Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Pay survey: How much does Gannett pay you?

I earned $105,000 as an editor by the time I took a USA Today buyout in January; that was after 20 years with the company. Now, as Gannett cuts thousands of jobs, I'm wondering how much you get paid.

Please post your information in the comments section, below, using the following format (I've used myself as an example):
  • Years worked for Gannett: 20
  • Which operation: newspaper
  • Your job title: editor
  • Annual pay: $105,000
To e-mail confidentially, write gannettblog[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the green sidebar, upper right.

136 comments:

  1. 8 years
    Newspaper
    Composing Mgr
    $69,000/yr

    ReplyDelete
  2. In my opinion, you all get paid too much considering that news is free on the internet and you have not adapted to the changes in media consumption.

    You are all dinosaurs and you are the single cause why Gannett is doing so poorly!

    PS - Jim, it seems like this blog is repeating the same old stories, surveys, etc. I think it is getting a bit boring and you risk losing some of your audience with "the same old".

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Where do you think the "free" news from the internet comes from? From the newspapers. duh. Someone has to write it.

      Delete
  3. Prior to leaving Gannett:

    7 years
    Newspaper
    Reporter
    $38,000/year

    ReplyDelete
  4. I haven't noticed a single repitition on this blog. Just don't see what you are talking about 6:45 AM.

    Now, I have noticed consistency and uniformity in the way Jim presents information. Gannett, for the sake of its readers, could learn something about visuals and simplicity from reading this blog. I think Gannett's hodgepodge approach in online presentation will drive readers away.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Prior to involuntarily leaving Gannett 1 year ago:

    5 years
    Newspaper
    Reporter
    $63,500

    ReplyDelete
  6. At Newsquest in the UK reporters can expect to earn less than £12,000 (c. $24,000) when they start as trainees on one of the smaller weekly papers, and with the cost of living being what it is here (retail inflation at 4.4% and rising) that is tantamount to slave labour/labor.
    You can expect to go up to about £14,000 to £16,000 as a "senior" reporter.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Years worked: 30 +
    Division: Newspaper (above 100,000 circ)
    Title: Editor/Manager
    Salary: $75,000

    ReplyDelete
  8. 21 years
    newspaper
    metro editor
    $64,000

    6:45, the Internet wouldn't have any news to steal and run for free if it weren't for the people producing it for print.

    Has anyone thought about what the bloggers and other online media will do when traditional media goes under? Does 6:45 envision one efficient Isvestia sending one efficient view of what's "news" to this wonderful new Internet media?

    ReplyDelete
  9. Years worked: 10-ish
    Division: Community
    Title: Reporter
    Salary: $47,500

    ReplyDelete
  10. Years worked: 5
    Operation: Newspaper
    Title: Reporter
    Annual pay: $35,400

    ReplyDelete
  11. Years worked: less than one
    Operation: Newspaper
    Title: Reporter
    Annual pay: $30,000

    ReplyDelete
  12. Journeyman press operator in Louisville,KY makes $23.23 an hour, 37.5 hour week, with some overtime. 3% raise due Jan "09.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Years worked: 14
    Operation: Newspaper
    Title: Editor/manager
    Salary: $69,000

    ReplyDelete
  14. Years worked: 9.5
    Division: USAT
    Title: reporter
    Salary: $43,800

    ReplyDelete
  15. Years worked: 19
    Years worked for Gannett: 10
    Operation: Newspaper
    Title: sports copy editor
    Salary: $65,000

    ReplyDelete
  16. Years worked: 1.5
    Division: Newspaper (Smaller circulation)
    Title: Copy editor
    Salary: $30,000

    ReplyDelete
  17. Years @ Gannett: 7
    Large circ newspaper (not USA Today)
    Reporter
    $80,000

    ReplyDelete
  18. Years worked: 19
    Years at Gannett: 11
    Job: Editor/manager
    Salary: $51,000

    ReplyDelete
  19. Years worked: 10
    Operation: Newspaper, 200k+ circ
    Reporter
    $55,000

    ReplyDelete
  20. 7 years
    Newspapers - community daily
    Advertising Director
    $85,000

    ReplyDelete
  21. Graphic Designer:
    Started 30K and six years later 36K.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Wow. I mean, I know this is supposed to be informative (it is), but geez! It's frustrating to see what people make -- at both ends of the spectrum.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Amen 10:44. Amen.

