PressEthic

After getting my bachelor’s degree, had I gone into an entry-level reporting job instead of graduate-school debt, I would have made about $30,000 a year.

I would have accepted that. I don’t think a lot of journalists are in it for the money, and writers kind of fall under that “starving artist” umbrella anyway. Writers have to write, and they pretty much do it for that reason no matter what. Hence, the integrity of journalism, and journalists, remains in tact.

That’s all idyllic and charming, of course, but it’s not keeping gas in my car. Or paying my rent. Or, well, I like shoes too. Point is, the right salary could make any job a journalist’s dream job, no matter how pure his intentions.

Witness New York magazine's salary guide.

Scroll down past 50 Cent (people really make more than Diddy?) to the “Media” section. Not surprisingly, publishers and top editors in New York are doing all right for themselves. Superb New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman commands a hefty $300,000 before speaking engagements, but he can pretty much do whatever he wants in my eyes.

Look who else made $300,000 this year. His name’s Richard Johnson, and he’s the gossip columnist on “Page Six.”

But a reporter's pay can't pay that far off, right? Um, no.

Why struggle up the pay ladder covering lame topics like education when writing cute little quips about Paris Hilton’s dog is so lucrative?

Maybe journalists’ incomes shouldn’t rival those of movie stars. The prices top papers pay for their star reporters probably did its part in contributing to those infamous media scandals. But can journalists stay fixated on the dirtier, harder work - the real reporting - that’s rewarding in an entirely different way?

I love investigative stories and FOIA audits as much as the next guy, but would I ditch them for $300,000 worth of celebrity breakups and drunken cat fights?

It’d buy a lot of shoes.