Jul 12, 2010

Reporters, editors down; audience development managers up

A survey of newspaper industry salaries done by the Inland Press Association found that, on average, workers made 1.42 percent less in 2010 than in 2009. Salaries could have dropped even further had newspapers not laid so many workers off.

The priorities of newspaper publishers become evident when the numbers are analyzed further. Editors, for example, saw their salaries drop 4.6 percent. Reporters lost between 1 and 2 percent. Even publishers lost out, dropping 2.1 percent from the year before.

The increases came on the sales side. Audience development managers, who presumably study ways to boost circulation and web hits, saw their salaries rise an average of 10 percent while national advertising managers saw a 12 percent gain.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Are editorial baseline salaries shrinking dramatically?

Say, for instance, a Managing Editor leaves his or her position. The company closes that position and its old starting salary for that job. Then the company re-opens the same job as a "new" position and sets the starting salary $10,000 less than the 'previous' position.

You could work a similar formula all the way down the line to reporters and office assistants.

Imagine new reporter positions starting at minimum wage?

Anonymous said...

Let me give you an answer: Yes.

Your company is waiting for you to get fed up and get another job. Then they will close out your position and create a new position that will start many thousands of dollars less per annum.

You do not stand a chance of getting a promotion if someone above you leaves your department.

They will hire someone from outside who they'll get to work for one-half to two-thirds of the old starting wage.

How can they do that? They completely close the position you thought you were applying for and reopen it as a "new position" and at a "new salary". That "new salary" will probably been even less than you're making now at your current position.

And if you are unfortunate enough to want a lateral transfer to a re-assigned position don't be shocked if they tell you that you'll have to take a 20 to 30-percent pay cut!

This is the new trend.

Remember how they used to take weeks or months to advertise and interview and screen for a position? They now have a very dirty and very mean way of fast-tracking their previously bogged down bureaucracy.

They are just going to wait you out by making every possibility for upward movement the ugliest experience you may ever have had nightmares about.

Welcome to Recession Part Deux!