Payscale

If you have a major beat (D-I college, pro team) at a major metro paper, how much are you likely to make?

What if you're a columnist at that same paper?

 

We now get paid in pesos.

So it's hard to judge.

 

You get pesos? Man, we get paid in corn and tomatoes.

 

If you are a high school guy, well, you've already been laid of so $583 from unemployment......

If you are a college guy, well, you've taken a 10 percent pay cut, you now pay about $200 a month for your benefits and you are going to take a furlough in the second and fourth quarters this year. And you no longer travel so you can't even try and recoup some of those lost wages by rummaging through garbage cans at the airport and hotels you stay at for receipts you can use to help you run up the score on your expense reports..

If you are a pro guy, well, you've taken a 10 percent pay cut, you now pay about $200 a month for your benefits and you are going to take a furlough in the second and fourth quarters this year. And while you still travel, every single dollar you spend is put through a microscope, so while you still have some wiggle room to get a few bucks back via your expense report, your doing so at the expense of actually eating on the road.

Now if you are a columnist, you are in the same boat as the college guys because your days of traveling are done -- unless local team makes the championship game/series/BCS game -- as well.......

Does this about sum it up for you Method Man?

 

In an effort to actually answer the original questions, I'll say this:

What people may make in those positions these days may be skewed -- dramatically, sometimes -- by what's been going on in the industry or at particular papers.

The thing that really determines what someone makes, particularly at major, corporate papers, is a person's official classification and status/step level within that classification -- not the actual work they may or may not be performing.

And, that is particularly true nowadays, when papers may be having somebody who is, say, a Reporter 1 (lowest-level reporter) covering a pro beat. Or, conversely, somebody may be an assistant or deputy editor who, officially, is on the management level, and yet, may actually be doing the work of a Reporter (albeit, probably a Reporter 3), or, as is becoming more and more common, they may be doing the work of a web producer or copy editor.

In the first instance, it is an attempt both to work with what you've got (left), as well as see if someone who would be more economical can do the job of a higher person, and occurs because a paper's staff is getting cut more and more.

In the second instance, it is bumping, and an attempt to allow higher-ups to hang onto jobs -- whatever they may be.

In both cases, and barring other performance-related issues, whether or not the official titles/levels get changed, for better or worse, along people's roles, probably will depend on the budget considerations of the paper involved.

In general, though, based on what I know (which, granted, may not be much, or entirely accurate, anymore), a Division I college beat writer (on football/basketball) at a major metro probably once would have made $50,000-$70,000 a year, with a columnist at anywhere between $80,000-$150,000.

These are generalities, though, and would depend on the individual paper, and person.

 

Golden Whole Kernel or Cream Style?

 

$583 for unemployment ... on what planet?

 

I got a chuckle out of this, except for the part about paying only $200 for benefits. Try doubling that for a small family. Then add the union dues, which really is just paying an insurance premium so you don't get boofooed even more by management.

 

If you have a pro or major college beat at a paper, you're likely to get laid off.

 

It all depends on how little they can get away with paying you. If you're a 20-something on a college beat, you will make less than a 40-something on a beat, if only because the 2-percent and 3-percent raises over the years add up.

If it's your third or fourth stop in your career, you will make more than a guy who's spent his career at one place. I know of places where a prep guy makes more than a college beat guy for various reasons. There's really no cut-and-dried rhyme or reason to it like we want to believe.

It's stupid, but it's reality.

 

Those 2- and 3-percent raises that compound over time will get you eyeballed by the beancounters eventually, to the point where you end up taking a 100-percent pay cut.

 

The odds of this thread yielding real, vaguely helpful answers -- under normal circumstances -- are terribly low, so in this climate, this has gone about as I thought.

While we're asking generic questions: How much does a dog weigh? How much is too much to pay for a car?