Monday, November 14, 2011

Survey | How much do you get paid annually?

Anonymous@7:32 p.m. writes:

32 years in journalism, all with Knight-Ridder and then Gannett. About 21 years as a reporter, 11 as editor on metro side. Mid-50's age group. Masters degree. Earn about $65,000 a year. So, am I typical?

Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.

36 comments:

  1. By the time I left Gannett in January 2008, I was getting paid $105,000 a year as a USA Today reporter/editor.

    That was after 22 years -- all but two with Gannett -- working as a reporter and editor, mostly covering business news. I have a bachelor's degree in English.

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  2. jeez. guess I am underpaid, lol!

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  3. Posting salaries is of little value without also posting the city or market where the job is. $65,000 in Binghamton or Greenville, S.C., is pretty good. In McLean, Va., $65,000 is worth a lot less. Ask anyone who has worked in both size markets.

    Jim was working out of the San Francisco bureau during high times for the economy. $105K would not be unusual for that market; in fact, compared to some of the engineers working there it's low.

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  4. $42,000, 26 years as a graphic artist. East coast. Female.

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  5. 30 years, bachelor's degree, copy editor/designer, $45,000, Southeast. I must be an idiot.

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  6. $65,000. southeast market.

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  7. $57,000 - reporter, 15 years. Southeast.

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  8. When they did the over $90K furloughs in Louisville, there were 36 people on the list. 29 were in the newsroom.

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  9. $90k plus in louisvilleis like $140,000 in mclean. nice.

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  10. $150k after 37 years in the business; female in mid-50s laid off this year. Only 10 years with Gannett, all but two years in the Midwest. Majority of years in news/edit setting, but have crossed a lot of departments. Very happy to be back in media after a brief search. Making half the money, but feel fortunate for what I have. It's been a great career; wouldn't trade it.

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  11. A bunch of those 90Ks in Louisville are gone.

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  12. I quit in Louisville a couple of years back making 62,000. Now, still in Louisville with another company in different industry making 100,000. Misplaced loyalty tax cost me around 40 grand a year till I wised up.

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  13. 35 years in IT, 15 years with Gannett. Southeast, 94k.

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  14. When I worked at Gannett IT in McLean I earned about 90K with 10yrs experience and a BS in progress. I left several years ago, work in the IT industry and make more than double that now.

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  15. $37 million, 6 years as CEO, DC area. Did nothing, crushed the stock, fleeced the company.

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  16. 10 years in Cherry Hill making $70,000.

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  17. $39,000 in Wisconsin as editor. 10 years experience.

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  18. $40K. Female. Manager. 10 years experience, different departments. East coast. Trying to find my alternate industry so I can drop my misplaced loyalty tax like Anon 11/15/2011 2:25 AM did.

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  19. When the Binghams owned Louisville, they believed in paying a solid living wage and the bar was set high when Gannett bought the papers. A lot of the higher salaries still in the newsroom date to the Binghams. What Gannett has paid its hires is lower and several reporters/editors have second jobs these days.

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  20. 12:13 When I worked in Louisville, from 1996-1999, I was immediately struck by how many employees throughout the building appeared to be in their 50s and 60s. Some days, it seemed like 75%. (I was 40 when I arrived.)

    The Bingham family sold the paper and related properties to Gannett in 1986. I suspect many current employees were hired during the Bingham era, which would mean the paper overall has a very senior staff -- and the higher wages that come with seniority.

    I imagine the situation is the same at newspapers including The Des Moines Register, which Gannett bought in 1985; and The Arizona Republic and The Indianapolis Star, both of which Gannett bought in 2000.

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  21. Fmr. APP reporter. Made $35k with 5 years exp. Left in 2010.

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  22. Topped at $50,000, Wisconsin reporter, before 12% paycuts to union in 2008, pension freeze, overtime cuts, loss of holiday pay, health insurance increases etc. 2010 W2 showed $13,000 less, and I'm damned glad I'm out.

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  23. $89,500 Photography Az Republic 14 years. Started first with PNI ( Pulliam ) and then with Gannett.

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  24. 32k, reporter, 5yrs experience, midwest

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  25. $38k as a reporter in mid-America. 4 years experience. Left for a new industry (not PR) and am now getting three times that. Best decision I ever made. More money. Less stress. No unpaid furloughs.

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  26. $45K, reporter, 13 years at two different Gannett papers, currently in Midwest. I need to get out of here.

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  27. $155k reporter with 2O plus years exp. Joined usa today within last 5.

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  28. southeast, graphic designer, 18 years with newspapers, 28,000.
    now you don't feel so bad.

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  29. $155,000 4 a USA Today reporter. Is that true?

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  30. 7:45 Entirely possible.

    When I started at USAT in 2000, a senior editor told me (somewhat matter-of-factly) that more than a few reporters got paid above $100K annually. And that was nearly 12 years ago. With pay raises, I suspect the number getting paid above $100K has grown still more.

    But keep this in mind: USAT reporters must work in some of the nation's most expensive cities to live: Washington metro; New York; San Francisco, Los Angeles, etc. You would struggle to find a two bedroom/one bath in those cities for under $500K.

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  31. I can afford a $400,000 condo on $65,000

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  32. Manager level in Marketing, USA Today, $70,000

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  33. 9:58:
    You should go over to the reporting side!

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  34. Once upon a time, I was looking for something in one of the public folders on the company server, and I found an Excel file that contained the salary of every single person at the publication. I think it had sat there for about four years before I stumbled across it. I don't know if anyone else saw it there, but I never showed it to anyone because it was just too awful.

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  35. Straight out of college (Bachelor's) I went to a Gannett paper in the South for $30,000. Five years later I left Gannett (making $31,000) and went to a Midwest paper where the cost of living was about 5 percent lower for $34,000.

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  36. Spent seven years as a reporter at two Ohio papers, left the company for two years, then came back for less than two as a copy editor/designer. I left in August making about $31.5K. I now make about 20 percent more than that as a writer at the nearby weekly chain.

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