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Join TSPR for a weekly conversation about media issues. News Director Rich Egger and expert panelists discuss what’s in the news about the news business.

A Call for Pay Equity at The Post

The Washington Post is owned by Jeff Bezos, who is also the founder and CEO of Amazon.  His net worth is approximately $153 billion, according to a piece in Columbia Journalism Review. The story said Bezos could bring pay equity to the staff of the newspaper without missing the money required to do so.

Pay equity is an issue at the paper because the Washington Post Guild conducted a full study on pay equity last year.

The story reported the guild found that, in 2019 (six years into Bezos’ ownership of the paper), women in the newsroom were paid less than men; employees of color were paid less than white men, “even when controlling for age and job description”; and men earned a higher portion of merit raises than women “despite accounting for a smaller proportion of the newsroom.”

The Shop Talk panelists discuss why they support pay equity and why newspaper owners should invest in the reporters who are creating the product.

Shop Talk is a weekly panel discussion about journalism issues.  This week’s program featured Will Buss, who teaches in the Department of Broadcasting and Journalism at Western Illinois University and advises the student editors at the Western Courier, the students at student radio station The Dog, and the WIU chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists; Rajvee Subramanian, who teaches in the Department of Broadcasting and Journalism at Western Illinois University; and TSPR News Director Rich Egger.

Rich is TSPR's News Director.