Reporter Resigns After Publisher Says No to 3% Raise

It won't change a thing in the world of newspapers, but now
he can go into PR – er, "brand journalism" – and get a big raise.

I didn’t leave the Telegram & Gazette with any hard feelings and my departure was not intended as some kind of provocative “fuck you” gesture. The publisher is a likable guy, and our meeting was cordial. I wish him and all my former colleagues well under the GateHouse ownership. I loved the job and was one of the T&G’s most-ardent promoters and defenders in the city. But I just couldn’t avoid any longer the unwelcome truth that I valued the job more highly than the company valued me.

» Worcester Telegram & Gazette reporter resigns after publisher says no to 3% raise JIMROMENESKO.COM

 

I don't blame him, but this seems like it was for show.

 

Good for him for standing up for himself, but unless he has a lot saved up, he's taking a helluva risk.

 

Not really. It won't be difficult to replace whatever meager wages he was getting. He did also say he has a good amount of savings and no wife or children to think about.

 

I'd be curious how many people here ever asked for a raise unless you had another job offer that you were willing to take if they said no.

 

Good for him. Based on his note to Romanesko it sounds like he's too bright and talented for that rag and whatever it was paying him, anyway.

I would hope the answer is almost everyone. You never asked for a raise?

 

Sometimes I feel like I would like enough if one to cover the hike in my health insurance rate.

 

For a lot of people, especially at a paper that is corporately-owned, they're told that the only time a raise comes up is at the annual review. And nowadays, that's if they have an annual review.

 

Early in my career, a colleague of mine told me she was coming in to ask for a beat change and a raise. She had an offer from another paper and was going to use it as leverage.

I told her, "I hope you get it, because I'll be bummed if you leave." and she said, "Well, I'm bluffing. I don't want to leave, so hopefully, this will work."

It did. She got a raise, exactly what she asked for and a beat change. It was a good move by the paper.

A few weeks later, another writer followed suit and tried to do the same thing she did and failed miserably. He ended up quitting and taking a job he really didn't want because he didn't feel like he could work for a boss who denied him a raise.

 

How many of us are getting 3 percent raises these days?

At the major metro I used to work for, my friends who've survived downsizing say they've gotten one 3 percent raise since 2008, and also a restoration of the company 401K match (which management tried to pitch as a "raise"). That's all.

At my current shop, we've gotten raises the past two years, but they've been about 1 percent. That breaks down to about $10 a week for the average reporter and copy editor there, not including withholding for taxes, health insurance, etc.

 

"But I just couldn’t avoid any longer the unwelcome truth that I valued the job more highly than the company valued me."

That quote exactly sums up why I quit my job a little more than a year ago, without anything else lined up. I'd gone more than five years without a raise -- as had at least 95 percent of the folks at the paper -- and I just decided that I'd had enough of killing myself for people who didn't seem to appreciate it. Being single and debt free, with some savings, made it possible to bail like I did. Best decision I've made in my adult life.