The shockwaves emanating from the phone hacking scandal are still
rippling through the Murdoch empire.
This morning Rebekah Brooks fell, and she can’t be the last
casualty as the crisis crosses the Atlantic.
But there’s a second obscenity in British journalism: it’s
the pay rates for those in local media. We all know the local press is in a
crisis. There are several causes, but the venality of the big local-paper
owners is one of them.
Jim Oldfield, the editor of the South Yorkshire Times
put it in perspective today when he revealed the pay rates on his newspaper.
Oldfield, who is supporting an NUJ strike at Johnston Press’s South Yorkshire
Newspapers against redundancies said he gets paid £25,000, after 37 years in
journalism. Trainees get £14,000.
Jon Slattery came up with these illustrations:
Salary shocker
Which is why it is so timely that researchers at the School
of Journalism , Media and Communication
at the University of Central Lancashire in Preston
are surveying journalists’ pay scales. You can contribute here:
It's time this second obscenity was documented and exposed.
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