Where has all the money gone?

We've all heard it from various managers. "We don't have the money." Whether you're asking for a raise or hearing that a News Director can't afford to fly you out for an interview, it makes you wonder if the money in broadcasting is that tight.

Believe it.

Cutbacks in the industry started around 1990 and they haven't stopped. The most telling fact is that starting salaries for reporters today are the same as they were twenty years ago.

Now let me explain where the money has gone. There are five basic culprits: cable, satellite, network compensation, the switch to digital and gas prices.

Back when I was a kid and watched the New York City channels, there were only six commercial stations. And they divided the viewership pie. Now flash forward to the present. There are hundreds of stations on cable & satellite, all vying for a tiny slice that even Jenny Craig would consider small. The networks, which used to have more than 90 percent of the prime time audience, saw that figure dip under fifty percent a few years ago. And it continues to drop. That means the sales department can't charge as much for commercial time.

Gas prices? Well, just imagine filling up a dozen news cars and live trucks. That has blown up the budget of many local newsrooms.

But you probably know all that. Here's what you might not know.

Thirty years ago you could be a crash dummy and make a huge profit running a network affiliate. The reason? A nice check called "network compensation" or "network comp." The networks compensated affiliates for running its programming. As cable & satellite grew, network comp began to get smaller and smaller until it was gone. So a giant source of revenue disappeared.

Then Congress mandated the switch to digital. Without going into the engineering aspects of this, I'll simply state that the switch ain't cheap.

So, television stations and networks have lost revenue while increasing expenses. (Think of a two income household that loses one income while getting hit with a huge property tax increase.) The result? Salaries that don't even approach the level of the 1970's & '80's.

Ah, but there's the Internet, you say. Well, that is a growing source of revenue but right now it doesn't compare with what television stations have lost. And when you see NBC closing bureaus and ABC laying off staffers, it makes you wonder.

Will it all get better? Is there a future in this business?

Well, if you'd told me ten years ago that I could carry a phone in my pocket, shoot video with it and send it to the network from that phone I would have told you that you were out of your mind. Ten years from now? Who knows. I wish I could time warp to the future like the characters in "Lost."

With that in mind, here's some advice. Be versatile. Learn as much as you can. Pick up a masters degree in your spare time so you can teach. Polish your writing skills, as the Internet devours copy at an alarming rate.

One thing is certain. There will always be a news business. Just don't get caught short when it changes.