Paying the watchdogs

The Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University began studying journalist pay in 2024 as a way to provide guidance to our growing ecosystem of news providers about competitive compensation and to promote a more equitable news ecosystem.

This report presents an analysis of journalist compensation, satisfaction, and pay equity within New Jersey’s local media ecosystem. At a time of profound industry disruption, marked by the decline of legacy print and the rise of a fragile but growing digital ecosystem, the financial stability and morale of Garden State journalists are critical to the survival of local news in our state. This report investigates the economic realities facing these professionals, drawing on a mixed-methods approach that combines quantitative survey data and in-depth qualitative responses from a sample of New Jersey journalists.

The findings reveal a workforce under significant financial strain, with compensation levels that often fail to align with the state’s high cost of living. Key quantitative findings from the survey of 28 journalists indicate a median annual salary that places many practitioners in a precarious economic position.

Overall satisfaction with compensation is low, with a mean score of just 2.39 on a 5-point scale. This dissatisfaction is compounded by a widespread lack of transparency. A significant 64% of respondents feel that pay structures are not transparent in their workplaces, fostering an environment of distrust and suspicion. Qualitative data reinforces these statistical findings, painting a vivid picture of the challenges journalists face.

Four dominant themes emerged from the analysis:

The central conclusion of this report is that inadequate and inequitable compensation is not merely a human resources issue but a critical threat to the sustainability, diversity, and quality of local journalism in the state. The economic pressures on journalists risk accelerating an exodus of talent, particularly among women and journalists of color, thereby diminishing the capacity of newsrooms to serve their communities effectively.

The financial health of news organizations and the financial well-being of their journalists are inextricably linked — one cannot be solved without addressing the other.

Based on these findings, this report puts forth a series of evidence-based recommendations for key stakeholders:

Addressing the compensation crisis is fundamental to securing the future of local news in the Garden State. It is an investment in the people who hold power to account and a necessary step toward building a more resilient, diverse, and trustworthy media ecosystem for all New Jersey residents.

The study of journalist compensation in New Jersey is situated at the intersection of several critical and well-documented trends: the systemic economic challenges facing the news industry, persistent gender and racial pay disparities, and the wide variance in earnings based on geography, sector, and specialization. While national data provides a broad understanding of these issues, a review of the existing literature reveals the necessity of state-level analysis to grasp the specific economic realities confronting journalists in a high-cost environment like New Jersey.

The national compensation landscape is a profession of extremes

National data on journalist salaries reveals a profession characterized by significant financial disparities. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports a national median wage of $60,280 for news analysts, reporters, and journalists, yet this figure masks a vast range in earnings. The lowest 10% of earners make less than $34,590, while the top 10% exceed $162,430 (BLS: News Analysts, Reporters, and Journalists, 2024). Research from the University of Iowa notes that while average salaries can top $100,000, the median of $57,500 more accurately reflects the typical journalist’s earnings (University of Iowa School of Journalism and Mass Communication, 2024).

Compensation is heavily influenced by a journalist’s specialization and the sector in which they work. For instance, business journalists command a significant salary premium, earning a median of $75,599, at least 31% more than their peers in general assignments as of 2024 (Reynolds Center for Business Journalism, 2024).

In contrast, the nonprofit news sector, while experiencing rapid growth, has historically offered lower pay. However, recent trends show a dramatic positive shift, with average reporter salaries in the nonprofit news sector increasing by 41% between 2020 and 2022, from $58,858 to $82,943 (Institute for Nonprofit News, 2024; Oct. 2024). Meanwhile, salaries in traditional broadcast journalism have struggled to keep pace with inflation, with television salaries rising just 3.2% in 2024 (Papper et. al, 2025).

Persistent gender and racial gaps

Across all sectors of journalism, the most consistent and troubling finding in the literature is the persistence of significant pay disparities based on gender and race. A series of union-led pay equity studies in major newsrooms provides evidence of this systemic issue. A 2021 study of 14 Gannett newsrooms found that women earned nearly $10,000 less than men, and journalists of color earned at least $5,000 less than their white colleagues. The disparity was compounded for women of color, who faced a staggering 27% pay gap compared to white men (NewsGuild-CWA, 2021).

