Let’s Talk Money

Compensation for services is a topic we rarely bring up here. Maybe because talking about how much one makes is totally taboo. Given that it is mostly unspoken and absolutely off-the-record when spoken makes this find at footnoted.org sort of interesting.
It seems newspaperman Paul Bonaiuto, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for Journal Communications in Milwaukee announced his resignation back in May. But the company waited until Friday to disclose the terms of his exit deal.
Bonaiuto receives $8,334 for up to 20 hours of consulting work per month, which works out to just over $400 an hour. The consulting contract lasts for two years.
I know under-employed journalists in Milwaukee and elsewhere must see those numbers and feel violated. They certainly don’t get paid $400/hour to write articles as a stringer. Far from it. In fact, much paid journalism is marginal at best. Literally, it can be a hundred bucks here, another hundred or two there, for high quality investigative writing. No wonder I’m a copywriter.
Let’s hear from you in the comments on this. We work in a fee-based business. Do you have horror stories about getting paid, or tips on how to estimate a job? Are you offering your services for less in this time of slimmed down budgets? Tell it…