Another way of looking at things
Thanks to Nick Jungman, we have the top 20 minimum salaries for reporters at Guild papers, comparing the cost of living with Dallas'. He made his calculations using this cost-of-living calculator.
1. Minneapolis Star-Tribune ($1165) ($60,580)I wish lists like this existed for non-union papers. It's nice to get a feel for what people are paying. But it's also important to remember that these are the listed minimums. You can easily make much more than this. I'd like to assume that's happening at some of the best papers on the list.
2. Baltimore Sun ($1131) ($58,812)
3. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ($1116) ($58,032)
4. Buffalo News ($1100) ($57,200)
5. St. Paul Pioneer Press ($1096) ($56,992)
6. St. Louis Post-Dispatch ($1083) ($56,316)
7. Chicago Sun-Times ($1077) ($56,004)
8. Toledo Blade ($1037) ($53,924)
9. Cleveland Plain Dealer ($1009) ($52,468)
10. Philadelphia Inquirer ($999) ($51,948)
11. Denver Rocky Mountain News ($950) ($49,400)
12. Denver Post ($944) ($49,088)
13. Boston Globe ($886) ($46,072)
14. Washington Post ($812) ($42,224)
15. Honolulu Advertiser ($726) ($37,752)
16. Honolulu Star-Bulletin ($718) ($37,336)
17. New York Times ($619) ($32,188)
18. San Francisco Chronicle ($584) ($30,368)
19. San Jose Mercury News ($572) ($29,744)
20. Dow Jones ($514) ($26,728)
Then again, they don't list the minimum just for fun. Someone has to make it.
posted by Nicole @ 1:20 PM
5 comments
5 Comments:
Damn! Nick beat me to it. Here's what I got, using this salary calculator and figuring out what those salaries would equal in Peoria, Ill. I calculated the cost of living for a renter rather than a buyer, borrowing the stereotype of the copy editor as a troubled loner who moves around a lot.
1 Cleveland Plain Dealer ($1,150 in Peoria dollars)
2 Minneapolis Star-Tribune ($1,131)
3 St. Paul Pioneer Press ($1,102)
4 Toledo Blade ($1,077)
5 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ($1,060)
6 Rocky Mountain News ($1,052)
7 Denver Post ($1,045)
8 Buffalo News ($1,014)
9 Philadelphia Inquirer ($997)
10 St. Louis Post-Dispatch ($988)
11 New York Times ($961)
12 Baltimore Sun ($934)
13 San Jose Mercury News ($921)
14 Dow Jones (South Brunswick, N.J.) ($910)
15 Boston Globe ($893)
16 Honolulu Advertiser ($841)
17 Honolulu Star-Bulletin ($832)
18 Chicago Sun-Times ($794)
19 Washington Post ($776)
20 San Francisco Chronicle ($715)
This is a lot of fun (I'm the guy who spent his lunch break at an early job figuring out the population density of the states and provinces), but there are enough variables to make it all nearly meaningless. These are top minimums, not actual salary numbers. Papers are free to pay more, and they do. The average newsroom salary at the Washington Post has been rumored to be $80,000, and I've heard that number for at least eight years, so it's probably higher now. And you don't have to live in the city where your employer is based. Choose, say, Cheverly, Md., instead of Washington, D.C., and those Post numbers start to look a lot better.
It is fun. I've been endlessly calculating numbers all morning. (A group of copy editors who like to plug numbers! You don't get that everywhere. Perhaps that's a new Capital Idea motto.)
The exact numbers mean little, but I think it can give some insight.
When I interviewed in Philadelphia, it was mentioned, though. "We pay less than the New York Times, but if you compare cost of living, we come out way ahead."
Maybe we're a strange subset. I'd say the majority are plain petrified of numbers. How many times have you heard the "I got into journalism to avoid math" line?
But I don't see why more editors don't like numbers. There's an order and organization to them that I find fascinating. Not to mention what they reveal.
Um, that was me.
No, it was me who was accidentally anonymous. It would be strange indeed if I were trying to find the population rank of Alva.
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