And, I say that from experience with both in the last six months.
About six months ago, I applied to be managing editor of a fair sized Gannett weekly in NorCal: three staff writers. Pay, when adjusting for California cost of living, wasn't that much higher than here, but was a bit.
Anyway, Cal labor law apparently requires that jobs above base level fall into salary slots, so I knew what the pay was by default.
The interview process was long and back and forth, before the persons involved said that Gannett higher-ups had said that filling the position was officially on hold.
OK.
Last week, I applied for a Hearst job, assistant editor in Beaumont. No pay scale listed. (And, the job's now yanked off LinkedIn, so I can't get the full description.)
I was contacted by a Kyle Campbell of Local Edge, and asked a salary screening question. Said he needed to know that before going down the road of an interview.
Who is Local Edge? An entirely separate division of Hearst corporate, primarily responsible for branding and marketing. So, nobody at the local paper is involved in the start of the process, and nobody local. Mr. Campbell's area code on his phone is metro Buffalo, and I mean Buffalo, New York, not Buffalo, Texas.
(That said, even smaller chains than Hearts are doing this, having somebody non-local be at least the initial contact on hirings below the level of publisher. Old "friend" Wick is another.)
But wait, it gets better.
I could have bounced back the old "negotiable within parameters" but figured he'd reject that.
Instead, I gave him this.
Ahh, we're at that "dance time" early.
I could say negotiable per position parameters even while noting that, at least as listed on Indeed, there were no publicly available parameters.
But, I'll give you a number, BUT ...
Kind of like auction items on eBay, but with a twist, this is a "focal number." I could work off of it either way, either up or down, depending on a number of specifics about position requirements.
Second, it's based on someone else's salaries, and my relation to similar salaries at my current location. That number? $54,102. Where did I get that exact number? Beaumont ISD.
Specifically, it's the starting salary for a first-year teacher.
He said that was more than they were offering.
So, noting my emphasis in the original, I said:
Well, what DO you offer, as in a range? As I said, I can pivot either way, and this was intended to start a discussion.
And heard back crickets at first.
There's three things that get me, and the crickets is only the second. The no local involvement at the start of the interview process is the first. The position already being yanked off LinkedIn is second. (The email exchange was on Sunday; I applied in, IIRC, the Thursday before.
But wait, it gets better.
He kept emailing me. I finally gave him a real bottom line. He said he'd forward my resume to the ME at the Enterprise. That's on a Tuesday. Kaitlin Bain emails me later that Thursday, asks what are good times to call I gave her times for the rest of the week.
No call.
BUT? Job is reposted on LinkedIn that Friday. And this time, I grabbed the link.
And, now that I have the job description? I work occasional evenings at city council meetings and school board meetings. Sometimes, grabbing a few sports photos. But, as an ME myself? My time is under my control. And, I VERY rarely work on a weekend and never on Sundays, unless I'm doing something at home.
But wait, there's more. The ad also mentions working with Hearst Community Media. Per Hearst's page on the Enterprise "group," there's two exurban (definitely, in the case of Jasper, probably in the case of Hardin County) weeklies, a biweekly real estate mag and two monthly "community" mags. It's shed three other weeklies plus a Spanish weekly since Wiki last updated its page.
And, more sadly? On the group website, the "key people" goes immediately from the prez of Hearst Community News to Bain. The only other "leadership" person is the circ director. No publisher listed, not even a general manager. That's cuz publisher Clarice Touhey fled seven months ago for balmy Williston, North Dakota, and the arms of Wick Communications, another newspaper company not high on my list. She was only there two years, having fled Craphouse to get to Hearst in Beaumont. The ad director fled for eastern Arizona a few months later. Editor Ronnie Crockett (not the ME) is not listed by teh Google as fleeing. OK, it seems that the Enterprise is "flattened" enough or shrunk enough it doesn't have a separate editor/executive editor and ME. So, the assistant editor is like a city editor, and it's still not paying enough.
And, it gets better YET. She's been in the business six years total, not counting college journalism and an internship, and was promoted from "digital producer" at that paper, and that overlapped with her being a local reporter.
Anyway, the city floods almost as much as Helltown while having an even more concentrated Cancer Alley. My bottom line will get moved back up if I get a phone call.
Which appears NOT likely.
Kaitlin Bain? You ghosted me. That's the way I see it.
(Update, May 5: Hearst is advertising this position AGAIN/YET/STILL with LinkedIn. I also consider it a semi-lie to post Hearst's total employment rather than numbers at the Enterprise.)
And, Hearst, if the Enterprise has gone that much in the crapper, or you've let it go that much in the crapper, or whatever? Hard pass. God, reporters there (the few that they have?) must make nada.
Reflecting this? I checked Texas Press Association circ numbers.
Now, most newspapers have been trickling off circulation for years, long before COVID hit. (But not all!) And, some have been bleeding, not trickling.
But, it's BAD at Beaumont. They've lost 65 percent in the last three years.
Out of curiosity, I checked Odessa, where I was a bit over a decade ago, and as a comp, checked snootier twin city Midland, since that's also a Hearst paper. Odessa has lost about one-third its circulation. Midland? Nearly 45 percent, to the extent that its current circ is at Odessa's level if not lower.
So, some of it is the water in Beaumont. And some of it's the water at Hearst, perhaps. (From an area where I lived before, I also checked Waco. Down 40 percent over that same time.) As for the water at Hearst, the Chronic in Houston ran a Texas Trib story about the indictment of three staffers of Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo .... and were tweeting it hours later. An eternity in modern big city media.
And, of course, Hearst is privately traded, so it could be wildly profitable, or, at a minimum, at least as profitable as the newspapers Alden Global Capital owns, and steals from because its other hedge fund ventures suck.
