Which is better and who makes more money? Being a journalist(reporter/celeb news/etc) or an artist(cartoonist,painter/etc)?

Journalist average $26K – $44K
Artist average $24K – $52K

Matt Groenig probably makes more in a year from the Simpsons than my parents made in a lifetime of journalism.

And so does Katie Couric.

Both…if you are at the top of your game you can make a lot of money. Almost all of the most “successful” superstars in the fields of all of the above do it because they love what they are doing and the gobs of money they get is secondary if even that.

Perhaps a better question is, Which job will provide the most opportunities for work in the current economic environment? My guess would be journalist, but I’m not sure.

It depends on what you want to do as a journalist. If it was me, I’d choose journalism because no matter what the pay, you get to travel on the company’s dime, and have awesome adventures like living with aboriginal tribes all over the world for months and months just to write one column. There’s really so much variety within both fields that without knowing any kind of specialties, it’s really hard to say which could earn more money. You can also do photo journalism.

The first thing to consider in your comparison is that “celeb news” does not fall under the umbrella of “journalism”.

Artists of any kind — visual artists, writers, musicians — have to be willing to starve. Art can’t be something one intends to do for money; it has to be for the love of creating it.

Journalists also have to be willing to starve. Reporting has never paid well, and reporting jobs are fewer every day.

In short, if you have to ask “which is better, and who makes more money?”, neither profession is for you. Art and journalism are callings — people are born to do it, they don’t know why they were chosen to do it, but they pursue it for their whole lives without any regard for material. The Eastern philosophy is that if you don’t know why you do what you do, that’s probably the best reason — you just have to do it.

You have to be extremely good to make any money at being an artist. You also have to be extremely lucky. It’s a bit like trying to be a Hollywood actor. Anyone can be an actor and get small low-paid parts, but only the top few make the big bucks and everyone else needs to keep the day-job.

With journalism it’s a job with a guaranteed salary (usually a very low one). Art jobs with a guaranteed salary are very rare, most artists are self-employed.

@frdelrosario Oh, wow, I didn’t even see the celeb news part. I call them anchors or paparazzi, depending on if they’re doing the telling or the finding out. Maybe reporters if I’m being nice. I think of journalism as telling us what’s going on in the Congo, or at the very least digging up the next Watergate scandal.