Staff editor, CBS SportsLine.com

Craig,

I'm sorry you felt obligated to stab a single key in response to that.

 

My first job out of college was with Sportsline, and I wouldn't trade the experience for anything, both for the contacts I made, one of whom hired me for my present gig with FOXSports.com, and for my growth as an editor.

So, you can take Craig's word and that of everyone else posting on this thread, or the word of someone whose sole purpose on this board appears to involve taking anonymous cheap shots.

 

Craig Stanke is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life.

 

Hey, I"m sure Craig Stanke is a great guy. What I'm saying: Let's see all the corporate news operations list their salary ranges in the job posts. Get the money range up there in your job descriptions.

Fair-market talent deserves fair-market honesty up front. Quit making people guess at what City A is paying when City B 20 miles away pays $5,000 more.

No one appreciates getting a job and then finding out they low-balled you. If you would please list the salary range up front, after you weed out the unqualified, you might actually get a better range of applicants.

Why newpapers hide salary ranges in their job posts is beyond me. Other industries love to shout out what they might pay you. And if no one speaks out about it, nothing will change.

Hence my point. Change is good. Change is needed. And it's not a competitive market if they won't be up front about salary ranges. So no matter how much you like the job, don't settle for the first offer. Hedge the second if you can, take the third if you like it. You should know that if they like you, they're always willing to pay you better then the first offer, and maybe the second.

Discuss at will.

 

So what are you saying, Playthrough? You want to bust your ass, with your college degree, and NOT get paid well while you're working nights, weekends and holidays?

Good for you, but you get to my age and it ain't worth it anymore.

It's valuable experience. But I bet you're getting low-balled also.

 

I gotta admit, while not a fan of the agressive approach Heywood uses, I agree salary should be posted. The argument that it doesn't pay well so keep it quiet isn't a very good one. This is a great field, and often newspapers take advantage of how much we love what we do. I've been doing this for seven years, and all the expected, unpaid overtime is getting old. We offer a service to the public, and it isn't free. If you want the best employees, pay a living wage. Maybe renting a one bedroom, one bath is acceptible for some (i.e single people), but I have a wife and two kids. I have a grad degree, and would like to be compensated like others with similar education. How many fields use as diverse skills as we do: design, copy editing, writing, web production, online streaming video. And the research that goes with it. And that's just in one day...

 

Heywood wrote: "No one appreciates getting a job and then finding out they low-balled you"


I've been doing this 30 years. I've never taken a job without knowing what it pays. And as one who hires, I pay according to experience. For a job as a sports writer covering the MLB team, I don't think I'll pay a writer three years out of college the same as I'd pay a person who has covered MLB for 18 years. That's why salary isn't posted. But both could apply.

I think Stanke would pay me (30 year guy) more than he'd pay a 5-year guy.

 

Why wouldn't I be surprised? Call me naive (and you wouldn't be the first), but I always thought of journalism as a skilled field. We should be hiring the best people and putting out the highest quality product. That doesn't happen by constantly hiring people who will settle for what papers pay. And we, as employees, usually have a say in what we get paid. But since so many of us just accept it, nothing happens. If that's true, then newspapers will slowly die off as the best people explore other fields with higher pay, playthrough.

Anyway, none of this is to say people shouldn't explore Stanke's job. Maybe the future of all this is online. And if it is 27K, that's a pile more than a small daily in CA, where it is a HELL of a lot more expensive than Fla. to live.

 

I worked at SportsLine for 2 1/2 years, enjoyed it thoroughly and was paid on par or better than my colleagues with similar experience at the Miami Herald, South Florida Sun-Sentinel and Palm Beach Post.

Craig Stanke is a pleasure to work with and for and what you would learn on this job would make you a better editor online or in dead-tree media. And South Florida can be a great place to live.

And you might as well learn the online pace now, because the pace at which newspapers operate will be gone soon.