Tuesday, September 01, 2009

Picking At Bones

Wendy turned me onto this interesting article by Michael Hickins. In the ongoing discussions of "the internet killed the newspaper star", he takes a contrary and brutal position.
But something has surely changed, otherwise the print media industry wouldn’t be in as much trouble. And that something is reporter salaries, which have become disproportionately high since the advent of the Internet.
That's a line sure to open a few eyes.

I've got my own theories (Craig's List as Napster, bubble economies) and some do not jibe with Hickins thesis.

But instead of more personal pontification, I thought I'd open this up to the crowd. I know there are many journalists and former journalists who read here and you cover the spectrum of salary, age and experience. You are the ones who actually know if Hickins is full of horse apples or not. What say you, ink stained wretches?

5 comments:

Lucid Idiocy said...

I've got nearly 12 years professional reporting experience, a journalism degree from UGA and have risen to "senior reporter" status at The Macon Telegraph.

I make a little more than $40,000 a year before taxes.

griftdrift said...

Interestingly Travis, I didn't read the comments on the Hickins piece before I linked. He's pretty much getting machine gunned with similar stories. The more I think about it, the more I realize it is a ludicrous thesis.

But I'd still like to hear what others think.

Rusty said...

And Travis is paid well compared to some people I know.

I think this guy took a thesis that applied to Ziff Davis and applied it to the industry as a whole. Doesn't really fit.

Wendy said...

As I posted this I wished I could have taken this guy back in time 25 years when I started at the Neighbor Newspapers.

Even after I got nestled into 72 Marietta never did I feel I was overpaid. But never did I complain about it.

It was never about the money, which Hickins, Jeff Jarvis and some so-called media economists don't understand.

Old school journos can be rightly blamed for a lot things, especially our resistance to change. But demands for better pay?

The only way to get that was to leave the business.

Anonymous said...

I wish I could get in on those disproportionately high salaries for reporters.

Someone throw a dog a bone!