    ReplyDelete
  24. prepress manager
    15+ years
    mid size daily
    60k

    ReplyDelete
  25. 5 years
    newspaper
    sports reporter
    $34,000

    ReplyDelete
  26. I.T. Director
    Newspaper / 100,000+ circ
    8 years at current site / 10.5 years total
    $94,000 / year
    + 35 shares of stock (merit)
    + $12,500 MBO bonus

    My predecessor at this site was making $99,000 annually.

    ReplyDelete
  27. $26K + and still at work adding value to my product, Jim. Had the TUNA on my prostate and a colonoscopy during the past two years. I can pee over a Chevy and crap over a 10-rail fence and all the bills are paid. Just guessing, Jim, but don't you think a lot of our problems today on and off Wall Street have something to do with journalists waiting for the telephone to ring and prosecutors in the sack with $5,000 hookers?

    ReplyDelete
  28. circulation manager
    Newspaper/68,000 circulation
    4 yrs
    $40,000.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Years at Gannett: 15
    Community Newspaper Division
    Assistant Controller
    $60,000

    ReplyDelete
  30. At Gannett: 15 years
    Newspaper
    Systems Technician 2
    $53,000

    ReplyDelete
  31. At Gannett: 12 years
    Newspaper
    Librarian
    $40,000

    ReplyDelete
  32. Seeing what some people are making just depresses me. I knew I was getting paid peanuts, but damn.

    Years: 8
    Newspaper (50K circ)
    reporter
    Annual Pay: $27,000

    ReplyDelete
  33. Lifetime @ Gannett: just shy of 30 years
    Newspaper
    Adm. Asst.
    $38,300

    One of the original dinosaurs that recently left. Yes, I remember when we used to get 7.5% raises. Where I worked (small paper) the pay structure was always out of whack. Reporters who did nothing got paid more than editors who supervised a staff and oversaw a section.
    Comments on reviews and raises: yes, raises where done a year in advance during budgets. the editor had to "predict" (for lack of a better work), how well an employee would do in the coming year based on past performance. when it came time for your review, then they would look at the pay scale for your grade (this was always a big secret to employees). if your annual review fell in the first quarter, forget about it. you always got screwed.

    ReplyDelete
  34. A reader sent the following to me in an e-mail; I've edited a portion to shield their identity:

    7 years
    Newspaper
    Ad Director
    $80,000

    ReplyDelete
  35. photographer
    15 years in Gannett
    $48,000

    ReplyDelete
  36. Wow. I'm not a Gannettoid. I was, briefly. I now work for another major corporation that treats its employees like dogs, because I just don't learn, I guess.

    Just for comparison:

    Years worked for my company: 2
    Which operation: newspapers
    Your job title: reporter
    Annual pay: $20,000. Yes, I said twenty-thousand, and yes, I am full-time.

    I'm an idiot.

    If nothing else, even rookie Gannettoids get paid more. I will never make $30,000 with my current company.

    ReplyDelete
  37. Years 5 (ish)
    Newspapers (large circ)
    Warehouse Mgr
    $25k

    ReplyDelete
  38. Ad Director
    5 years mid size market
    180,000+25% bonus+options+country club memebership

    ReplyDelete
  39. This is the one that actually made me do a double-take:

    Years @ Gannett: 7
    Large circ newspaper (not USA Today)
    Reporter
    $80,000

    Really??

    ReplyDelete
  40. Of course you can divide by 60k per year by 70 hours per week, then it isnt so impressive.

    ReplyDelete
  41. Years: 5.5
    Newspapers
    Copy editor
    Annual pay: $42,000 at time of exit from Gannett

    ReplyDelete
  42. VP/Advertising
    20 years
    $280,000 all in (bonus, clubs, stock)

    ReplyDelete
  43. 2:17 p.m. - Yeah, I was wondering if that was a typo. I did 7 years at a 100,000+ circ and was making $38,000 when I left.

    And by the way, I left because of my shitty salary.

    ReplyDelete
  44. At Gannett, it doesn't pay to stick around at one site. Your annual raises will be somewhere between 1 percent and 3.5 percent, unless you're promoted to editor, manager, etc.

