I’ve worked in print and broadcast news since a week after graduating from high school … 40 years ago. Here is the latest “nail in the coffin” of the newspaper business:

Times announces newsroom layoffs

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/dec/31/times-announces-newsroom-layoffs/

Search the Web for “Washington Times” and “layoffs” for more articles and more detail: The sports department — eliminated; the photography department: nine photographers gone, only one photographer and a photo tech left; deputy managing editor: gone; at least two assistant managing editors: gone; at least two copy editors: gone …

At the end of April 2008, The Washington Times cut 30 positions, including an assistant managing editor, a photographer and my Saturday night-only seat on the copy desk, only two weeks before what would have been my 10th anniversary.

Fortunate for me, I’ve had a full-time editing job at another publication since May 2006. Because of financial cutbacks, however, I need to crack open your books again to restore the income I’ve lost.

Best wishes, Bob, and keep up the support for the rest of us writers.

But to clarify Bob’s original message on salaries, I’m pretty sure he was quoting *starting* pay for journalism grads fresh out of school. I don’t think there are many newspapers paying 22-year-old bachelors degree graduates upper $40K their rookie year. And supporting a family is not a typical need for those folks. More often, it’s supporting themselves , including paying 1/4 to 1/2 the rent of a shared apartment — which is hard to do in many places on the money that these young journalists make.

That’s the situation my daughter is in. She’s an editor on a fashion and lifestyle email newsletter/web site that’s owned by a print company. She doesn’t make anything like the average online salary Bob posted and she lives in an expensive city. It’s tough out there.

I’m late to this party but as someone who spent more than 20 years in the newspaper field, I believe I have some insight. First, the salaries you quote are, or were, lower than reality. Most decent papers pay in the high $30K to high $40K range, which is still enough to support a family in most parts of the country (albeit barely). The big ones, of course, pay more and the smaller ones pay less. I’m looking at the 40k to 100k circulation range, which is where many really good papers sit.

However, the problem with newspapers isn’t solely the Internet, though that hasn’t helped. The problem is that newspaper managers — editors, publishers and owners — have forgotten what a newspaper should be. They are trying to BE the Internet, just as they tried being television 20 years ago.

Maybe I’m an old fart, but to me a newspaper is still the best way to deliver the complete story in the shortest time. It’s a daily intelligence briefing delivered to your door every morning, bringing you up to speed on the world, the nation, and most importantly, your community.A good paper will deliver the objective coverage of your township, school board or city council — unlike a blogger, who typically has an ax to grind. Reporters are trained to find facts and deliver them in a cogent way — again, unlike most bloggers.

I have to disagree with Lou, above, because most reporters realize they will never go to the Times or the Journal. Most work at local papers, covering local stories that are the most important to most newspaper readers.And most do a very good job.

If newspapers would focus on doing what they do best, they can find their place in the world again, and maybe, just maybe, prosper. Newspapers and the Internet can have a happy marriage but newspapers should focus on their strengths and then I believe they will find their future. At least until someone invents a foldable computer that holds stories in place till you finish reading them … even if you have to stop when you bus stops or the phone rings … without refreshing the page or doing a search to find the story you were reading.

But hey, I just wrote a review about your new book on my blog.

http://blog.mandymarksteiner.com/2009/10/29/make-an-offer-they-cant-refuse.aspx