Columnist salaries

I know of a few who claim to be in the $500K range. People tend to exagerrate, so who knows what is accurate and what's not.

I would certainly think that Whitlock, Mariotti, Ryan, Paige, Plaschke, Simers are all in the $500K-$600K range.

I've also heard that several like Bianchi and Fennelly are woefully underpaid given their talent and circulations...

 

I've always wondered how many sports columnists are making more than their executive sports editors?

At my gig, I believe the exec. sports editor makes more than our columnists, but I wouldn't say that's the case necessarily for a Detroit Freep or possibly a Miami Herald.

I'm throwing out there, a paper with 150,000+ circ = columnist makes at least $90K.

 

Who gives a fuck! They make more than 10 of us grunts combined.

 

The only ones I know about for sure were in the 1990s because they told me, a No. 2 columnist who was leaving our paper and a No. 2 who wanted to work there. And in both cases, they were at pretty large papers and not making a whole lot more than anyone else, certainly not enough to inspire jealousy. In the latter case the guy was making what I was making to work the slot, albeit in a significantly cheaper place to live but at a comparable-size paper.

I think paying someone $400K to write a sports column is a silly waste of money, especially now. It's just vanity money and has nothing to do with reality; in many cases the paper is just bidding against itself. If an editor can't find someone who can do a great job for $150K, he must not be a very good judge of talent and needs reputation to guide him. There's no indication that the arrival or departure of a sports columnist, even a famous one, has any effect on circulation.

 

I think the only time it does is when a columnist jumps ship from one competitor to the other. The only two examples I've heard of were Lupica going from (I don't remember which one) to The Daily News and Paige going from the Rocky Mountain News to The Post. Keep in mind, both happened decades ago, but in both instances, there were very large circulation boosts?

Would any movement have similar impact today? I seriously doubt it...

 

There was no effect from Lupica's switches, and for those keeping score, I like his stuff. It would be hard to say on Paige because at the time Times Mirror owned the Post and there was an all-out newspaper war in Denver. There was so much money being spent on upgrades throughout the papers and especially in sports. The Denver Post brought in Buddy Martin and Tom Patterson from outside to run the sports section, and the sports news hole was larger than anyone's except The Dallas Morning News' and maybe the Boston Globe's and Newark's. It would be a huge stretch to say Woody Paige did it -- and, anyway, all the money spent didn't win the war or really pull the Post ahead of the Rocky. Times Mirror unloaded The Denver Post and Dallas Times Herald to Singleton as lost causes.

 

I tried to find something that confirmed Albom's salary online, but could not...

I did find out that he got $5 million for the two books that followed "Tuesdays with Morrie"

 

I seem to remember hearing once, several years ago, that Randy Galloway was making north of $350K.

At pretty much any metro, it's a six-figure job.

 

I can't be specific for a variety of reasons, but I'd be surprised if at least a couple of names there aren't a bit lower than that.

 

Me too.

 

Over the years, I've been told there are a few of the top guys who make a lot less than you would think, like Plaschke, Poz and Bianchi... That may have changed, but I don't know...

 

I know many will disagree with this, but a strong metro columnist is more important -- and worth more -- than a good sports columnist. The sports columnist will usually make more, quite a bit more.

Worst of all, I could name you a bunch of sports columnists who aren't as good as they used to be because 1)They devote too much time to radio and/or TV. 2)Their inflated salaries and egos have made them lazy.

That said, what a great gig!