Anchors’ Salaries Soar While TV News Staffs Get Poorer : In S.D., Reporters’ Pay Lags Behind Personalities

The second most often asked question about television journalists--right behind, “who does their hair?”--is “How much money do they make?”

The deal inked by Los Angeles anchorman Paul Moyer last week, which reportedly calls for KNBC-TV to pay him $8 million over the next six years, only served to fuel speculation about his San Diego counterparts and what they earn in a year for their ability to read the news.

It’s natural for people to be curious, and even more understandable that they might be more than a little jealous of the television news teams. They are well known, generally good looking, wear great clothes and it is simply assumed they make lavish sums of money. Envy, especially among print reporters, is couched behind much of the bitterness toward the television personalities, who make such obscene sums of money for doing so much cheesy reportage.

Anchors and reporters counter that it’s nobody’s business how much they make. “Who cares?” they say.

They have a point. But the long-standing salary structure within the television-news industry, which is so far out of whack that it makes the top-heavy economic ladder of Major League Baseball look like a Communist front, is one of the strongest influences directing how the news is presented on television. People should know how much the television people earn because it vividly illustrates the industry’s priorities.

News directors constantly complain that they don’t have enough reporters, even though they are paying anchors huge sums. Instead of drawing closer in tough economic times, the disparity between the salaries earned by anchors, sports reporters and weathermen and the salaries of those actually collecting and producing the news continues to grow, which in effect says that television managers sincerely believe that audiences are more interested in photogenic talking heads than getting a complete and thorough news package.

In San Diego, most anchors--all of whom currently have been in town for a few years--reportedly make at, near or above $200,000 a year, according to interviews with agents, reporters, management personnel and other assorted television industry sources. In other words, television news is still a lucrative career if you happen to be good looking and able to read out loud with some coherence.

When Michael Tuck was the main anchorman at Channel 10, published reports placed his salary at about $350,000, and in her last days at Channel 8, sources say Allison Ross was near the $300,000 plateau, but none of the current anchors have established that level of name recognition.

Channel 8 sports guy Ted Leitner, undoubtedly the highest-paid personality in town, is making about $600,000 a year, according to published reports, but that sum also covers his work with KFMB radio and the San Diego Padres. In general though, the lead Sports Guys in a market the size of San Diego can expect to earn between $90,000 and $150,000, according to the industry sources, and weather reporters usually fall into a similar range.

In most cases, anchors, sports and weather folk are paid more than their bosses, the news directors. They also can negotiate for a wide range of perks. Items such as Padres season tickets, country club memberships, clothing allowances and health clubs are commonly added into contracts, according to one agent. Others parlay a willingness to take a little less money for long-term deals.

The down side is that anchoring is an extremely insecure profession. Anchors are usually the first to be jettisoned if a newscast doesn’t attract ratings.

Reporters are also placed on the same precarious ledge, although not to the degree of anchors, but their salaries don’t come close to those of the anchors.

Most television reporters make salaries comparable to those of the best veteran reporters on the San Diego Union-Tribune or The Times. They usually start at about $40,000 to $45,000 a year at San Diego stations, and the best they can hope to make is maybe $70,000 to $80,000, adding only slightly more if they do some weekend anchoring.

For television reporters, the gravy train is over.

“In the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, television news was expanding so fast, you knew you were going to make some money,” said one reporter. “That has changed.”

According to the FCC, the broadcast industry, including radio and cable, lost 20,000 jobs since 1989, dropping from 175,599 to 155,311. So many reporters are out of work, including laid-off experienced reporters, that these days stations don’t need to pay outrageous sums for general assignment reporters, even in the major markets.

In recent years, KNSD-TV (Channel 39) has effectively fired almost all its veteran reporters and forced others to take cuts. In many cases, the reporters had priced themselves out of a job. Reporters whose salaries had grown to $75,000 or $80,000 often were replaced by reporters making far less who would, in some cases, work harder.

