"Is this an entry level position?"

Aside from the glut of people inexplicably interested in journalism, that story about what's happening to the younger workers had a stat that for every percentage point rise in the unemployment rate, workers see a drop in wages of 6 to 7 percent. So if the unemployment rate is 4 percentage points higher than it was five years ago, which it is (at least), a 30 percent drop in the offered income is in line with that rule of thumb.

 

I heard of a recent broadcasting opening that would've basically been a full-time summer gig. Wife asked me if I was interested in it.

Me: "I can't take the pay cut." Probably would've been on the order of 50% of what I currently make as a teacher.

For me -- someone with a lot of experience who seemed to be pretty well-respected -- to go back to being an SE at a smaller paper (which I had been) or a beat writer at a medium-sized paper, I'd likely have to take a hit of 30-45% in pay.

It's unfortunate, but there are a lot of us and not a lot of jobs, so supply/demand dictates they can get away with hiring more cheaply.

The corollary: "young, cheap and controllable." I really believe that micromanaging suits -- like one particular one I used to work for -- like to hire people who aren't in a position to tell management their decision-making is going to hurt the product ("oh, you want to go to a 7 p.m. deadline? Sure, we'll adjust. You want to drop AP photos? Yeah, that's no problem. We'll just work harder and smarter, or something like that. Oh, you want us to cut that story about the school 25 miles away that just went to the Final Four so we can run a blurry photo of the 6-year-old travel team that finished 17th in its league because it's "local," 4-columns, sure ...).

 

You'd be surprised. I know a guy older than me that got a new gig at a smaller shop and was thrilled about his salary, to the point of talking about the numbers openly. What he's making now, when I was making it, I was looking for a job everyday and wondering if I wanted to leave the business.

So while I feel the way you posted, personally, I've been amazed at how ranges of money mean different things to different people.

 

I mentioned this in another thread, but as far as I know, I'm the only person still doing a reporting job that I know of from my college class of 2007. I'm not sure what my class size was - I'm guessing in the 75 to 150 range, since I went to a big state college - and obviously I don't know the working situations of every single member. But the number has shrunk from about a dozen in 2008, 2009 to just me at this point. Everyone else has either found better pay or working stability in PR, moved on to teaching or gone back to school (either a different major or just hiding out in grad school while they decide what the eff to do).

 

What I wonder about is when readers -- subscribers -- will hit the "tipping point" and circulation absolutely drops off a cliff because the quality is gone.

When you cut back on in-depth stories, local photos, news hole and all you hear is "crickets" from your readers, that's when I really would worry about showing up to work and the doors being boarded up in the near future.

 

Maybe never. Perhaps the "quality" seekers have already left the building. The product still has enough coupons to make subscribing worth the piddling amount of money a subscription costs, and the Wednesday grocery flyers can let the reader see all at once what's on sale and where so they can plan their shopping.

Not the most proud reasons why someone would keep subscribing. But reasons nonetheless.

 

That -- and I'm not proud of it either -- is what I see to be to the reality.

 

Today, I saw the USPS is now advertising for direct mail ads. If that happens, we're even more doomed.

The business is changing, and how people consume news is changing. We need to figure out how to deal with this new reality, because the barriers to entry for potential competitors are pretty low.

 

I think the tipping point in circulation is tied to actuarial tables, not anyone's definition of quality. My generation grew up with newspapers. Watergate and the whole thing. When the baby boomers die out, retire or just stop caring about getting their daily newspaper, that's when the industry goes under.

 

Yes, being excited for a job opportunity is one thing...being over eager is another.

 

then, by all means, every paper in the country should just become a weekly shopper because you think "maybe."
hell, maybe the world will end tomorrow. maybe you should empty your bank account.
giving up on quality because of "maybe" is ridiculous.

 

I don't know if he's saying to give up on quality. It's just that the customer base has shifted away from seeking quality to seeking coupons. You can still strive for quality.

Design the best coupons you can.