Morons Among Us

From Romenesko: Mag editor: DMN should dump 200 more newsroom staffers
D Magazine
D editor and publisher Wick Allison also believes copy editor salaries at the Dallas Morning News should go from $60,000 to $45,000.


Let me see if I've got this right. Columnists who write, oh, one, two, maybe three times a week can make $140,000 a year. But copy editors making less than half that--you know, the people who work the worst hours, get the least respect and can't be found because there aren't enough of us--should take a pay cut? Idiot.


Let’s be frank. Senior people on the news side are way overpaid. A top editor at the News—not to be confused with the editor—can make more than $200,000. A columnist pulls down $140,000 per year. Even copy editors make $60,000, while their counterparts elsewhere are making $45,000 for the same work. Perhaps this largesse is a hangover from the glory days of 1985 to 2000, when the News aspired to be the dominant newspaper in the Southwest. It staffed and paid accordingly. But that was then, and this is now. The culture from those days still pervades the newsroom. It has to end—abruptly.