Biz journalism pay remains steady, but many report raises

Although the median business journalism salary remained level with 2010, slightly more than half of those who responded to a Society of American Business Editors and Writers survey said that their salaries had increased during the past year, while less than 10 percent said that their salary had decreased.

Nearly 40 percent said there was no change to their salary in the past 12 months. More than 6 percent of the respondents whose salaries had risen said their pay had gone up by more than $15,000 in the past year, while another 4 percent reported a salary increase between $10,000 and $15,000 in the past year.

The results of the salary survey were released Tuesday.

SABEW received 317 responses in July and early August in the attempt at quantifying compensation among the estimated 8,000 business journalists working in the United States. More than 3,000 business journalists were invited to participate through direct e-mail to SABEW members, notices on sabew.org and other communications. The 2010 poll received 394 responses.

“It’s encouraging that we’ve seen salaries rise for a good number of business journalists,” said Kevin Noblet, SABEW’s president and a managing editor at Dow Jones Newswires. “It indicates that the job market in business journalism remains strong despite weakness in other areas of the economy.”

In terms of those who received raises, more than half said that the extra money came at their current job, while 14 percent said they changed employers. Another 8 percent received pay raises by changing jobs with their employer.

At the beginning of the year, American City Business Journals, one of the largest employers of business journalists in the country, gave back the 5 percent pay cut that it instituted in 2009.

Read more here. The average salary remained at between $65,000 and $70,000, although pay for business reporters in the Northeast rose while pay for business reporters in the South fell.