    For a big payoff, you need to work the system. A jump from one paper to another can boost your salary by 25 percent or more -- at least it used to before the big crunch arrived.

    ReplyDelete
  45. AzRepublic/Shooter
    Pulliam 6 years
    Gannett 8 years

    $86,200

    ReplyDelete
  46. Years: 10
    Newspaper (Mid-Size)
    IT Manager
    $77,000
    $1500 MBO Bonus

    ReplyDelete
  47. Years: 3.5
    Newspaper (D.C.)
    Reporter
    $51,000

    ReplyDelete
  48. 7 years
    newspaper
    copy editor
    $43,000

    ReplyDelete
  49. My girlfriend works at Gannett, but I don't (thankfully).

    I have to question whether any of this is relevant, because:

    a) The responses are self selected, so the results are likely to be skewed. While this is certainly not the case for everyone who has posted here, it's easy to see how this site might draw more disgruntled workers than average, and how disgruntled workers might make less than average.

    b) I think the only conclusions you can draw is that workers at big-time papers in bigger cities make more than those at papers in the sticks. Also, long-tenured employees make more than flakes, and managers make more than underlings. No surprises there.

    ReplyDelete
  50. how do MBO bonuses work, and how frequently are they used? Only with big projects, or for normal but high-expectation objectives?

    ReplyDelete
  51. 5 years
    Mid-Size Daily
    Digital Pre-press
    $24,000


    :( I'm getting screwed.

    ReplyDelete
  52. 3:47, you made a leap there. With a few exceptions, folks didn't post the size of their papers. I think it's interesting seeing the wide range of responses. We know it's a small percentage and we aren't sitting here averaging this across 43,000 people.

    I was among those who posted my salary. I am disgruntled, but not about what I'm paid. I'm disgruntled at being treated like something someone scrapes off the bottom of their shoes. And all the money in the world wouldn't change that.

    ReplyDelete
  53. 2
    newspaper
    online designer
    $36k

    ReplyDelete
  54. 2 yrs (6 yrs apart, 1 yr each)
    Circulation
    1st yr $40k DSM Out west
    2nd yr $45k HD Manager

    1st was a 450k
    2nd was 35k

    Juuuuuusst left before the original layoffs, late Junish.

    ReplyDelete
  55. Agreed, 4:13. I posted mine, too, and while I sure would have liked to have made more (who wouldn't, obviously), my compensation didn't make me mad. Corporate's endless, mindless directives did.

    ReplyDelete
  56. Some executive assistants who rose the ranks with barely any experience at GCI are making $60,000+. And they're getting annual bonuses.

    ReplyDelete
  57. Anon 2:17,
    See Anon 2:39. If you stay at one paper, you're condemned to a life of 2 1/2 percent raises. I worked at seven papers, including a long stretch in the big time at a KRI paper. Gannett recruited me and paid the right $$ to make it worth my while. Only later did I learn that money isn't everything.

    ReplyDelete
  58. 22 years
    Advertising Director
    65,000 circ.
    $125,000 + bonus

    ReplyDelete
  59. I would have to agree that it isnt the money. Who would'nt like to make more. It is the direction that the leadership has taken things.

    I say we should clean house at the top and bring back respectable and fair profit sharing, then you might see a change in attitudes.

    ReplyDelete
  60. The truth is we all want to think Gannett is one company but its just a Media Holding Company that owns a bunch of businesses....small newspapers, large newspapers, TV stations, digital companies, and USA Today. These are all separate businesses with separate divisional oversight and separate P&L. My point? You are paid based on the budget of your individual site....not one big Gannett strategy. Sorry Jim...Gannett might have one stock price the way Disney has a stock price and Time Warner and Viacom but these media companies are far more complex than that.

    ReplyDelete
  61. I worked at five Gannett newspapers, each one higher circulation, to get this far and take a buyout.

    Years worked for Gannett: 25
    Which operation: newspaper
    Your job title: former editor, turned columnist and moved to reporter.
    Annual pay: $70,000

    ReplyDelete
  62. 5:11 PM
    I hear you, but just when I start thinking that way, something really confusing happens. For example, a 9/3 SEC filing lists Cape Publications, Inc. and Gannett Digital in the CareerBuilder deal, but Gannett's press release words it like total Gannett (one big company instead of two subsidiaries) incresed the CareerBuilder shares. Would someone please explain this to me?

