Archives: March 2010

We’re only half joking, of course.

The New York Times ran a trend piece in yesterday’s paper about how tough it is to make a living as a pro photographer. Why? Because all the hobbyists are selling out for a couple bucks here, some exposure there.

“People that don’t have to make a living from photography and do it as a hobby don’t feel the need to charge a reasonable rate,” Matt Eich, a photojournalist, told the NYT.

It’s true, but is there any notion of “you get what you pay for” anymore? A colleague of ours says that he’ll look through IStockPhoto and other microstock sites populated with the shoots of amateurs, but when he needs something good, he still has to go to Getty’s professional division.

The bigger threat to photogs, we’d imagine (and the NYT mentions), is the lack of outlets out there. Glossy magazines are shutting down, and with each goes another place where a photographer might have scored some money.

But with Demand Studios’ army of low-paid writers cranking out content for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Travel section, we’re not sure this problem is limited to just visual folk. And of course, just as how Demand Studios is absorbing a lot of laid-off professionals, these “amateurs” grabbing low rates for photos aren’t necessarily all amateurs, just desperate.

What do BNA and Radio Free Asia have in common? Just that they’re both DC-based media organizations that are giving raises to their staff. Both companies’ Guild locals voted recently on new contracts that include pay increases, a rarity in this day and age.

The BNA agreement covers 700 employees and offers a 1.6 percent raise in year one, a 3 percent raise in year two and 4 percent in year three. It also increases sick leave but compensates with increases in health care costs and makes employees hired after September 1 ineligible for the company pension.

The RFA contract covers 130 employees and provides annual salary increases equal to the federal government’s raises plus one percent, and a bonus of 1 percent of the guild’s payroll in 2011 and 2012 and .5 percent in 2013.

The Newspaper Guild called these contracts “solid gains.”

It’s a rough time to be a public relations pro: salaries decreased 10.6% at PR firms last year and 11.3% at in-house communications jobs, according to the latest Official PR Salary & Bonus Report
2010 Edition, out from recruiting firm Spring Associates.

2009′s losses offset 2008′s gains but don’t seem to be continuing a trend, as salaries rose in 2008 by a respectable 2.7 percent for corporate communications and 2.9 for agencies.

If you live outside New York, DC, Boston, Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles or San Francisco your salary probably decreased more than PR pros working in these eight major cities.

But it’s not execs padding their pockets, necessarily: hourly billing rates fell across the board.

Finally, who’s hiring? Healthcare, pharmaceutical, consumer and high tech/social media specialties, according to the report. The bad news: “In general, they are looking for people with more than the usual amount of experience at lower than previous pay levels.”

Thinking of creating a WWW.INeedAJobAtYourNewspaper.com? Don’t, says Poynter’s Joe Grimm.

“I have looked at a lot of them now — by journalists and non-journalists — and most fall flat. While desperate times call for desperate measures, we don’t want to look desperate, and some of these sites do….These are publicity stunts. Why else would you send the whole world a message intended for one or two people?”

Well, a marketer or PR person might benefit from sending the whole world a message. But Grimm’s talking about journalists only. He argues that “it’s better to pursue journalism jobs — tough as they are to land — in more direct, professional ways with networking, face-to-face meetings and a solid portfolio.”

We’re inclined to agree, just because even in the age of personal branding, journos still fly a bit under the radar compared to other professions…but what do you think? Is eschewing a public “hire me” site just terribly old-fashioned?

Sacramento Bee management and the paper’s Newspaper Guild local continued negotiations yesterday, and it sounds as if a compromise is closer to happening.

Yesterday the company narrowed its focus from asking for a “blanket right to outsource, use freelancers and turn full-time employees into part-time staff” to giving management more flexibility to outsource the copy and design desk staff, either to another McClatchy paper or outside the company entirely.

The company also asked for the right to turn any recent hires—anyone who joined the company after March 2007—into part-time staff.

