Average journalism major starting salary is...

$40,900. I call bullcrap.

http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/202047/starting-salary-for-j-school-grads-rises-to-41k-on-average/

 

Advertising was $47,200. The rest of the field is thus quite a bit lower. And isn't this just inclusive of those who actually got jobs and thus disregards the employment possibilities as a whole? (Also I think the number includes journalism majors who said fuck it right off the bat and went and got other jobs.)

Also of note on that link: Mizzou J-School grads have lower starting salaries than graduates of any other school. Kinda humorous to all of us who walked around feeling all elite because we were the only ones coming from out of state!

http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/187942/mizzou-j-school-grads-have-lowest-starting-salaries-of-any-missouri-graduates/

 

I made $9.50 an hour my first gig out of college. By the time I left my last journalism job five years ago I nearly hit the $40,000 mark.

Maybe in different parts of the country where cost of living is higher ... or something.

 

It would guess somewhere around $20-25,000 if you are talking newspapers. Probably more if it's magazines, PR or something else.

 

I made $16,600 at my 1st TV gig. It took a loooong time to double that mark with many jumps in the middle.

 

I'm eight years in, never made more than $35K, watched almost everyone I graduated with get fired.

Swell industry.

Only blame myself, though, for getting into it knowing how bad the pay was even in good times.

 

You don't do it for the money bitches.

 

You're right...I do it for the bitches.

 

Great crowd-sourcing here tonight:

http://twitter.com/richarddeitsch

Go read his timeline over the last couple hours; lots of people sharing their horror stories to Deitsch on Twitter.

 

It's pretty interesting. And disheartening from a financial standpoint.

 

First gig in 2002 made 21K as a sports reporter at a small weekly. Second stop was at a 3 times weekly and made just less than 25k before taxes for 3 1/2 years. My younger sister was working in the same city at a Wendys as a cashier making as much as I was based on what they considered my hourly wage ($12/hr based on a 40 hour week, but in reality I rarely worked less than 60 hours and never less than 50).

 

My ass on 40K. If that's the case then take a look at the salaries being offered on journalismjobs.com. I can't believe poynter would put this shit out. I'm very disappointed.