Which WaPo Writers Are Pulling in $230K?
The Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild yesterday released a survey of salaries in the newsroom of the Washington Post. Most of the document is a snooze: A lot of editorial aides are earning salaries in the $30,000 range and a lot of reporters hover in high five-figure, low six-figure territory.
There is, however, one fun detail: Three employees in the category of “Reporter, Bureau Chief or Columnist” are pulling down between $230,000 and $239,000. As this this publication made clear last month, that salary is higher than the base pay of the paper’s tier of assistant managing editors.
So who are these three well-paid Posties? I’m guessing that two of them are Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser, the ESPNers who have a leg up in just about any set of negotiations over compensation. Kornheiser, of course, took this year’s buyout offer.
The third?
9 Responses to “Which WaPo Writers Are Pulling in $230K?”
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July 10th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
Dana Priest. She’s the Midas of Post journalism - everything she touches is gold.
July 10th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
i’d bet david ignatius
July 10th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
Kornheiser is gone and Ignatius is exempt and therefore his salary’s not on that list. Try Anthony Shadid or Gene Weingarten.
July 10th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
There are good clues in the breakdown by age/sex/ethnicity provided by the union. The three include one black and two whites, and all three are men. The three have an average age of 50.1 years and have spent an average of 25.3 years at The Post.
My money is on Tom Shales, Dan Balz and Michael Wilborn
July 10th, 2008 at 2:09 pm
an addendum: it is unclear if this list includes “associate editors,” a category that includes senior former editors such as Robert Kaiser, Karen DeYoung, Jim Hoagland and David Maraniss. You never really take a cut in pay when you step down from management at the Post, so many of these higher salaries could reflect this group.
July 10th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
Shales took a buyout when one was offered a couple of years ago, and has been on contract since then. It seems unlikely to be him.
July 10th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
oops, didn’t know that. Shales had been one of the highest paid folks.
July 10th, 2008 at 5:52 pm
Let’s do the math.
If the first two are Kornheiser and Wilbon… Kornheiser is 59 and has been there 29 years. Wilbon is 49 and has been there 28 years too.
That means the third guy is a 42-year-old white male who has been there 19 years–which would presumably be since an intern.
July 11th, 2008 at 10:07 am
Bart Gellman has been at the Post 19 years but his age is probably closer to 47-48, but of course one of other variables (ie, Kornheiser or Wilborn) may be off.