Finally the answer: Why Journalists deserve low pay

[starting a slow-clap]

 

Wonder how much the guy, Robert G.Picard, was paid to write that paper.

Kidding aside, I just found Picard's bio and it seems he has no problem using low-paid journalists to line his own pocket and further his agenda.

Here's an excerpt from the bio:

"He is regularly interviewed by media on issues of media industry developments.
His comments have appeared in publications as New York Times, Wall Street
Journal, Washington Post, USA Today, Le Monde, The Times (London), Neue
Zurcher Zeitung, Fortune, and Business Week, in reports by Associated Press,
Reuters, and other news services, as well as trade and professional
publications worldwide."

He's an author/editor, and it wouldn't surprise me if some of those interviews mentioned his 23 books.

 

The other day, I went to my doctor and told him my allergies were bothering me and could he write me a prescription for Claritin (which I can get for free with a prescription). He did.

I could have done exactly what he did, given 10 minutes of training on how to properly fill out a piece of prescription paper. Does that make me interchangable with a doctor? Most nurses can diagnose common illnesses and suggest treatment. Does that make them interchangable with doctors?

I'm not trying to equate what we do with physicians. I'm just pointing out that finding aspects of what we do day-to-day that ANYBODY can do does not devalue what we do. Much of what a lot of people do on their jobs would not require great expertise. What makes it a profession are the aspects that most aren't trained to do or don't have the talent to do and there are plenty of marketable skills in the journalism business.

Not everyone has expertise or talent in Quark or Indesign. Not everyone can write or edit nor do they have perspective on how to operate a news-gathering organization on a day-to-day basis.

Theoretically, these unique talents DO get rewarded, but there are many people in the business making the same mediocre pay in hopes of achieving the earnings of a select few. I mean, Feinstein isn't making the same chump change a guy covering preps at the Timbuktu Daily Press makes, does he?

 

Bet he was a publisher...

 

The general perception in management is anybody can do this job. Reporters are a dime a dozen. That's why the citizen journalism thing is picking up steam. Anybody off the beat for more than a year also falls into the "anybody can do it" line of thinking.