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Pay for pro beat writers

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Miles O'Toole, Jun 7, 2007.

  1. joe king

    joe king Active Member

    boots is correct, with a few isolated exceptions. I know of some major papers that pay far less than most people think they do, and if they can get a beat writer on the cheap, they will. And they often do. I know for an absolute fact that a few years ago one of the beat writers on a major pro sport for one of the 25 or 30 largest papers in the country was making considerably less than $45,000.
     
  2. Well he was getting screwed. Although 85K might be on the high end of the scale, there are lots of guys making that much or more.
     
  3. boots

    boots New Member

    Again, there are variables but don't think for a minute that everyone covering a pro beat is making 85k. That's not reality. Only a few papers can really afford salaries that high and many of those papers are hemorrhaging.
     
  4. leo1

    leo1 Active Member

    this is right on the money. no pun intended.

    and from my experience in the business (i'm not in any more) no one ever got more money when they switched from, say, the NFL to NBA or another sport. getting a new beat was not the same as having more experience. so a guy 1-2 years out of college who was a beat writer was on the low end of the pay scale. so the other beat writers might be making $20-$30K more than him. if he switched a year later and was now 2-3 years out of college he wouldn't get a massive pay bump.
     
  5. bigugly

    bigugly Member

    I know several NFL beat writers and I am very close to seven that in the last two months we had this discussion. Without saying the cities I can tell you that three of them make over $100K, two of them are $65K range and the other two make $45K.

    To be very honest the two at the top have a very easy job. They only cover the NFL and get off a lot of time. IMHO NBA, NHL and MLB people have it worse. Longer seasons and a heck of a lot more travel. These guys have to cover some other things in the off part of the NFL calendar but for the most part they even will admit the NFL is a great gig.
     
  6. Boobie Miles

    Boobie Miles Active Member

    I might be missing something, but wasn't the original poster throwing out scenarios and the 50-100K and 250K were representing circulation sizes and not salaries? I believe they were asking how much writers at those types of papers make, not suggesting that beat writers make that amount.
     
  7. Miles O'Toole

    Miles O'Toole Member

    Boobie, you're correct.
     
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