    ReplyDelete
  63. 5:11 PM is absolutely right - I work at one of the "Other" Gannett Locations, and my job is entirely online. I've been working for two years and I'm afraid of posting my salary because it's almost shaming to those who have put in many more years than I have.

    It's not just Gannett, it's the whole industry.

    ReplyDelete
  64. 1 year Gannett
    Large Circ Paper
    Pre-Press
    $40K for (37.5 hr work week)

    Our company just had massive buyouts, if we just invested in some new computers and software I think we could afford to cut down another 25%.

    Way too many dino's in here.

    ReplyDelete
  65. 11
    Newspaper
    News Clerk, page designer, editor
    Started at $12,480. currently at $38,200

    ReplyDelete
  66. Years worked: 11 (I left in 2001)
    Operation: Newspaper
    Title: Copy editor
    Annual pay: $48,000

    ReplyDelete
  67. Years at Gannett: 5
    Operation: Newspaper
    Title: Admin. Asst.
    Annual Pay: $35,000

    ReplyDelete
  68. 5 years
    Newspaper
    Shooter
    $27K full-time.

    ReplyDelete
  69. Not only is the size of the paper important, so is the location. Different areas of the country have higher/lower costs of living and pay will (should) be proportionately so.

    ReplyDelete
  70. Years worked for Gannett: 3
    Metro newspaper
    Job title: Director of Employee Relations
    Annual pay: $78,000

    ReplyDelete
  71. 14 Years
    Newspaper
    Marketing Dir
    $97,000 + Performance Bonus of up to
    $35,000

    ReplyDelete
  72. Years worked: 1
    Operation: Newspaper
    Title: Reporter
    Annual pay: $33,000

    ReplyDelete
  73. Prior to leaving Gannett in July:
    $41,000
    5 years
    Multimedia Producer
    Newspaper

    ReplyDelete
  74. copy editor metro paper

    42 years

    years owned by gannett 8

    64k

    ReplyDelete
  75. Years worked for Gannett: 5
    Which operation: newspaper
    Your job title: reporter
    Annual pay: $37,000

    ReplyDelete
  76. Years at Gannett: 9
    Which operation: Publishing
    Your job title: District Sales Manager
    Annual Pay: $22,900

    ReplyDelete
  77. Your job title: CEO
    Annual Pay: $8 Million and worth every penny.

    Ahhhh, life is good!

    ReplyDelete
  78. years: 2
    midsize newspaper
    reporter
    $42,000

    ReplyDelete
  79. Years 9
    larger newspaper
    sports reporter
    60K

    ReplyDelete
  80. Wow. I guess I've done better than I thought I had -- thanks to job-jumping over the years.

    Years worked for Gannett: 20
    Which operation: metro newspaper
    Your job title: reporter
    Annual pay: $76,000

    ReplyDelete
  81. 5 years (2 in graphics 3 in IT)
    Medium newspaper
    IT all around (means always on call)
    32K

    just for comparison
    our Network Admin
    10 years
    60K

    our Programmer
    14 years
    54K

    ReplyDelete
  82. Years worked for Gannett: 8
    Medium newspaper
    Reporter/Editor
    60k

    ReplyDelete
  83. Another thing besides circulation size and location that might make a big difference is whether the paper was a purchased paper and when it was purchased.

    For example, if a copy editor made $50,000 under the previous owners, then Gannett would have to keep paying that and basing raises on that salary. At least, until the person left or was fired/bought out/etc.

    The longer it's been since the paper was bought, and the more turnover there's been, the more likely it is that salaries have been Gannettized to be lower. Or at least that's the way it seems to me.

    ReplyDelete
  84. Not enough.

    ReplyDelete
  85. Years worked: 6
    Operation: Newspaper
    Title: Reporter
    Annual starting pay: $28,000
    Current pay: $51,250

    My job, apparently, is safe in these troubled times. I hate to say this, but I actually like my job and my boss is a decent person. I guess I belong on a different blog site.