The pattern is not isolated. A study at Forbes revealed that, on average, men earned $10,083 more than women (Forbes Union and NewsGuild of New York, 2024). At Tribune Publishing, the median pay for men was $8,355 higher than for women, with Black women earning 22.5% less than white men (NewsGuild-CWA, 2022). Perhaps one of the most comprehensive analyses was conducted at The Washington Post, which found that women of color in the newsroom earned $30,000 less than white men (Rich, 2019). These gaps are not merely statistical artifacts; they point to deep-seated structural biases in compensation, promotion, and retention within news organizations.

The roots of these pay disparities are complex and linked to broader issues of diversity and inclusion within the industry. Newsrooms in the U.S. are demonstrably less diverse than the overall workforce. Data from Pew Research Center analyzing U.S. Census data found newsroom employees to be 77% non-Hispanic white, compared to 65% of all U.S. workers (Grieco, 2018). While journalists themselves recognize this problem (with only 32% believing there is adequate racial and ethnic diversity in their workplaces), the perception gap highlights the challenge (Pew Research Center, 2022).

These conclusions are supported by previous New Jersey-focused research conducted by the Center in 2024, which found that the state’s media workforce is 66% non-Hispanic white, compared to 55% of New Jersey residents; the workforce is woefully lacking when it comes to Hispanic/Latino representation. That research also showed that 66 percent of journalists of color surveyed earned between $50,000 and $79,000, compared to 27 percent of white journalists, who were also more likely to earn more than $80,000 (Coppini & El Damanhoury, 2024).

This lack of diversity also extends to leadership.

An international study by the Reuters Institute found that despite women comprising 40% of journalists, they hold just 24% of top editorial positions (Arguedas, A. R., et al., March 2024). This “vertical gender segregation” concentrates women in lower-level and therefore lower-paying positions, directly contributing to the gender pay gap.

Additionally, a culture of pay secrecy often prevents these issues from being addressed. An investigation by the Columbia Journalism Review highlighted that structural barriers, such as unpaid internships (which favor wealthier candidates), limit the diversity of the talent pipeline, while a fear of retaliation often prevents journalists from openly discussing compensation (AAJA Voices, 2018).

In contrast, collective bargaining has emerged as a powerful tool for addressing these inequities.

Recent contract negotiations secured by NewsGuild-CWA have established transparent salary floors, banned non-disclosure agreements in harassment cases, and guaranteed annual wage increases, demonstrating that organized labor can be an effective mechanism for systemic change (NewsGuild-CWA, 2023; 2024).

The New Jersey context: High cost and high stakes

While the national literature provides a critical backdrop, data specific to New Jersey highlights the unique pressures of Garden State journalists. Federal statistics and salary aggregation platforms indicate that journalist salaries in New Jersey (with average ranges between $61,908 and $67,031) are higher than the national median (BLS: Industry Data, 2024; ZipRecruiter and Salary.com, 2025). However, these figures do not account for the state’s notoriously high cost of living.

Crucially, the available New Jersey-specific data lacks the demographic granularity required to assess whether the gender and racial pay gaps documented in newsrooms at the national level are replicated within the state.

This represents a significant gap in the literature.

While we know that New Jersey journalists earn a nominal premium, we do not know if that premium is distributed equitably, nor if it is sufficient to afford a stable and dignified life in the Garden State. Our study aims to fill this gap by providing the first comprehensive analysis of compensation, satisfaction, and pay equity for journalists across New Jersey.

This section presents the original research conducted for this report. It details the methodological approach used to survey New Jersey journalists and presents the quantitative and qualitative findings that form the empirical core of our analysis.

Research design and data collection

The Center first collected information (including location, job title, and level of experience) regarding current New Jersey media job openings over a period of several months and sourced existing data from Daniel Levitt’s “Inside The Newsroom” media job database (Levitt, 2025). The following key data points were documented:

An anonymous survey was then created by the Center and sent out to as many New Jersey media employees as the Center could contact using multiple email lists, listservs, and individual outreach.

The survey was a collection of multiple-choice, open-ended questions and Likert scales. The survey was promoted on NJ News Commons’ listserv of approximately 130 New Jersey media employees and was also sent in multiple email news blasts to people subscribed to the Center’s partner publication lists. We received a total of 28 completed responses.