Guild representatives called the proposal narrower, but noted it still offered “plenty that was distasteful.”

The Bee cut 25 employees earlier this year, including seven from the editorial side. It was the Bee‘s fourth set of cuts in 18 months.

Calderone to Leave Politico, Internal Memo Now Available

Finke’s Revenge: Deadline.com Poaches THR Critic

A new beginning and an ancient tradition – all in one day

Thessaly La Force Joins The Paris Review As Web Editor

AOL Hires Sanford Bernstein Analyst Lindsay

Tracey Altman Joins ‘Parade’

David Meeks Named AP Assistant Managing Editor

By popular request, our job listing summaries now include locations. No more clicking on a link from California to find that the job’s for a company in Kalamazoo!

With that, on to the listings!
MTV.com needs an editor. (New York, NY)
Cengage is hiring a content manager.(Belmont, CA)
Reuters seeks a multimedia designer/technologist.(New York, NY)
CyberInk is looking for a senior web developer.(Erie, PA)
The American Association for the Advancement of Science is hiring a graphic design manager.(Washington, DC)
WGBH is seeking a director of digital media.(Boston, MA)
The News Distribution Network is looking for a revenue operations coordinator.(Atlanta, GA)
InvestmentWires, Inc is looking for an editorial intern. (New York, NY)
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is hiring an editorial director. (Washington, DC)
Vox Medica Inc seeks a PR account manager.(Philadelphia, PA)
The Georgia Sea Grant is seeking a communications director.(Athens, GA)
The TimesDaily needs a page designer/copy editor.(Florence, AL)
Audition Booth needs a senior online editor.(New York, NY)
MMB is seeking a senior digital developer.(Boston, MA)
Wainscot Media seeks an art assistant. (Montvale, NJ)
The Shelton Group has an open position: a project manager.(Knoxville, TN)
Harpo Inc has an open position: a media specialist.(Chicago, IL)
Toll Brothers, Inc is looking for an online media buyer/planner. (Philadelphia, PA)
March of Dimes needs a web writer.(White Plains, NY)
Sullivan wants an art/design director. (New York, NY)

Every day we scour major job boards, including, but not limited to Mediabistro.com’s listings, to find the best media jobs out there. We screen out duplicates and scams so you know you’re only receiving the top choices.

Eleven people at the Associated Press have been pinkslipped today, say sources (including our very own FishbowlNY). Seven of the eleven were in news, the rest in technology, tipsters say.

The Associated Press laid off 70 in November of last year after 100 of its employees took buyouts in July.

More from Gawker: Even More Layoffs at the AP

Where are New York City’s startups?
If you follow the money, says entrepreneur Brad Hargreaves, you can find them.

Out of 800+ venture capital financings since 2005, much of the money is being poured into Midtown. (The size of the dot represents the amount of money; the color of the dot supposedly represents the number of discrete transactions, but your guess is as good as ours which color is which.)

There’s also a lot of love going to Brooklyn, specifically Cobble Hill, DUMBO, Brooklyn Heights, and everyone else in 11201.

One thing to note: these dots represent $3.1 billion in money.
And at least some of these startups are going to need PR, advertising, and/or design folk.

Murray Hill here we come!

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has agreed to a five year contract that cuts pay by 6 percent in the first two years, Editor and Publisher reports.

Newsroom, advertising, and janitorial employees will also take three weeks of unpaid furloughs.

If the paper’s revenues rise by at least 2 percent a year, wages will rise by 2.5 percent a year in each of the last three years of the contract. Which amounts to a tenth of a percent of a raise a year until 2015.

The contract, which publisher Kevin Mowbray said was necessary “for immediate cost reductions as we continue to be negatively impacted by the most unprecedented economic downturn since the Great Depression,” also includes a six-month moratorium on layoffs.

This contract also ends nearly a year of negotiations, as the last contract expired in June 2009 and negotiations begun in May. It also represents a slight improvement for workers compared to the original offer submitted by the company.