Categories: OLD Media Moves

U.S. business journalists optimistic about economy

U.S. business journalists – who report daily on the economy in their communities – say they expect their local economic conditions, including the number of jobs available, to improve in the next six months, according to a new survey commissioned by the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism.

One section of the survey shows a marginal increase in business journalists’ pay in the last six months to $56,591.

Forty-two percent reported an increase in pay the past two years. That is up from 36 percent six months ago reporting an increase in pay.

“Opportunities among journalists do seem to be on the rise,” said Andrew Leckey, president of the Donald W. Reynolds National Center of Business Journalism, about the survey results. “They said that one-third of the newsrooms in which they work are hiring new journalists.”

The research also found this breakdown for median salaries by place of employment:

• Print: $49,375

• Broadcast: $56,852

• Wire service: $75,800

• Freelance: $48,889

• Online: $51,667

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Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.