Data analysis

Response rate analysis and ethical considerations

A total of 28 complete and usable responses were collected from an estimated initial outreach pool of more than 130 individuals, resulting in a response rate of 21.5%. While this response rate is consistent with benchmarks for academic and industry research surveys, the small absolute number of respondents and the non-probability sampling method have significant implications for the data (Wu, Meng, et al., 2022). The findings of this study should therefore be considered exploratory and illustrative, rather than statistically generalizable to the entire population of journalists in New Jersey.

Additionally, the use of a convenience sample introduces the potential for selection bias, wherein individuals with particularly strong positive or negative opinions about pay and workplace satisfaction may have been more inclined to participate.

This research protocol was designed to ensure the highest standards of participant protection (Montclair State University, IRB-FY24-25-3971). Given the sensitive nature of compensation data and the potential for professional repercussions, participant anonymity and data confidentiality were considered paramount and treated as such. All participants were informed at the outset that their responses would be aggregated and anonymized in the final report. It was made clear that any direct quotes used to illustrate qualitative themes would be unattributed to protect the identity of the respondent and their respective employer.

Profile of survey respondents

The 28 journalists who participated in the survey represent a cross-section of the New Jersey media landscape. Understanding the demographic and professional characteristics of this sample is essential for contextualizing the subsequent findings on compensation and satisfaction. Table 1 provides a detailed profile of the survey respondents.

The sample was predominantly composed of full-time employees (71.4%), with a significant representation of women (64.3%). Respondents varied widely in experience, with the largest group (35.7%) having 1-5 years in the field, but also included veteran journalists with more than 20 years of experience (21.4%). The participants worked across various media types, with digital-only and print newsrooms being the most common. Figure 2 shows a notable minority of respondents (28.6%) were members of a union.

The quantitative portion of the survey aimed to establish a baseline for salary levels and to measure satisfaction across several key professional domains. The results indicate a workforce with modest compensation and significant levels of dissatisfaction, particularly concerning pay and benefits.

Compensation levels

Participants were asked to report their annual pre-tax salary. The data reveals a wide distribution of income among journalists in the Garden State. Table 2 presents a statistical summary of the reported salaries. The median annual salary for the sample was $69,500, while the mean salary was slightly higher at $72,125. The standard deviation of $24,113 indicated considerable variability in earnings.

The salary range was extensive, with a low of $32,000 to a high of $110,000, suggesting a highly stratified compensation environment within the state’s media industry.

Satisfaction metrics

Satisfaction with opportunities for career growth and advancement received the lowest mean score at 2.39, followed by satisfaction with overall pay at 2.50 (SD=1.28) and benefits at 2.64 (SD=1.27).

On the other hand, respondents reported higher levels of satisfaction with their day-to-day work and their relationships with colleagues. This disparity suggests that while many journalists find intrinsic value and collegiality in their work, these positive aspects are undermined by frustrations with their financial compensation and career benefits.

The open-ended survey responses were analyzed using a thematic analysis approach to add depth and context to the quantitative data. This process involved identifying, coding, and categorizing patterns of meaning within the text.

Four primary themes emerged, which paint a collective picture of a workforce grappling with economic precarity, a lack of transparency, and frustrated ambitions. Table 3 summarizes these key themes and provides illustrative quotes from the survey respondents.

The Center sought other sources of data to help provide additional context surrounding the pay and salary rates of news-related jobs in New Jersey, due to the low survey response rate we received. We paid to access a database maintained by Daniel Levitt through his Substack publication Inside The Newsroom (Levitt, 2025).

Levitt started Inside The Newsroom in 2018 and says it has become the largest journalism job board in the world, now with more than 27,000 subscribers. Levitt collects job postings and shares them with his subscribers, capturing such data as the hiring organization, the position, whether it’s full-time or part-time, the city and state where it is based, the day it was posted, the salary, and its category (based on a pre-set list he maintains).

In a spreadsheet shared with the Center and last updated in late April 2025, Levitt had catalogued more than 14,000 jobs in the U.S., Canada, and the United Kingdom.

The Center filtered the data to examine jobs in New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. This was done because although New Jersey is the focus of this pay research, many New Jerseyans who work in media live here but work in New York City or Philadelphia. Our analysis of 1,728 full-time job listings from New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania posted between January 3, 2023, and April 16, 2025, reveals distinct differences in the media job landscapes across the three states.

