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Job interview question: What if they ask how committed I am to a low salary?

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Baron Scicluna, Jun 19, 2010.

  1. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    Believe me, this has nothing to do with passion. If hired (a big if), it would be a paycheck, that's all.
     
  2. waterytart

    waterytart Active Member

    I'm sure my preference for putting the response under the quote box, as every other member of the board manages to do, is an indication of my enslavement to outdated ways of thinking.
     
  3. Stitch

    Stitch Active Member

    So were are all of these great online jobs? I've interviewed for a couple of online sports editor jobs for less money than I'm making now. As for quoting ad revenue, how much of that is going to go to news operations? Facebook just turned a profit. Twitter isn't making any money. My chain likely won't make an iPad app, and if they do, it will be horrible.

    We're in a period where not much money will be online, similar to the latter half of the 19th Century when daily newspapers started publishing. A lot of newspapers came and went, until they started making money hand over fist.

    Newspapers aren't suffering just because of declining ad revenue. Newspaper acquisitions using debt plays a part in the problem.

    So Andy, what's your answer to make money?
     
  4. mustangj17

    mustangj17 Active Member

     
  5. BTExpress

    BTExpress Well-Known Member

    And even in the salad days of making money hand over fist, daily newspapers folded in Los Angeles, Dallas, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Washington, Knoxville, Chattanooga and dozens of other places.

    When readers' habits change, there will be casualties. And not all because of some vague lack of "vision."
     
  6. Andy_Cunanan

    Andy_Cunanan New Member

    Print businesses have missed the boat. It's already too late.

    Digital advertising for newspaper sites has gone from 16.2% in 2005 to 11.4% last year and is heading for 7.9% in 2014, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers. "Advertisers are warming to competing news sites because they're finding a better combination of scale and ad technologies like targeting," writes Nat Ives.

    In another 10 years, I'm sure there will be people who still mock the concept that leaders need to have a "vision." You'll certainly have plenty of time on your hands to do so, anyway.
     
  7. playthrough

    playthrough Moderator Staff Member

    So there ya go. The answer to the thread is "don't interview to begin with." Walk across the street to the Online News Factory, where they're hiring hundreds at $75k with full benefits, blue-jean Fridays and a free company cafeteria.
     
  8. Stitch

    Stitch Active Member

    It's fine to have a vision if you know what you are talking about. You don't, Andy. It's easy to say newspaper execs don't have vision. But even those who do, where's the payoff. You're not going to get venture capital for an online news operation. You can't get enough ad revenue is small or mid-size cities to support a news operation. Read "The Chaos Scenario" and get back to me.
     
  9. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    Finally heard back from them today. Rejected.

    Oh well, it wasn't like I really had a huge desire to get back into newspapers anyways.
     
  10. Sorry to hear that, Baron, but if it's any consolation, they probably looked at your job history, saw it was a step down, and eliminated you because they knew you would leave if something better came along. It's happened to many of us who were downsized, although I know that doesn't make it any less irritating.
     
  11. flexmaster33

    flexmaster33 Well-Known Member

    You can't expect to keep people long-term if you're not planning to reward them for a job well done. Jobs are harder to come by nowadays, but you can still move on from a poor situation as this seems...still, a job is a job.
     
  12. WriteThinking

    WriteThinking Well-Known Member

    If the hiring managers at newspapers do that -- and yes, I know it happens -- it is because they are making assumptions. In other words, they're doing exactly what newspaper people are never supposed to do.

    It is galling, too, because, honestly, how do they know that someone will leave as quickly as possible? Especially these days, when most people who have jobs are cognizant of how fortunate they are.

    Also, even if someone has been at a larger, better paper, a hiring manager at a prospective place may not know everything about what the person did there, or why they may like the prospective place.

    You might end up loving the place, the part of the country, the new role you're in, or someone you meet there.

    What do people expect, anyway? A guarantee of a 10-year commitment? That doesn't happen anywhere, in any job. Most places are not destination jobs, and there is always a chance that employees may move on after only a couple of years, or three years, or five years. That's life in the world of work, and just the way it is.

    These places/people need to get a grasp of what and where they are stand in the grand scheme of the business and not be insulted or hold it against prospective employees if they might already have that understanding.
     
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