$600,000 news anchor, $350,000 weathercaster not the norm for local broadcast journalists
Median salaries for local TV journalists rose 2.5 percent in 2009, according to the RTNDA/Hofstra Annual Survey. Photo by Flickr user Sister72.
Somewhere out there in a local TV station, there’s a $600,000 news anchor and a $350,000 weathercaster, but that’s certainly not the norm in the recently released RTNDA/Hofstra University Annual Survey of local broadcast-news salaries.
The median (half make more, half make less) for TV news anchors is $59,000 and for weathercasters is $50,000, and there is at least one person in a smaller market in each of those jobs who is making $18,000 a year.
The good news on the salary front for local broadcast journalists is that TV salaries rose 2.5 percent during 2009, and radio salaries were unchanged. That’s an improvement from 2008 when TV salaries dropped 4.4 percent, and radio pay fell 1.8 percent.
“With negative inflation in 2009, even flat salaries mean no loss in buying power,” said Bob Papper, Hofstra journalism professor and the survey director, in a news release.
While the survey doesn’t track the pay of broadcast business reporters, it does offer these median and maximum salaries for these positions in local TV:
- News reporter: $29,000, with max of $280,000
- News producer: $30,000, up to $110,000
- Assignment editor: $37,000, up to $114,000
- News director: $75,000, up to $200,000.
In local radio, here’s the breakdown:
- News reporter: $30,000, with max of $46,000
- News producer: $30,000, with max of 45,000
- News director: $32,000, up to $65,000.
Joe Grimm, “Ask the Recruiter” blogger for Poynter.org, notes in his post on the survey that the in past 10 years, the median salaries of local broadcast journalists have not kept up with inflation.
“The RTDNA/Hofstra University Survey was conducted in the fourth quarter of 2009 among all 1,770 operating, non-satellite television stations and a random sample of 4,000 radio stations. Valid responses came from 1,355 television stations (76.6 percent) and 203 radio news directors and general managers representing 301 radio stations,” according to the website for RTNDA, which stands for Radio, Television Digital News Association.
