This post was originally published on this site
It was a real light bulb moment for me. I was attending the National Association of Black Journalists conference in New Orleans in 2019 having a great conversation with a young reporter. She told me she was the state government reporter for WICS in Springfield, Ill. That piqued my interest as that was the last on-air job I held, at that same station, before getting into management. I wonder what she makes, I thought to myself. So, what the heck, I asked. The answer: just under $30,000. That was the same salary I made in that role almost 20 years earlier. How could that be?
Last week I wrote about issues related to recruiting for local newsrooms and received an overwhelming response focused on primarily one component: compensation. Pay is a major challenge in our industry, and there are no easy options to fix that. When it comes to expenses in local news, easy went away about five years ago. Many stations in our industry have cut away the last remnants of gristle and are now deep into the flesh. The best intentions of fixing the pay problem often fall victim to grim budget realities.
I have a lot of experience in this area as I have always been a vocal advocate for compensation increases for journalists. I’m also a realist. Consider this fact: Most television stations have profit margins that are significantly lower than they were 10 years ago.