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My first journalism job included a salary of less than $27,000 or so for the first five years of my career. In talking with people similar to my age (44), and from small, midwest newsrooms, I think that was probably average at the time.
But I know that after the fact.
As a first-time journalist, I had no idea what salary range was reasonable for my career. Thanks to salary studies and reports across the industry, that’s changing.
There are A LOT of real and serious issues around how much local journalists make, including retention, sustainability and how it compares with what hedge funds, CEOs, shareholders and big media corporations make. You’ll see from some of the numbers below how salaries in one sector are growing. And you’ll see how unions are working to bring transparency to pay disparities.
I often tell the journalists I teach that reporting is a superpower they should be using even when they’re not producing journalism. That’s true for learning what’s fair and equal pay in the newsroom where you work or the newsroom where you want to work.
Here are some of the numbers:
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that median pay ([link removed]) for reporters, news analysts and journalists in 2021 was $48,370. Those three titles contain thousands of jobs within them, from broadcast producer to podcaster to audience engagement specialist. So let’s dig deeper.
A story this week out from my colleague Angela Fu highlights a study by six Gannett unions ([link removed]) that found racial and gender pay inequities. Fu also wrote previously about a study of 14 unionized Gannett newsrooms ([link removed]) . In addition to pointing out the disparities that exist across newsrooms, those studies break down median pay by race and gender. The latest one ([link removed]) , which surveyed more than 200 journalists at 12 unionized newsrooms based in the Atlantic region, shows the median salary for white journalists in their 40s is $53,570 while the median salary for non-white journalists in their 40s is $42,000.
The Institute for Nonprofit News published a compensation study ([link removed]) recently from 115 of INN member newsrooms. (INN has more than 400 members.) It found “salaries for editorial positions have grown significantly, with the average reporter salary jumping to $82,943 from $58,858 in 2020, when the first study was conducted. Benefits have markedly increased, too, with 86% of news organizations offering paid time off, compared with just over half in 2020.” (Full results of the study are available for purchase.)
Want to dig in and study information submitted anonymously? Check out Real Media Salaries ([link removed]) . You’ll see a huge range of salaries and can learn more about that crowdsourced resource from CJR ([link removed]) , which wrote about it in 2019.
In February, Victoria M. Walker wrote for Nieman Reports about salary transparency ([link removed]) and how it can help journalists of color and women get paid equal to their male colleagues.
“Sharing salary information isn’t the only thing that has to happen to reduce pay gaps,” she wrote, “but it will go a long way to exposing the inequities at play.”
Once you’re in the position to negotiate, U.S. News and World Reports has several great tips on how to approach that process. ([link removed])
None of this fixes the historically low pay that many local journalists receive, but having information to understand if you’re even in the right ballpark still matters.
Finally, if you haven’t read it yet, check out Perry Bacon Jr.’s call for America to spend billions to revive local news. ([link removed]) He includes this average salary:
“If you paid 200 journalists an average salary of $80,000 in each of 435 congressional districts, that’s about $7 billion. Add in operating costs and you’re almost certainly over $10 billion a year. That might sound like a lot, but it’s about $30 per American, far less than the per capita spending on public media in many nations abroad. And this would be for journalism literally across the country, freely available to anyone.”

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That's it for me. In between getting my teenage son's first suit (homecoming) and finding a costume for my tween daughter (Halloween), it's pretty spooky around here.
Thanks for reading!
Kristen
Kristen Hare
Faculty
The Poynter Institute
@kristenhare ([link removed])

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