A journalist is carrying out research into the salaries paid to trainee reporters which she hopes will strengthen the case for better pay.
Stephanie Burns is carrying out a Masters in Journalism at Leeds Trinity University College while also holding down a staff job as a magazine journalist in Sheffield.
As part of her studies she has devised a survey entitled “Something doesn’t add up: how much are NCTJ-qualified newspaper journalists paid in their first job?”.
Now all journalists are being invited to take part in the survey which Stephanie hopes will help build a more accurate picture of entry-level pay within the industry.
Said Stephanie: “I knew salaries in journalism were low before I signed up for my NCTJs but it was only when I secured my first full-time job in the industry that I realised the difficulties so many journalists face at the start of their careers.
“I hope this research project will go some way to ensuring a higher-paid future for the next generation of reporters and would encourage all newspaper journalists in the UK – past or present – who have their NCTJs to take part.”
Stephanie wants all journalists who have completed qualifications by the National Council for the Training of Journalists to take part in the 10-question survey to find out what sort of salaries are being offered.
To take part, click here.
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Let me say this … as a trainee on a mid/small regional daily in 1992, I earned £9,500 (plus ‘expenses’, which was basically code for cash in hand to make up for all the unpaid overtime). I am going to guess some trainees are on not much more today.
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I doubt the salaries will need to be that generous (£9,500), Freddie. Has nobody noticed how many universities and colleges are advertising journalism training courses on HTFP? I believe I read that there are currently more journalism students in this country than there journalists in employment. The market is about to be swamped with newcomers, if it isn’t already. Employers advertising for trainees should be more honest and say: “Even cheaper labour wanted!” Experienced hands will get the push and new recruits on half the salaries will take over. The outlook is depressing and the colleges are as much to blame as the greedy, unprincipled managements who know little about their industry and care even less.
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I was tickled pink when I got just over 50 quid a week in the mid-70s. Started on just over 13 pounds before tax, nine after, in 1969, of which five guineas a week went on rent. A real luxury was the six shillings expenses for a “late lunch” (after 2 pm). One of those a week kept me just about solvent. No credit cards or overdraughts then, thank goodness, so you had to make do with what you had.
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As an academic, Stephanie should be a bit more specific about her terms of reference – is she talking about ‘NCTJ qualified’ when she is really referring to people who have passed NCE prelim exams?
To my mind you’re not NCTJ qualified until you have passed the NCE, and trainees shouldn;t be surprised by a low starting point but should expect regular hikes through a two year training process before they take the exam.
I agree that even then the rate is not stunning, but I’m fed up with people who have done a course and got a few prelims under their belt calling themselves ‘qualified journalists’ – that’s like someone who has passed the theory test reckoning they are cleared to drive on the M1!
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Started on a weekly in 1999. £8,000.
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’96 – home counties regional weekly. £10,000 basic, plus mileage and meals. More importantly, NCTJ pre entry was funded by the paper, including three months residential, including all living expenses. Them were the days…
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pass master, that’s very dismissive of people who work very hard to get their prelim’s
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Started Midlands 1993. £6,000. Plus long commute and had a nipper shortly after I started. I wonder how I ever ate…
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Late 1960s….a massive £6.50 a week!
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1973 – £10 pw. Had to up it to £12 as wasn’t paid enough for NS stamp!
Aaah, but we were ‘appy then, tho we were poor!!
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1955 – £2.50 a week indentured.
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I’ve written before on here about the real reason NCTJ journalism courses are so beloved by newspapers: it is an excuse to get people who have a nationally-recognised qualification (paid for by themselves) onto staff at vastly reduced rates of pay and keep them there for years until they pass the professional exam.
When I was out looking for my first journalism job in 1998 I went to some awful newspapers in North Yorkshire where I was offered the princely sum of £6K. Another crap weekly paper in Scotland offered me a slightly higher salary, on condition that I delivered the rag to local newsagents in the area in a mini-van. Unsurprisingly, I dumped the idea of working on some pointless local newspaper and doing the NCE and have never looked back – not one editor I have worked for has ever asked for it, or cared.
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1952 – £1.10s a week with the promise of an increase to £2 after six months, if satisfactory. First day I was asked by the editor: Did you bri ng your bike? When I replied No, he said: Don’t worry you can borrow mine. That told me something about the state of the industry even in 1952.
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Just left a job in Radio mainly due to the poor pay and working conditions. I am now moving into a far more lucrative career.
Ask yourself this: how do you fancy working fifty hour six day weeks for under £20,000?
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