    ReplyDelete
  86. 8:11: No, no, no! We need people here with a positive outlook, too. Please keep coming back.

    ReplyDelete
  87. In 2000, a metro Gannett paper offered me $60,000 a year to be an assitant city editor -- which is also about what other large papers were paying at the time. (I didn't take it, but pay wasn't the issue.)

    That equates to about $71,000 in 2007 dollars.

    ReplyDelete
  88. Years worked: 20
    Operation: largest daily in GCI
    Title: Director of Real Estate
    Annual pay: $180,000 salary + $40,000 bonus

    ReplyDelete
  89. 8:11 a.m. -- Having a positive outlook is great. I'm wondering, though, why you feel your job is safe in these troubled times. $50k a year is more than a lot of reporters with similar longevity are reporting here, and Gannett seems to make most decisions based on money not productivity. Aren't you worried that you could be cut to carry 1 1/2 new reporters with significantly lower salaries? Do you know something I don't? Just curious. I'm not trying to be facetious.

    ReplyDelete
  90. Years worked: 7
    Operation: Corporate IT
    Title: Senior Analyst
    Annual Pay: $87,000

    Recently left the company before the possibility arose of being laid off...

    ReplyDelete
  91. Not Gannett but a top 5 (size) newspaper company and a 100k circ independent.

    I post this for comparison to other newspaper companies.

    Years Worked: 7
    Operation: New Media
    Title: Director
    Annual Pay: Start - $165,000

    ReplyDelete
  92. Years Worked: 3
    Operation: Broadcasting
    Title: News Producer
    Annual Pay: $42,000

    ReplyDelete
  93. Another non-Gannett comparison.

    Top 10 Media Company - publicly traded.
    Top 50 Metro market
    200K circ

    Years worked 2
    Operation: New Product Development
    Title: Director
    Annual Pay: $115,000

    ReplyDelete
  94. Years Worked: 16
    Operation: Ad Services
    Title: Mailroom Clerk, Proofreader,Any Assorted Jobs as Assigned. "Employee of the Month"
    Annual Pay: $24,000

    ReplyDelete
  95. A reader sent the following in an e-mail:

    Years: 10 at Gannett, 20 in industry before leaving voluntarily last year
    Division: Metro newspaper (not USA Today)
    Title: Reporter
    Salary: $79,000

    ReplyDelete
  96. Years for Gannett: 5
    Title: Producer, web
    Salary: $42,000

    ReplyDelete
  97. years with gci - 15
    position - salaried metro writer
    pay - $69.000 plus lump sum cola
    expense vouchers - priceless

    ReplyDelete
  98. years:7
    Corporate Mail Clerk
    35000/yr
    left in 2001 after being accused of stealing McCorkingdale's daughter's christmas present

    ReplyDelete
  99. Years: 3
    Title: Online Director
    Salary: $105,000
    Bonus: $10k out of $20k potential
    Perks: Free Internet Service

    ReplyDelete
  100. A reader sent the following in an e-mail:

    Years at Gannett: 17
    Operation: 100,000-plus daily newspaper
    Job Title: Feature Writer
    Salary: $37,000 when I left 11 years ago to go into PR.

    ReplyDelete
  101. OMG, 6:02! That's awful!! And yet so crazy that it made me laugh out loud. I'm sure you're glad you're gone.

    I gotta say, I'm surprised that so many reporters are making so much ... especially when you see other reporters making so little. Are the highest paid reporters the "stars" who have great sources and dig the hardest to find meaningful stories? Or is that just what reporters at large-circ papers get paid?

    ReplyDelete
  102. Worked: 3
    Small circ. newspaper
    Title: special sections editor
    Pay: $45,000

    ReplyDelete
  103. What is truly amazing is the salary of the advertising directors. The bigger secret is how much the average advertising rep on the street makes working for a newspaper - FAR more than any editor or reporter! At Gannett, it is ALL about the money.

    ReplyDelete
  104. The salary of newsroom folks at the smaller gannet papers, especially those "little" papers they bought in 2001, is abysmal. Yes, reporters at $20,000, and editors at MAYBE $30,000. Pathetic.

