

 

Maybe they can rehire one of the many people Garry ditched.

 

There was a time, especially when the workforce is unionized, when layoffs were just that: temporary reductions in workforce. When a spot opened up or work picked up, those laid off were brought back.

Why don't newspaper unions work this way? Why do they drop members like bad habits the moment they're laid off? Those folks would seem to need the representation and assistance of the union more than anyone. There ARE industries where laid-off workers still are in their union, still accrue union credit toward pensions, etc. Newspaper unions bargain away your job and then drop you too.

Lots of bosses don't have the balls to hire back someone they put on the street (or even someone one of their departed department heads put on the street). They'd obsess about that person's "attitude" and feel a little awkward around that person, and of course we can't have a boss who's put in that human situation. Besides, so many newspaper layoffs are driven by a desire to shed a veteran's higher salary and replace it with something much lower, if it's replaced at all.