Multiple reporter openings, U-T San Diego

A felony conviction?

 

At my first stop, the business editor referred to Sports as "The Toy Department" in a staff meeting and one of our deputies stood up and said, "You know how a lot of people sometimes buy the paper, keep a section or two and throw the rest away? I'm guessing the section they keep isn't the business section."

With the exception of The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post and a handful of other papers, the biggest reason most people subscribe to or buy the paper is sports.

 

The toy department keeps many papers going. Also, it's the toy department to those who can't juggle daily deadlines or lack the ability to switch gears at a moment's notice. I always love watching the newside crack on election night. They can't handle the pressure. In the toy department, it's just a normal day. Oh, and the department doesn't need pizza as an incentive.

 

Eh, it was just a phrase my first editor liked to throw around. I know plenty of sports writers take the job seriously.

I'm sure there are plenty of people who enjoy reading it, but to say sports is the most important part of the paper is, IMO, silly. Society survived for thousands of years before organized sports came along and would survive just fine if we all quit playing tomorrow. I'm just amused at some people's over-inflated sense of importance.

But $100k, plus paid travel and expenses, to cover a pro sports team (or any other subject, IMO), is a huge overpay.

 

I've worked alongside and against beat writers who were making six figures and you would not have been able to find many who didn't think they were worth every cent.

 

Oh, I'm sure. Again, far too many people have a way too highly inflated opinion of themselves and their importance.

If we're not going to pay school teachers and firefighters six figures, why should we pay sportswriters that amount? It reminds me of the saying about baseball players ... "grown men paid to play a little boy's game".

 

Mark,

Many, many school administrators make six figures. Very few sports writers make six figures.

Your argument stinks.

 

Several years ago, I remember hearing that a certain percentage of people in print journalism would never make $50K a year. I don't remember what the exact percentage was, but it was in the 90s.

My initial reaction was that it was complete bullshit. I've worked at big papers where every writer and editor on staff was making that much. But if you think about it, it's probably accurate because if you look at smaller papers, a very low percentage make $50K. Right after I'd had a discussion about this with a friend in the business, there was a longtime college football writer who had covered the same school for 30-plus years was retiring and it came out that not only did he never make $50K in a single year, he never made $40K in a single year.

If you take out the national papers (USA Today, Wall Street Journal, NYT, WP etc...) and obviously the magazines and the websites don't count, but I wonder how many print journalists in sports at newspapers make $100K. My guesstimate would be maybe 50 total. That's just a guess.

 

The other issue is that I think we've all realigned our expectations, even at large-market papers.

If I had continued getting raises at the same rate I was getting them in 8-10 years ago, I'd be making great money right now. Instead, I'm making about the same. I've lost money given inflation.

But like a lot people, I'm just happy the doors are still open and the paychecks aren't bouncing.

 

Other than the editor in chief, I don't think anyone in the newsroom at places where I worked made more than $50k. I knew I never would and neither would the people sitting next to me.

Heck, I wasn't making anywhere remotely close to that and was still told "we can't afford to keep you".

 

Anyone have an idea on a timetable for filling these openings?