Journalism, do you get paid more for making the front page?

la-gamine said:

I'd like to know if anyone knows anything about newspaper journalism. Do you get paid more if your story makes the front page? I'm just trying to figure out what drives someone to get that covert or research heavy story.

Thank you to any information you can provide!

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No, you don't get paid more.

Most people whose stories would make the front page work at the paper - and the front page is different every day, sometimes twice a day. It's not always or even usually a research-heavy story. It's just what goes on the front page.

However, what drives someone to get a big story? Journalism.

I mean go ask Woodward and Bernstein, you know? They didn't do it for a bonus.

Journalists chase the story because that's who they are. The better the stories, the better the portfolio. The better the portfolio, the higher you climb the money ladder. If you don't climb the money ladder you don't make squat. For example, I graduated in 1994 with my journalism degree. My first newspaper job paid a salary of $14,000 a year. If I took my weekly paycheck and divided it by the number of hours worked, I wouldn't have made minimum wage. In contrast, my roommate who graduated with an elementary teaching degree had a starting salary of $24,000.

Most stories in newspapers these days are Associated Press stories. For example, if you look at many of today's front pages, they will have coverage from Baltimore. On my front page two writers are credited: one is a long standing AP reporter and CNN correspondent, the other is a recent college graduate who has been working for the AP since last fall. The recent grad won't make any extra money for her co-authored story that will likely appear on the front of numerous papers (hell, she might be an unpaid intern at this point). But she will forever have it in her portfolio and will use it to climb the ladder.

Of course, Baltimore papers aren't using AP since they have their own reporters. Editors assign reporters to cover different angles of the story.

Nowadays, there are many who can't find or don't want traditional jobs and go out on their own in the hopes of finding a big news story and selling it to a publication or news network. Richard Engel and Anderson Cooper are great examples of this. Both men though came from money and had the financial means to freelance before they hit it big.

As Maryn said, this very much depends on the paper.

Major papers have plenty of reporters on staff, along with stringers in major cities, and will send their own reporters out if need arises. They run wire stuff too, but they don't employ people for nothing.

Middle-ground papers have more wire stories and won't send people on the road as much at all, but can work with stringers and in-house in addition.

Small papers do use lots of wire stuff and cobble together with a few in-house people.

If your characters work at the Podunk Weekly though, the front-page story is a very different one than if they work at the NYT.

Alt weeklies are yet another category of newspaper (though it sounds like your question is about dailies). Our weekly paper has almost all original, locally generated content (with the exception of stuff like the Straight Dope), and we use a tabloid format. So does our local Gannett-owned daily now: just another example of how the "front page" concept is changing. (With a tabloid, there's no "above the fold.")

Anyway, we have "cover stories" (like a magazine). If freelancers write them, they do get paid more than they would for a feature, because covers are longer and require more writing and research.

Staff writers just get paid their salary. When they take on a cover, it's often for the glory or because their editor strong-armed them into it. Covers are not fun: you really have to establish that this story is Important, whereas with a feature you might occasionally get away with waxing on about something fluffy. We sometimes have meetings where the prospective writer of a cover story gets grilled about the structure, the subhead, and all kinds of other fun stuff, because an editor's worst nightmare is to get a crappy cover story at the last minute and have to run it anyway.

ETA: The main reason to write a meaty, investigative cover is to get your name out there. You get respect in the community, you get tips on more stories, maybe you get a better job at a better paper one day. You also get lots of disturbed conspiracy theorists calling and emailing you, but you can't have everything.

In case you want to look at different front pages in different markets, the Newseum posts digital images from papers all across the country.

http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/

Yes and no. Your average reporter is salaried or hourly and makes the same amount of money regardless of where your story goes. Where it's different is with some websites and freelance work.

Most magazines have a different rate for a inside story and a different one for a cover. I've had some really sizable paydays come from cover stories that included 4,500 words and seven or eight pictures including a cover shot.

The other exception I've heard of is that some websites pay a bonus based on traffic. This tends to be sports and celeb outlets, but I've heard rumors that some straight news sites are doing it too.