    ReplyDelete
  105. 9 years
    Newspaper
    An assistant editor
    $48,000 (started out at $30,000)

    ReplyDelete
  106. 2 years
    mid size newspaper
    photographer
    $32,000

    ReplyDelete
  107. The info asked for doesn't give an adequate picture to be useful. Seems essential also to ask for years of experience prior to tenure in Gannett position.

    As a practical example: I took a gig w/a medium-sized Gannett IC for a so-so salary after working for a few years in a way bigger market for a top media provider making WAY more $$$.

    So will my current salary seem over-the-top to some? Or totally insulting? Or just about right given my skills, goals, outlook and circumstances?

    As usual with quantification, the devil is in the details.

    ReplyDelete
  108. Years in the business: 10
    Years with Gannett: 6
    Operation: news, major metro
    Title: reporter
    Annual salary: About $50,000


    My first reporting job at a small circulation daily paid $7/ hour. Learned a lot. Still a crime.

    Three years later, I was offered a job at a Gannett paper. It was a mid-sized metro and I saw a 44 percent salary increase.

    Moving to a major metro brought another 15 percent increase.

    News won't make a reporter rich, but the finances work for me - and it's damned fun. (Apart from the layoffs bit.)

    ReplyDelete
  109. Less than a year (straight out of college)
    Major metro daily (came from an internship)
    Online producer/editor
    $32,000

    ReplyDelete
  110. Too many years
    Director at mid-size property
    $150,000 plus bonus, stock, country club membership, and a company car when the publisher isn't using it. tft!

    ReplyDelete
  111. "What is truly amazing is the salary of the advertising directors. The bigger secret is how much the average advertising rep on the street makes working for a newspaper - FAR more than any editor or reporter! At Gannett, it is ALL about the money."

    As it is in television, radio, magazines, etc. News does not pay the bills, advertising does. I once a quote on a reporters desk, "a newspaper without news is just paper". I always thought to myself, how can somebody be so out of touch with the business? A newspaper without advertising is out of business. A newspaper without news is a shopper, and still in business.

    I hope you realize what butters the bread before you complain about sales salaries. Of course, you could give up your comfy salary and live off of commission like many sales people do.

    ReplyDelete
  112. Amen, 8:43! I always told people that news filled the space that advertising left behind.

    ReplyDelete
  113. And I once worked for a publisher (not at Gannett) who said that copy editors were just there to make the stories fit around the ads. He didn't care about the skill or talent it takes a good copy editor to push through a solid story. All he cared about were the ads and the money. (BTW, that paper doesn't exist anymore.)

    There's a fine line there, and it's imperative that it doesn't get blurred. Let's just say that both parts are equally needed: You need great salespeople busting their humps to pull in ads, and you need great newspeople to produce a quality product so that advertisers and readers keep coming back. Any newspaper that doesn't have both is in trouble. And both departments need adequate resources in order to do their best.

    ReplyDelete
  114. Bottom line is a sales person can't make too much if they are bringing in more than they're keeping. If you're living off commission and pulling in a huge salary, kudos.

    I'm a reporter by the way.

    ReplyDelete
  115. These numbers are worthless if people don't post their locale.

    ReplyDelete
  116. Years worked for Gannett: 20
    Which operation: newspaper
    Your job title: Market Development Director
    Annual pay: $75,000
    (left in 2006)

    ReplyDelete
  117. 10:02: You are correct that location would be useful. Readers are certainly free to include that, plus circulation/viewership, etc., if they choose.

    I didn't call for that level of detail in my original post, however, because I was afraid it would depress responses from people who feared their boss would be able to identify them.

    ReplyDelete
  118. Years worked for Gannett: Juuust about a decade
    Which operation: NJ newspaper
    Your job title: ADS
    Starting Salary: $25,350
    Current pay: $31,000

    All those 3% raises have really worked wonders. I think by NJ standards I can collect food stamps.

    ReplyDelete
  119. Years in newspapers/television: almost 10
    Years at Gannett: 9 months
    Title: higher ed reporter
    Current Pay: $29,000
    Locale: south/midsize daily metro

    By the way, I'm curious about mileage reimbursement rates at other places. Ours is dismal and gas is killing me.