Channel 10 has also rounded out its staff in recent years with young, inexperienced reporters, some of whom are working in their first major television job. They usually make somewhere between $30,000 and $35,000 a year, which is comparable to what a KUSI-TV (Channel 51) reporter can expect to earn.

Channel 8 reportedly pays its reporters a little better than the other stations, primarily because most there are longtime employees.

However, whereas salaries were once dramatically higher at Channels 8 and 10, these days the sources say salaries are fairly consistent from station to station, particularly behind the cameras, where there is a dramatic drop in pay for the producers, writers and personnel who are often the key to a station’s news gathering potential.

The range for producers varies tremendously, depending on the duties. A newscast producer, basically responsible for the smooth production of a program, might make $22,000-$25,000 at Channel 39 or Channel 10. The Channel 8 newscast producers have been at the station for longer and certainly make more. Writers, associate producers and the other flotsam of the station--in many cases, key personnel who make key decisions--can make as little as $18,000. Even essential producers, who arrange for stories and design the video packages that makes the talking head look so good, rarely see their salaries rise above the $35,000 to $45,000 range.

Most photographers probably start at about $30,000 to $35,000 a year, and might reasonably expect to make $50,000 to $60,000 if they spend enough years at a station. The average sales manager at a television station makes far more than an experienced photographer, producer or reporter.

That a good producer or editor can have a dramatic impact on a newscast is virtually ignored in the salary game. The way the game is played, television is about personalities, and that’s as true of the 5 p.m. news as is it for “Roseanne.”

Veteran KSDO-AM reporter Wade Douglas was in stable condition Sunday after suffering what was described as a mild stroke late last week. . . .

Councilman George Stevens got his wish. Instead of referring to Southeast San Diego, a general moniker that Stevens recently deplored, Channel 10 last week made it clear that a crime spree went through the individual communities of Encanto, Skyline and Paradise Hills. . . .

The most entertaining coverage of the seizure of HomeFed was of company chairman Kim Fletcher’s bitter, rambling speech blaming everyone but management for the bank’s collapse, presented live on KUSI-TV (Channel 51). . . . Providing further evidence that, in the realm of television, a story is news if a station can get hold of a home video, Channel 10 turned a balloon accidentally landing in a Skyline neighborhood last week into a happening just a little less earth shattering than the Hindenburg explosion. . . . While everyone else is cutting back staff, Channel 51 has added two new photographers--Brian Dunn and former Channel 8 shooter Ray Saenz. The station has also added new studio cameras, which means newscasts should no longer look they’re being shot through a porch screen. . . .

Former Channel 39 and Times reporter Bill Ritter has landed with KCAL in Los Angeles. He’ll do nightly lead stories and some anchoring. . . .

For the second year in a row, Channel 10’s Marti Emerald and J.W. August--who win awards as often as some other TV journalists have plastic surgery--have won a National Press Club award for consumer journalism. . . .

Ken Erhardt’s libel suit against the San Diego Reader was dismissed last week, before the defense put on its case. He vows to continue the fight with a second suit, already filed, charging the paper with breach of contract and intentional infliction of emotional distress. . . .

The quintessential example, aired last week, of Channel 39’s latest series of commercials, which seem designed to prod every National Enquirer tabloid reader to fearfully huddle around their television sets to watch the station’s newscasts: “Find out how to protect yourself from killer bees,” the announcer intoned in ominous fashion.

CRITIC’S CHOICE: ‘MONSTER IN A BOX’

Spalding Gray is a storyteller, a monologuist who loves to talk about himself. That he has managed to translate his work on to the big screen is testimony to his wit and style and his ability to use his voice as an artistic weapon, prodding the audience to pay close attention. Best known for “Swimming to Cambodia,” his latest is “Monster in a Box,” which focuses on the traumas surrounding the completion of his autobiographical novel, “Impossible Vacation.” “Monster in a Box” is screening at the Hillcrest Cinemas.