One reason why newspapers suck: Low pay

[Newsjock]

There's a new job opening posted today here for the daily newspaper in Alamosa, Colo.:

Wanted: Ace Paginator/Reporter

... The right candidate will be able to paginate pages daily, while tackling some general assignment reporting, photography and rewrites. Must have previous pagination experience using Pagemaker and Photoshop...

Here's the catch:

Salary:  $15,000 to $20,000

This isn't a unique situation, and I have no special animosity toward the fine people of Alamosa, Colo. (a beautiful place, really, been there, etc.).

Newspapers -- including the one I'm at -- are increasingly obsessed with doing things on the cheap. We're providing less space for news, and then we're filling that limited space with advertiser-friendly "lifestyle" features ("Tasty Ethnic Buffets Near YOU!"). Reporting staffs are stretched so thin that they're turned into nothing more than Insta-Brief-O-Matic™ generators, pumping out mindless copy devoid of any context or background.

And many of the people producing your daily newspaper are paid something in the vicinity of the poverty level. Is it any wonder that newspapers aren't attracting the people who can make the most sense out of what's going on in the world today?

Much is made, and rightly so, of the crisis in education and the role that low teacher salaries play in the dumbing-down of America. The crisis in journalism is equally severe, and the costs to American civic discourse are equally harsh.

On edit: I thought I'd add a little bit about my own situation. I make a moderately decent salary in my editor's job, but here's the bitter truth: Once upon a time, I worked in the high-tech world, pre-dotcom-boom. In actual dollars, not adjusted for inflation, today I still make less than half of what I made in 1992. And there's one thing I know for sure: The work I do now is of infinitely more importance and value to the world than what I did as a faceless syadmin drone in a faceless tech company.

[The Backlash Cometh]

1. Even more reason to be angry at the pundits who DO make big salaries

If they'd buck the system and report honestly, the standards would increase all around in the news business.

[SoCalDem]

8. "buck the system"

and they'll be OUT.. A crappy job or NO job.. what a choice :(

[rucky]

2. That's one for...

www.fuckthatjob.com

[Newsjock]

3. I wish it were so unique

But it's commonplace in journalism now. Even here in one of the nation's more expensive places to live, reporters and copy editors regularly make no more than the mid-$20k range.

On the other hand, the managing editor (not me!) makes something approaching four times that much, and the executive editor, not to mention the publisher, doubtless makes even more.

So, yes, it's little wonder that many intelligent, analytical people tell newspapers to "f*** that job."

[rucky]

4. Yep...Same here...

Except I was never really on staff at both the weekly paper and the monthly magazine I wrote for. I was working at least 20 hours a week, but got paid as a freelancer ($25-$100 per article) - which brought me below minimum wage if you broke it down that way.

I suppose I could've gone with the freelance thing, but found myself spending another 20 hours pimping myself out for work. Didn't actually start earning a living 'til i went into broadcast - yeech!

[MountainLaurel]

10. Absolutely

This is why I never used my journalism degree at newspapers. Unless you went to Columbia, you're going to have to start at a small paper, low on the totem pole. And with student loans, a dying car, and post-college needs (from apartment deposits to dress clothes), there was no fucking way I could afford to make $13,000 a year, which was the starting salary at most of the smaller papers in my state.

Same thing goes for two years later when I was job searching: Even in DC, which has one of the highest costs of livingin the country, starting salaries at the local paper chain (not the Post), were around $15,000.

[greenwow]

5. One friend makes $14k/year for the local paper

After learning what he makes for 60 hours/week worth of work, I understand now why he has no interest in doing any fact checking whatsoever.

[shrike]

6. Glad you posted this

Most people have no idea how poorly newspapers pay. It's another dirty little secret that many reporters, while obstensibly hourly employees, are encouraged to work "off the clock." Management benefits from not having to pay overtime and nobody complains because to do so is to kill your career.

I'm slowly working my way out of the news business, and in two or three years, hope to be out of it entirely. Worst mistake I ever made.

[Cocoa]

7. what's the union situation at newspapers?

I do hear of strikes, but it's usually the operations people, I don't hear much about reporters unions. Is it common for reporters to belong to unions?

[MountainLaurel]

9. Sometimes

But I believe that often you'll only find unionized reporters in large-market papers, like the Washington Post or the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

[Newsjock]

13. The Newspaper Guild

http://newsguild.org

They represent staff at papers of many different sizes, and some of the papers actually have some decent (but not great) salaries.

Look at some others, though, in their 2002 Salary Survey. Take the case of poor Utica, N.Y., where a reporter with five years' experience will make a whoppin' $387.50 per week.

Some say that the Guild is working its way into irrelevance. They would say otherwise.

[skippysmom]

11. thanks for posting this...

I am married to a newspaper reporter and it's sad to see how hard he works for so little.

The problem is that there are a bunch of corporate types who see newspapers as an easy way to make money. Newspapers traditionally have huge profit margins -- 20% or more. How do they achieve such high profit margins? Hiring fewer reporters for lower pay.

The newest trend has been consolidation, where large conglomerates have been taking over smaller, locally owned papers, cutting costs to the bone. The result? Reduced coverage of local issues and more fluff pieces to see advertising. (Advertorial, or adverwhorial, as my husband calls it.)

There are some unionized newspapers, but they are a dying breed.

[Newsjock]

14. Only 20 percent!?

At the newspaper company I'm in, a 20% profit margin would lead to a career change for a publisher.

And at my previous paper (a midsized daily in the intermountain West), we were scoring a big fat 39.7% profit margin during my last quarter there.

Yes, both papers are owned by large conglomerates.

As an example of the cost-cutting that's going on, our A section today was almost nonexistent. Other than the front-page stories and their jumps, there were *zero* nation and world stories in the section -- just one-fifth of a page of briefs. And we're not a podunk little paper either, really.

We've been told that "the blackout" has caused problems for other papers in our chain, and we've been ordered to reduce newshole to compensate.

[Tracer]

12. 4 Positions Filled for the price of One!

Paginator!
Reporter!
Photographer!
Editor!!

I have no clue as to how big a town Alamosa is, but it sure looks like a one-horse newspaper.

I worked for a large Boston newspaper for 13 years and the turnover there was very high - on purpose. They made life miserable for the employees, so when the employees left, they could be replaced with "newbies" at the most basic salary.