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Topic: Letters Sent to Romenesko
Date/Time: 7/20/2006 12:11:35 PM
Title: Why he left the news biz for PR
Posted By: Jim Romenesko
 
From CHARLES BINGHAM: After 17 years as a journalist, I finally was forced to make the leap to public relations last November. I hated to do it, because I love journalism. But I'm in my 40s and I was tired of the layoffs and low pay. Journalists who are just starting out aren't the only ones who need to worry about the future of this industry. Mid-career journalists also have issues, especially as we see more corporate suits taking over newspapers.

Over my 17 years in newspapers, I changed papers or chains four times and I'd say each move was due to the company making changes due to economics. My first paper folded. My second paper had a newsroom revolt after the third publisher in two years started demanding more unpaid hours from the staff. My third stop had a series of layoffs. In my fourth stop, I was laid off even though that same week I won a national award (a first for the paper). I was told the publisher felt they could run my section with less staff and space and they didn't think I'd want to be around after the cuts (I received a two-week severance even though I'd been there six years).

As I've watched the newspaper industry implode the last few years, I've noticed many of the layoffs seem to catch mid- or late-career journalists who are then replaced by younger workers who have slightly different job titles. Within a week of my layoff, my newspaper was advertising new positions. It's so much more cost-effective to replace the older workers who have reached the top of the pay scale with younger people just starting out in their careers. It's something that happens in all industries, even though it does attract some age discrimination lawsuits.

After I was laid off last year, I started scanning JournalismJobs.com
and similar sites to see what was out there. What I saw was shocking. Even though my last wage was barely one where people could make ends meet in my town, it still was much higher than what most papers of the same size pay elsewhere in the country. As anyone who has scanned the ads knows, most jobs don't list a salary range other than DOE. When papers do have the guts to list a salary, sometimes it's damn scary. For example, I found a couple of jobs in northern California that wanted someone with a degree and experience, and then only pay $15,000-$20,000 a year. Let me do the math, $15,000 a year works out to
$7.21 an hour. The state of California has a minimum wage of $6.75, and
the city of San Francisco (within 100 miles of these jobs) has a city
minimum wage of $8.50. For this we went to college? The fry guy makes
more money.

When I started seeing I'd have to take a pay cut to stay in journalism, I decided it was time to start looking at other options. Now that I'm in my 40s, I'm too old to not start looking after my own financial interests. I wasn't looking for a lot of money, but I decided I wouldn't take another journalism job unless it paid at least $35,000 a year. I found very few jobs paying this wage, and competition was fierce. About this time, I received an offer in public relations for a not-for-profit tribal health care group that would pay me more than $42,000 a year (a raise of about $10,000 from my last journalism job), give me $4,000 in moving expenses and provide me with almost-free health care. Since I changed careers I've dropped 30 pounds, and I've lowered my blood pressure, glucose and cholesterol levels.

I miss journalism, but the time came to move on. For the most part I didn't mind the low wages because I was doing something I loved, but nowadays there's no corporate loyalty and the suits don't respect the tradeoff made by many journalists to be in the field. As much as I love the job, I don't know that I can recommend it to anyone these days. I worry that the low wages, shrinking pages and corporate suits are scaring away too many of the brightest stars in journalism and in a few years I seriously worry there will be much worth reading in newspapers. I already know I'm getting most of my news off the Web. [Permalink]

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