Lowball offers

First job out of college was $12.50/hour. It was Gannett, the benefits were fine and I really couldn't complain, about the pay at least.

 

My first daily newspaper job paid $11,000.

But they put me in charge of the interns, which somehow made it seem OK.

 

If you work at a place where they pay you like crap and are pirating software, try www.bsa.org to get something back.

 

I've never worked at a paper that doesn't, technically, pay a "per hour" wage ... and it usually has worked out in the employees' favor.

At my first shop, I was able to occassionally rake in some overtime. Meanwhile, the salaried SE could put in 80 hours of work a week and make no more than if he put in 40.

Now that overtime has gone the way of the dodo bird and the successful NBA foul-shooter, we have a gentlemen's agreement that all "OT" is unofficially rolled into comp time.

I'm basically in the midst of what will be about six weeks off right now while my beat is on hiatus ... all of it paid, none of it counting against my vacation time.

Anyway, in my experience, the "per hour" wage is one of the only things this business has gotten right. I'd never want to be salaried in this profession, unless that salary was just unbelievable.

 

First job out of college (Lee weekly) paid $8.25/hour (approx. 17k), with $.25/mile and wouldn't let me put down OT. When I finally started regulating my hours to only hit 40 because of the lack of OT, the boss gave me this speech about how I didn't care and didn't have the drive and blah blah blah. I nodded along then, when she asked if I had anything to say for myself, I handed her an envelope that contained my two weeks notice. I have to say, watching the steam come out of her ears and then seeing her go outside for about an hour (chain smoker, not sure how many she went through that day), remains the happiest day I spent at that dump.

Of course, I didn't have much sympathy. That was the gig that forced me to work at McDonalds to make ends meet. My boss didn't approve, but when I asked her for a loan to pay my bills instead, she changed her mind.

Looks like she's now a PR person for a medical weight loss center, where she wrote a release about a new clinic opening with the line "just in time to help the overweight cope with the New Year."

No comment.

 

Is it usually the editors at the community rags who complain that their writers don't have what it takes to make it in the business?

Just shut up and smile when we pay you $250 per week because we're the only game in town.

 

Thats how one of my editors was. Thing was I had the drive until they started paying me such a shitty wage.

 

it ain't the "community rags" swinging all the axes across the industry right now.

 

tell that to folks I know who have been laid off at the "community rags."

It's everyone - larger and smaller.

 

Accepting a low-ball offer sets you back several years.
You're always fighting to get up to where you should be, and that's very, very difficult.
That said, in this current economoic climate, you may not have any other choice but to accept it.

 

Accepting a lowball offer sets EVERYBODY back several years. Why do newspapers pay criminally low wages? Because they can. If the labor market tightened up a little bit, publishers might have to rethink their strategy.