Financial forecast & traffic report

I came across some interesting information (especially for aspiring journalists) in the most recent edition of Editor and Publisher magazine.

First, what I referred to as the "financial forecast" is some data on the starting salaries of journalism school graduates. What I called the "traffic report" displayed information on how often newspaper editors check their website's traffic each day.

First, the money...

According to the Annual Survey of Journalism & Mass Communication Graduates at the University of Georgia, of J-School graduates:

* 63 percent of bachelor's degree recipients had a full-time job

* $30,000 is the median salary for bachelor's degree recipients

* $40,000 is the median salary for master's degree recipients

If nothing else, I think numbers like these simply reinforce the fact that you better love journalism is you're going to get into the field (especially today with all of the added duties brought on by the internet).

Now to those who already have jobs...

How often do editors check their own website traffic each day? Well, here's how much according to the Project for Excellence in Journalism: The Changing Newsroom report:

* 42 percent check it less than once

* 35 percent check it once

* 16 percent check it 2 to 3 times

* 6 percent check it more than 3 times

I don't know about you, but I found this to be quite shocking. I can't believe that 42 percent of editors do not check their site traffic at all during the day! I would expect a majority of them to check it at least once if not multiple times throughout the day!

What do you think? Do these figures (and those on salaries above) surprise you?