I'm surprised that marquee New York Times reporter Linda Greenhouse (left), one of the most influential journalists on the U.S. Supreme Court beat, makes just $140,000 a year. She's taking an early retirement buyout totaling $300,000, The New York Observer says. Worth repeating: The vast majority of Gannett Blog readers said they earned less than $75,000 a year, when I conducted this brief survey in November. (Full disclosure: I was earning $105,000 a year when I took my USA Today buyout in January.)Question: Percentage-wise, how big was your last merit raise? (I got a bit over 4%.) Use this link to e-mail feedback; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the sidebar, upper right. Or leave a note in the comments section, below.
[Photo: Indiana University]
Be careful with your adjectives. Your survey indicated 59% made less than $75,000. While that is without a doubt a majority, I don't think the person-on-the-street would consider that "vast".
ReplyDeleteI solely handle all National & Major account preflight and traffic and all other electronic advertising. My account total is 200+ and the revenue totals over $4 million annually. I haven't made a single mistake and I'm the least paid person in the department. My last review I received a 2% raise- what a joke. Now tell me- what exactly is my motivation to make sure they get all $4 million, when I get an extra $.20 annually?
ReplyDeleteGood point on "vast majority.'' I should have phrased it as you suggested.
ReplyDeleteJim, if you did a poll of reporters working at Gannett papers across the nation, I am positive the VAST majority make much less than $75,000. I worked for one of the largest Gannett papers for almost a decade and my salary never cracked $40,000. It's sad to admit this, but my knee-jerk reaction to learning what you and Greenhouse made was, "Wow, what an astronomical salary. I'll never make that much."
ReplyDeleteThis is why this industry needs a fucking revolution! Why do we as journalists stand for these salaries???
My first newspaper job, at the Pine Bluff Commercial (a non-Gannett paper in Southeast Arkansas, with 21,000 readers at the time) paid about $12,000 a year. I never once imagined that I might someday make $105,000 -- the pay I got when I got a buyout at USA Today. By almost any definition, $105,000 is a lot of money -- unless you live in a city with an absurd cost of living, such as San Francisco, where I live now. Still, I had to think long and hard before giving up my USA Today job; I knew it was very unlikely that I'd ever got another traditional newspaper job paying that much.
ReplyDeleteLess than 2 percent last year, no raise this year.
ReplyDeleteJim - I didn't mean to criticize your salary. My point was to emphasize the fact that kids working toward their J degrees should know two things:
ReplyDelete1. Graduates with journalism degrees make less than ANY other 4-year degree in the U.S.
2. Journalist salaries, when adjusted for inflation and cost of living increases, have only slightly increased in the past 35 years.
I think I got a 3.5 percent raise the last year I worked for Gannett. That meant that after working at the paper for nearly a decade, I could go apply for affordable housing in my county.
I didn't take your note as criticism; you told the truth!
ReplyDeleteBelieve me, kids in college no that. When I speak to J-school classes, rarely does anyone in the class have the goal of being a newspaper reporter anymore. And who can blame them.
ReplyDeleteI mean, know, of course.
ReplyDeleteI received a 2% raise in 2007 despite a stellar review.
ReplyDeleteAlso 2% despite a stellar review in 2007. I've been with a large Gannett daily for 10 years and haven't broken #38,000.
ReplyDeleteI work for one of the larger Gannett dailies and make a little over $62k.
ReplyDeleteWhen I get a good evaluation I get a whopping 2 percent to 3 percent raise. When I get a bad evaluation I get a whopping 2 percent to 3 percent raise.
The yearly increases in health insurance premiums eat up whatever gains I had made, while inflation eats up the rest -- and then some.
Bottom line: I make less every year.
3.25%, and after reading these comments, I feel lucky to have it.
ReplyDeletegot my first raise since '04 last year. 1%. two previous years i got a bonus. 1%. that's what decades of good work, including winning statewide awards, is worth to big g. i'm now working harder, smarter and faster than ever before, while getting paid less in real dollars and paying more to insure just me than i paid to insure 2 of us 3 years earlier.
ReplyDeleteand, of course, my 401(k) took a hit, though i'd cut way back on my gannett stock awhile back.
i'm old enough to remember when my paper hired people away from nonprofits. now the traffic goes the other way -- former coworkers have taken jobs with various agencies. two have become schoolteachers -- about the same pay, and probably less stress, plus summers off.
mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be journalists.
I got a 3.5 percent raise. I got a glowing review two years ago and a 4-percent raise. In the past year I did considerably more, had some of the newspaper's biggest stories, and won several awards, including major ones. I got an even better review -- but what amounts to a cost-of-living adjustment. I took it with little complaint last year. If it happens this year, I'm gonna vent. Probably won't make a whit of difference, but I'll feel better. What a terrible message to send to your employees: Do a good job; do a bad job. You'll be getting a piddling raise regardless.
ReplyDeleteNo raise in the 2.5 years I worked at a 24,000 circulation Gannett daily in the Northeast. Two bad annual reviews, so no raise for me the whole time I worked for the company. I started at $29,000 per year and stayed at $29,000 per year, before taxes.
ReplyDelete2.5 max raise the most I ever earned in 13 years. Now I and some 30+ others in ad production in NJ newspapers are being outsourced to india via 2AdPro. Thanks Gannett for the slap in the face!
ReplyDelete3.8, 3.5, 3.6 the last three years.
ReplyDelete