Friday, December 12, 2008

Reporters need a raise

Yeah that’s right they do. If you look at how much they make, some of them can hardly make a living.

At the bottom of the scale we have CJOB and City TV. Starting wages are the low 20’s and they top out at $30,000. It’s not surprising that CJOB can’t hold onto their reporters for more than a year. They just lost two good reporters this month in Jeff Keele, who bolted to Global and Colleen Brady who is now at City. Sure they get to drive the CJOB cruiser for free but that’s not going to cut it. Most City reporters left when the evening news was cancelled but the remaining few continue to barely make more than minimum wage.

In the middle group we have Global and the Sun. Anchors at Global and Brodbeck might be doing alright but reporters working at these outlets will only get about $30,000-$40,000.

Even the high rollers at CBC, CTV and the Freep don’t do great. At the mother corp, you are on contract for years before you can get anything permanent. Sure the Freep reporters got a raise but they still aren’t making a great wage for what they do.

The problem here is that there is such a low demand for reporters and Red River keeps churning them out by the hundreds. Supply and demand I guess.

1 comment:

  1. Hey: if you've got some insight into this, could you weigh in on the thread at PolicyFrog, in which 'Tigger' seems to think that the Freep's columnists are all making $80-90k to do next to nothing?

    http://policyfrog.wordpress.com/2008/12/16/more-on-the-sun-layoffs/

    ReplyDelete