New York dominates the market, not just in the sheer volume of available positions but also in compensation. Our analysis found the average annualized salary for a full-time position in New York ($113,033) is substantially higher than in either New Jersey ($88,688) or Pennsylvania ($74,805). This disparity highlights the concentration of high-paying roles within major media conglomerates, national news organizations, and specialized digital outlets based in New York.

The data clearly positions New York City as the epicenter of media jobs in the region. The average annualized salary for a full-time position in New York is substantially higher than in either New Jersey or Pennsylvania. This disparity highlights the concentration of high-paying roles within major media conglomerates, national news organizations, and specialized digital outlets based in New York.

Our analysis of the full-time job categories reveals a distinct regional distribution. As Figure 6 illustrates, core journalism functions such as "Reporter," "Editor," and "Producer" are among the most common roles across the tri-state area when combined.

However, the underlying data shows that New York's market, due to its sheer size, contains a substantially higher number and variety of specialized roles—including "Strategy," "Data Viz," and "Design"—which often command higher salaries. The markets in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, by contrast, feature a higher concentration of traditional roles in broadcast and local reporting, reflecting the nature of their smaller media ecosystems.

When reviewed and placed in a broader context, the findings presented in the previous section offer a sobering assessment of the economic state of journalism in New Jersey.

This section aims to interpret the data and connect the specific experiences of the surveyed journalists to the national trends identified in the literature review. It explores the practical implications of these findings for newsroom management, industry sustainability, and public policy. We argue that the compensation crisis is a direct threat to the future of local news in the Garden State.

New Jersey findings in a national context

The results of this study are based on a small sample, but largely align with and reinforce the national narrative that our profession is one laboring under significant economic duress. The qualitative theme of deep frustration with pay secrecy and a lack of transparency among New Jersey journalists directly mirrors the key drivers behind the wave of newsroom unionizations and the push for pay transparency laws seen across the United States (Slattery, 2022).

The sentiment that “you’re left to assume the worst” when pay is opaque is a powerful local echo of a national movement demanding that an industry predicated on transparency turn that same lens upon itself.

At the same time, the demographic profile of the survey respondents may not be generalizable, but it also reflects some national trends. The sample’s composition is predominantly white and features a majority of women, which is broadly consistent with larger studies on newsroom demographics that show a workforce that is white than the U.S. population as a whole and has seen an increase in female representation (TNG Gannett Caucus, 2021).

The data from this survey provides a localized snapshot that fits within this larger, well-documented picture. The most critical insight derived from this study can be seen in the juxtaposition of journalist compensation with New Jersey’s unique economic environment. While low pay is a national issue in journalism, it is especially intense in New Jersey, where the cost of living is higher than in the overwhelming majority of other states (Owens, 2025). This “cost-of-living squeeze” acts as a crisis multiplier, transforming a challenging professional landscape into an economically unsustainable hellscape for many newsroom employees and professional journalists.

Data from various sources consistently ranks New Jersey as one of the most expensive states in the country. The overall cost of living in the Garden State is estimated to be between 12% and 20% higher than the national average (Apartment List, 2025), with the cost of housing (the largest single expense for most households) sitting between 30% and 44% higher than the national average. The MIT Living Wage calculator provides another stark benchmark: as of early 2025, a single adult with no children in New Jersey must make a pre-tax annual income of $54,503 just to cover basic necessities such as housing, food, and healthcare — with no allocation for savings, entertainment, or servicing debt — live in the state (MIT Living Wage Calculator, 2025).

When the median salary from this study’s sample, $58,500, is placed against these benchmarks, the economic precarity of journalists living in the state becomes clear (see Table 2). While this median salary is approximately $15,000 above the calculated “living wage,” it still falls dramatically short of the state’s median household income of roughly $90,000, highlighting a significant gap between the earnings of journalists and the general population of the communities they serve.

This financial reality makes journalism a difficult long-term career for anyone without access to external financial support, such as a high-earning partner or pre-existing/generational family wealth. This has profound and damaging implications for the socioeconomic diversity of New Jersey’s newsrooms, effectively creating a barrier to entry for many who cannot afford to live in the state on a typical journalist's salary

Implications for newsroom management and policy

For public policy:

This research provides critical, localized evidence that can inform policy discussions aimed at supporting local news. The financial instability of the industry is the root cause of the compensation crisis. Therefore, policies that bolster the economic foundation of local news organizations (such as the New Jersey Civic Information Bill, which created the NJ Civic Information Consortium, a first-in-the-nation public-private partnership to fund and support local news and media in the state) are essential (New Jersey Legislature, 2018).

