Will this business ever wise up and pay better?

And for males (or anyone) in journalism*?




* that is, when the number's not skewed by the Alboms, Lupicas and Paiges of the world

 

Welcome to America, Buck, where the Alboms, Lupicas and Paiges of the world skew the numbers in every profession. Ten percent of the world owns 90 percent of its wealth. That's just the way it is. And that's why I cited median. Half of the males in this country between the ages of 25 and 34 make less than 46k. Half make more.

We're underpaid, but it's not like we're running around with tattered jeans and dirty faces and singing "Open the Gates and Seize the Day."

Honestly, if a person doesn't have the talent to one day be making 60k, I wouldn't recommend them choosing writing as a profession.

But I came from a two-parent, two-income, six-person household whose gross income was surely less than 70k while I was growing up, and neither held jobs in journalism.


Pretty much it comes down to this: most of the big-money jobs that don't require intense training are jobs that are big revenue producers. So if producing yourself or your company revenue is something that you'd enjoy, journalism probably isn't the right spot.

But jobs in which money is not a person's No. 1 priority are typically lower-paying jobs: working in pro sports, journalism, social work, the ministry, teaching, non-profit work, on and on and on and on.

 

I do find myself wondering what "fair" is. To my knowledge (feel free to correct) there's no current grid out there for what, say, the average guy with 2 years at a small daily going to a 20,000-circ. as a sports reporter is getting. I know there are a lot of factors -- i.e. who owns it, where is it located, etc. With limited context, though, the person taking the gig for 21K pretty much justifies that outfit lowballing the next guy too. I know the bar isn't going to move overnight, but it seems to me the fewer people getting screwed, the better for everyone in similar spots. I'd be highly interested in a thread with comparisons, since that would make for a quicker reference -- and probably a more honest one -- than numbers from the latest series of jjobs ads.

 

Journalism, to some, is artistic slavery. I don't see it changing.

 

Not everyone is covering a college or pro beat, and with all the travel required on those beats, 45K per year is not enough.

At the big city daily down the road, I know three college beat reporters. They are good friends of mine. Only one makes 40K and he's been there for 16 years. The other two are a year into it at this big city daily. They make 32K per year -- entry level pay for a reporter at that paper.

You reference growing up. Back when I was growing up in the 80s, my mother somehow made it on 30K per year and raised two kids. I don't know how in the hell she did it.

Fact is, money went a little further back then. Also, my mother went to college on scholarship. She has never paid a student loan bill, unless she was helping me out with mine way back years ago when I first got out of school.

I worked in P-R for a brief stint. It started well over 40 and there were quarterly bonuses added to that total. Not one person there had an advanced degree.

considering your apology for the sad pay scales at newspapers, I have to conclude that you are a publisher.

 

There's plenty of complaining, but is it really a surprise that most journalists are underpaid? I knew that when I got into the biz 20 years ago. It hasn't changed. It won't change. Accept it or get out.

As far as P-R goes, there is better money in that, but when a company needs to tighten the purse, those are the first ones gone. Seen it happen too many times.

 

Go back and find out what pay scales were like when Heywood Broun helped found the Guild. Brutal.
All journalism outlets have always traded on the intangible benefits of the gig in order to pay shit. That hasn't changed, but society has. There are just fewer and fewer places where it's possible to live while starting out young and broke.
Boston is a perfect case in point. When I began in the '70s, you could live in a dumpy apartment with roomies, eat cheap, and have one hell of a lot of fun on my Phoenix starting salary of $150 a week. I had the chance to learn my trade yet have a life.
No mas, baby. Boston is now about the worst place for the young and broke to live. It's just dawning on the civic powers that be this is the main reason we're dying on the vine as a cultural and business center.
Being unemployed, I scan every journalism job board I can think of on a daily basis. The disconnect between what employers demand in the way of qualifications and what they deliver in the way of compensation would be hilarious if I weren't personally involved. A paper, TV station or website will demand the applicant have reporting, writing, layout, and photography skills already in place. One I saw even said a foreign language (Spanish) was also required. Salary? $20-25 K.
That's less than $10 an hour, and this was to work in one of our nations' ritziest ski resorts, a place where the reporter couldn't live in his car on his salary. The only normal human reaction to the ad would to email a hearty "fuck you" to the paper in question.
Our business is in the dumper because management thought people would never find an alternative to reading the paper. The same blind stupidity guides the idea there will always be talented people willing to work in journalism for the love of the game. If you're paying people less than what they could get behind the Hertz counter at the airport, eventually you wind up with a staff who weren't good enough to work behind that counter.

 

I think Mike summed it all very nicely. Good job Mike and good luck.

 

you don't have to be a passive victim of low pay.

find your inner entrepreneurship. generate something valuable to the market - and sell it. if you can report and write it's out there. hold onto your job, but use it as a platform to expand and diversify. hey, this is america - land of opportunity - you have to push yourself.

 

Buddy of mine, in the middle of his professional life, does not make his age. And he's a good reporter at a 100k in a not-so-cheap part of the country. He freelances and works the corners for extra change, but it's a struggle. Going in, we knew the nobility of the gig made it different from other accounting/insurance median-professional jobs, but there has been a fundamental change in which the explosion of information outlets has diminished the expectations for beginning and mid-level journalists. And those who reach decent levels don't leave, reducing the ladder effect for many others.

 

Henri pushes himself. Sometimes he pulls, too.

 

We're having an interesting situation at my shop. Been trying to hire for a non-sports editor position for several weeks. Had quite a bit of interest, more than I expected, but each and every offer that has been made has been turned down because the pay was too low. Corporate won't budge, of course, and the situation is getting desperate. I give props to the people who have turned down the job on the basis of horrendous pay.