Specialized-information publishers continue to rank among the highest communications companies in the country in terms of paying brand new bachelors degree journalism graduates, according to the latest survey of journalism and mass communications graduates conducted by the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism & Mass Communications.

The Specialized Information Publishers Foundation is a sponsor of the annual study.

Professor Lee Becker of the college’s James M. Cox Jr. Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research and the survey team leader reported at the Association of Educators in Journalism and Mass Communications earlier this month that overall median salaries for 2007 bachelor’s degree recipients remained unchanged at $30,000 from the starting salaries received by students in their first year of work after being graduated in 2006.

However, the survey showed the median salary for graduates taking jobs in specialized-information publishing in 2007 was $32,000, $1,000 higher than salaries in 2006, an increase of 3.23%.

Only one other category, Web-only publishing, paid higher than $32,000, showing a median salary of $37,400 for first-year journalism grads. Three other categories — advertising, public relations, and consumer magazines — matched specialized-information publishing’s $32,000 level.

Radio stations paid the lowest salaries for starting journalism graduates at $25,000. Other categories and their median salaries were weeklies, $26,900; dailies, $28,000; television, $29,300; and cable television, $30,500.

The survey report showed the 2007 starting salary of $32,000 was equal to $15,882 in real 1982 dollars when adjusted for inflation.

The 3.23% increase in specialized-information publishing starting salaries placed the industry in the middle of the pack in terms of salary growth for new journalism graduates. The $5,900 increase in salaries for Web publishing was the highest increase, at 18.73%. The $4,000 gain for consumer magazines was the second-highest. Radio showed the biggest decline, decreasing $2,000, or 7.41%. Other decliners were cable, with an $860, 2.85% decrease, and broadcast, with a $440, 1.8% decrease.

While specialized-information publishers are among the highest payers of brand-new journalism graduates, not many of those graduates work in the field. Of the 2,112 2007 graduates responding to the survey, 1.7% said they were working in specialized-information publishing. That compares with 6.1% working for ad agencies, 6% in television and 5.6% in daily newspapers. Wire services had the smallest percentage of new-graduate hires, with 0.2%. Some 41% of the new journalism graduates were not working in the communications field at the end of October 2007, the base date for the information.

Last year, 1.5% of the 2,290 respondents said they were working in specialized-information publishing.

Overall journalism job market flat

Becker reported that the study showed the job market for journalism and mass communication graduates in the second half of 2007 and the first half of 2008 remained largely unchanged from a year earlier. Most of the gains by such categories as online and specialized-information publishing were offset by losses brought on by turmoil in traditional media industries, he said. He pointed to layoffs in the daily newspaper category as a particular factor depressing chances of overall growth in the job market for new journalists.

“The continuing decline in the overall U.S. labor market in the first half of 2008 and the number of announcements of layoffs at large newspapers, however, does not bode well for the 2007 graduates still seeking work or for the 2008 graduates who have now joined them in the job market,” Becker concluded in his executive summary of the report.

Meanwhile, journalism masters degree graduates did better than their bachelors degree counterparts in terms of salaries. The median salaries for first year masters graduates increased by 5.3% from $38,000 in 2006 to $40,000 in 2007. The study did not provide breakout salary figures by the various media segments at the masters level because the total sample size of 159 masters graduates was too small for such segmentation.

While only 1% of the bachelors degree survey respondents said they had taken jobs with Web-based publishers, the importance of the Web to journalists’ careers continues to grow. Writing and editing for the Web was part of the jobs of 55.6% of those bachelors degree graduates with jobs in communications. That compares with 41.5% a year earlier.

For a copy of the full report on the survey and the associated charts and graphs, go to www.grady.uga.edu/annualsurveys/.

The Federal Trade Commission has made two amendments to its Telemarketing Sales Rule that mostly affect calls to consumers, but can have some impact on B2B telemarketing calls by SIPA members. The first change prohibits telemarketing calls to consumers using prerecorded messages, unless the recipient has previously agreed to receive such calls from the marketer. Permission for such calls must be obtained via a signed, written agreement, although any method for transmitting such permission allowed by the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (E-Sign Act) can be used. Telemarketers are allowed to continue making calls to consumers with whom they have an established business relationship for a year after the effective date of the amendment, and then they must get the written permission. The second amendment changes the way call abandonment rates are measured. A call is considered abandoned when the telemarketing company uses a predictive dialer and no live sales representative is available when the call recipient answers the phone. Under current regs, the FTC calculates the abandonment rate (it can’t be more than 3%) daily; the new regs change that to a per-campaign basis over a 30-day period. These regulations apply to telemarketing calls to consumers, but would apply to any calls made to consultants, independent contractors or business employees using their home phone as a business number.