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May/June 2000 | Contents
Why Low-Wage
Newspapers Are Now Paying a Price
By Robert Hood
You'll have to excuse me if I don't shed a tear for newspaper owners and managers complaining about losing some of their best employees to the Internet. As far as I'm concerned, they have no one to blame but themselves. For decades they've sowed the seeds of employee discontent, and now they will harvest a bitter crop.
As I write this, the echo of every newspaper manager I've worked for rumbles through my head, "Well, you didn't get into journalism for the money, did you?" Let me say, loud and clear, No! I didn't. But I also didn't go into journalism so I wouldn't be able to pay the rent. And I didn't go into journalism so my daughter could learn to like the taste of free government cheese. And I didn't go into journalism so I could learn to ignore my spouse's needs and almost go through a divorce. I did all these things while working for newspapers. The worst part is that my story is not unique. It is tragically common in many small and medium-sized newsrooms across the country.
During the '70s, '80s, and early 90s the industry's demand for well-educated employees went up. A Freedom Forum study found that from 1971 to 1992 the industry's employment of college- and university-educated workers rose from 58.2 percent to 82.1 percent.
However, a later Michigan State University recruiting-trends survey showed that even though these new journalists were more educated than any previous group, they faced grim economic realities. They were the lowest paid college-educated workforce in the private sector, with 57 percent of all new journalists making less than $20,000, and 22 percent making less than $15,000. Driven by the booming economy and the new-media expansion, journalists' pay began rising faster than in many other professions at the end of the '90s, as cjr pointed out in a cover story last summer (July/August). But small and many medium-sized newspapers were not part of that trend, and the latest figures indicate that it may be over anyway.
Please don't misunderstand: I'm not an embittered former newspaper employee with an ax to grind. Daily newspaper work is my favorite work. I believe it is where real journalism is done. I know of no group of people who are more devoted to their work or more willing to make personal sacrifices for the job than newspaper journalists. I'd agree with many veteran journalists when they say journalism, much like religion, is a special "calling." However, that calling shouldn't include a vow of poverty.
I reached a point a few years ago where I couldn't afford my calling. And, as I've kept track of several newspaper friends over the last ten years, I've seen a steady stream of great people leave the newspaper life. They left for the same reasons I did (low pay, awful insurance, terrible hours, burnout). In a perfect world those things wouldn't be so important, and they aren't at first. But as you mature and enter the different phases of life, you realize the job isn't growing with you. I remember thinking that something was wrong with me. I decided to double my efforts, work more hours, and concentrate on quality. But I hit a point of diminishing returns, and after five years I was an empty shell. So, in 1993, with a wife and new baby, I quit my job as a newspaper photojournalist to go back to school.
Almost by accident, I soon stumbled into the digital news environment at graduate school. I realized right away that delivering news electronically had a huge future; it just seemed so much more efficient than printing a physical newspaper. A new Internet news company offered me a job. I went tentatively to the interview, concerned that I was dropping myself back into the same old environment. However, I found a new culture in the new media newsroom. It was friendlier and more collaborative, and the compensation was better than I'd seen at any newspaper. I felt like a valued employee right away.
I'm delighted with my Internet news job. I believe in the way we tell stories. This combination of text, stills, audio, video, and interactive technology provides journalists with a menu of storytelling options and, for the first time, we can choose the medium that best tells the tale.
There are several other "firsts" at my Internet news job.
* I make a living wage.
* I see my wife and kids every day.
* I have an insurance program that allows peace of mind.
* I'm actually saving for retirement.
* I don't dread the future!
Given all that, which is true for many others, it really doesn't surprise me that mid-career journalists are making the jump to online journalism. As they do so, they discover that a journalist's work doesn't have value only in ink and on cheap paper. It has value because journalists make sense of a complex world and turn ideas into something. And journalists discover that when they create that value they can get paid.
Robert Hood (robert.hood@ MSNBC.COM) worked for dailies in Wyoming and Utah. At thirty-five, he is a senior producer/multimedia for MSNBC.com.
