Q. First I want to say your column is very helpful and I've gotten some good information from it. I have some questions I hope you'll be able to answer.

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I currently work as a news reporter at a daily newspaper in Michigan with an approximate 12,000 circulation. The paper has a fairly small staff with five news reporters, two main editors, a sports editor and one sports writer. The news reporters primarily cover specific counties in the paper's coverage area. I'm not in a hurry to leave my job, but I've decided to start looking at other openings to see what my options are at this time. I have found a few I'm interested in applying for.

I've worked with this publication for almost two and a half years. It was my first job right out of college, where I graduated with a journalism degree. I have experience writing features and covering county, city, village and township government, courts and education.

Hypothetically, if I were to get called in for an interview and offered a job at one of the places I apply to, how much should I negotiate for my salary? What are the average salaries of reporters in Michigan? I just want to get a fair idea of what I could expect to make at a paper with a larger circulation. I'm not looking for any specific circulation size at this time, just something bigger than where I'm at currently.

Vaya con Dios,

Making Plans

A. Good question!

I plugged your present zip code and job title into salary.com, and it came back saying you likely make somewhere between $41,00 and $52,000. I think that is baloney.

They're not lying; they just don't have enough data in their computers.

Joe Grimm

Neither do I.

I would start asking some acquaintances and perhaps some former classmates about the ranges at their papers. They can then tell you without getting specific about their own paychecks.

The times in your career when you will see the biggest salary bumps are when you change companies or jobs. The years in between will be characterized by small, cost-of-living increases, so you want to make job changes work for you.

Unless your primary motive for moving is personal or for a better opportunity, I would want to make the moves be significantly more than the 2 percent bumps you might be getting now. Ten percent would be good. More would be better. And you'll have to factor changes in housing costs into that as you move from small towns to bigger ones.

Employers will use several factors to determine what to offer you, including their current pay structure, your current rate of pay, the value they perceive in you and the talent supply for that job. The more you can learn about their pay structure, the better. It's just too bad it's so hard to determine.

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Coming Thursday: This reporter is considering a move from a general assignment job at a newspaper to a health beat at a business publication, but worries that the move may be career limiting.

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