    ReplyDelete
  120. Years at Gannett: 10 years
    Title: Market Development Director, (left 2007)
    Pay: $102,000, + 15% MBO
    Location: Mid-size market in Southeast

    ReplyDelete
  121. Offered for comparison -- worked 30 yrs at a Northeast metro, first five years as copy editor/assistant metro editor/city editor; next 25 as staff writer/reporter with occasional editing duties. Salary at time of retirement in 2001 -- $68k (about $2k over union scale for reporters), with occasional OT.

    ReplyDelete
  122. I'm' quite ashamed to say:

    Years at Gannett: almost 15 years
    Title: Entertainment editor/features writer/paginator (all at once) (left 2005)
    Pay: $34,000 at the end (and lots of unpaid overtime)

    ReplyDelete
  123. I think I just threw up in my mouth reading this! LOL I got screwed, for sure!!

    ReplyDelete
  124. Amen to 9:47 PM and 9:57 PM!

    * Years worked for Gannett: 2
    * Which operation: large daily metro newspaper
    * Your job title: sales rep (retail territories)
    * Annual pay: $85,000

    ReplyDelete
  125. - Worked for Gannett: 5 months
    - Operation: newspaper
    - Title: Web Architect
    - Salary: $38,000 and some change

    I need a raise...

    ReplyDelete
  126. * Years worked for Gannett: almost 2, straight from college
    * Which operation: newspaper, 40K
    * Your job title: reporter
    * Annual pay: $27,000ish

    FWIW: I know two other recent grads who took jobs at midwest Gannett papers within the last year for the same starting salary: $26,500.

    I calculated and assuming a 3% annual raise, it would still take me to my sixth year to break $30K and to my fifteenth to break $40K. Think I've decided it's time to hop to another paper, if only for a pay raise. I knew they got me cheap and since I'm young, I took it. But damn. This is depressing.

    ReplyDelete
  127. "9/23/2008 11:06 PM: I've decided it's time to hop to another paper"

    Uh, you're young and recently out of college. Might want to consider 'hopping' out of newspaper and into another media. It is very unlikely that newspapers will make it to your 'fifteenth'.

    ReplyDelete
  128. A reader sent this in an e-mail:

    Years worked for Gannett: 4.5
    Which operation: newspaper/web
    Your job title: reporter
    Annual pay: $56,800

    ReplyDelete
  129. Newspaper reporter
    I used to work for a mid sized Gannett daily around 15 yrs ago. I was making around 30 K there, which was about 10 K higher than the small daily i left.
    I left there to go to a large daily and received another salary jump up to 40K. I left the large daily and the industry after three more years at 50K.

    Sad to see so many salaries are the same as 15 years ago.

    ReplyDelete
  130. Years with Gannett: less than 1
    Years in business: 3
    Title: Reporter, news/features
    Circulation: 70,000 on Sundays
    Annual pay: $31,000

    Fun fact: In our newsroom editors will soon outnumber reporters 10-9. I know of two more reporters who are actively looking to jump ship.

    Mgmt says they can't hire any new reporters due to mandated personnel cuts.

    So, recently, it has been a bit tense. What I'm wondering is what's going to happen if/when this number hits 10-7?

    ReplyDelete
  131. Hard to imagine it will get better, 1:48 am!

    ReplyDelete
  132. first year
    newspaper
    reporter
    27,000

    ReplyDelete
  133. Anonymous 4:32 AM, I'm really interested in who you are, cause I'm pretty much the same.

    1.5 years
    Newspaper (mid size)
    Multimedia producer
    33k

    ReplyDelete
  134. $1 million dollars

    ReplyDelete
  135. Even though this blog is about what each individual themselves make.

    Since they are not weighing in on this blog,
    How much do "columnist's" make at Gannett USA Today like the special financial people Matt Krantz, Sandra Block, John Waggoner or other columnists in other sections of the paper.

    Also how much do the "financial columnist" or other columnists in other areas of the paper make at major newspapers in NY, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago make.

    ReplyDelete

Jim says: "Proceed with caution; this is a free-for-all comment zone. I try to correct or clarify incorrect information. But I can't catch everything. Please keep your posts focused on Gannett and media-related subjects. Note that I occasionally review comments in advance, to reject inappropriate ones. And I ignore hostile posters, and recommend you do, too."

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