A financially healthier news industry is a prerequisite for one that can afford to pay its workers a fair, equitable, and living wage.

The analysis presented in this report leads to a clear set of conclusions about the state of compensation for journalists in the Garden State. The confluence of low pay, high living costs, and a lack of transparency creates an unsustainable environment that threatens the future of local news in New Jersey and ultimately hurts communities across the state. The crisis, however, is neither inevitable nor insurmountable.

Newsrooms, journalists, and industry stakeholders can forge a path to a more equitable and sustainable future by adopting evidence-based practices and committing to systemic change. The section below outlines this report’s primary conclusions and offers a series of actionable recommendations.

Key conclusions

The goal of this study was to understand compensation, satisfaction, and equity among New Jersey journalists. The findings lead to three overarching conclusions:

Actionable recommendations for New Jersey news organizations

To address these challenges, news organizations must move beyond platitudes and implement concrete, structural changes to their compensation and employment practices. The recommendations below are based on industry best practices and the findings of this report.

Guidance for individual journalists

While systemic changes are the responsibility of employers, individual journalists can take steps to advocate for themselves and their colleagues.

A call for industry-wide and policy-level change

Addressing the compensation crisis requires a concerted effort that extends beyond individual newsrooms. Industry associations, philanthropic funders, and policymakers all have a role to play.

In the spirit of transparency that this report calls for, it is essential to acknowledge the boundaries of this research and to outline pathways for future studies. This study serves as a foundational, exploratory analysis of a complex issue, and its findings should be interpreted with its methodological limitations in mind.

Acknowledging this report’s limitations

The credibility of any research endeavor rests on a transparent discussion of its limitations. As mentioned briefly in the Methodology section above, this study is subject to several key constraints that shape the interpretation of its findings.

Opportunities for future research

This study lays the groundwork for a more extensive and robust research agenda on pay equity and sustainability in New Jersey journalism. Building on this initial exploration, future research could pursue several valuable avenues.

The Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University is a nationally recognized leader in collaborative journalism and local news ecosystem support. Founded in 2012 in response to the downsizing of New Jersey news organizations, the Center operates on the principle that news organizations can accomplish more by working together than any individual organization could achieve alone.

The Center's mission is to grow and strengthen local journalism and support an informed society in New Jersey and beyond. Through its flagship project, the NJ News Commons, the Center coordinates the largest state-based network of news organizations in the United States, connecting more than 330 newsrooms and freelancers who share content, collaborate on major stories, and support each other's growth.

As a grant-funded program within the College of Communication and Media at Montclair State University, the Center conducts and publishes research on emerging ideas and best practices in local journalism, business models, and ecosystem mapping. The organization has become a laboratory for innovation in local news, testing new approaches to sustainability, training journalists in emerging technologies, and hosting the annual Collaborative Journalism Summit, which brings together hundreds of media leaders from around the world.

The Center has paid particular attention to supporting ethnic and community media, recognizing their vital role in serving New Jersey's diverse communities. Through translation services, targeted training, and dedicated funding, the Center helps ensure these essential newsrooms have the resources they need to thrive. This commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion extends to all of the Center's programs and initiatives, with an explicit focus on supporting journalists and media-makers of color.

The Center is supported with funding from Montclair State University, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, Democracy Fund, the New Jersey Civic Information Consortium, the Independence Public Media Foundation, Rita Allen Foundation, Inasmuch Foundation, and John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The Center's work is guided by six core values: information access, collaboration, proaction, community and inclusivity, equity, and joy.

Joe Amditis is the associate director of operations at the Center for Cooperative Media. Contact him at [email protected] or on Twitter at @jsamditis.

Amanda Alicea is a freelancing feature reporter and writer who serves as the data entry and membership coordinator at the Center. Amanda can be reached on LinkedIn or via email at [email protected].

Colleen Sullivan serves as the research assistant at the Center. Contact her via email at [email protected].

Hanna Siemaszko is the research coordinator at the Center who recently worked on the Center’s cross-field collaboration research. Hanna can be reached via email at [email protected].