Salaries in Publishing

Publisher’s Weekly just released their annual salary survey results. No big surprise: raises were lower and job dissatisfaction was higher!

Some stats from their data, which was based on 1,408 responses to an online survey sent to the magazine’s subscribers:

• The average raise in 2008 was only 3.3%, down from a recent high of 5.3% in 2005
• Only 13% of respondents feel “very secure” about their jobs, down from a high of 25% in 2005.
• 75% of respondents would recommend publishing as a career– in 2004, 86% said they would recommend it.
• Women’s average pay is $66,000, men’s is $96,600. I was surprised the disparity was that high, but maybe the survey responses come disproportionately from more junior employees. Although publishing employs a lot of women at all levels, including some of the highest executives, there still is probably a higher percentage of men in the upper echelons than in mid- and lower-level positions.
• 70% of respondents said their companies had instituted a salary freeze within the past year. 66% cut marketing budgets.

Median Compensation Based on Years Experience:

	Less than 3	3 to 6	7 to 10	Over 10
Editorial	$32,000	$40,000	$54,500	$80,250
Sales/Marketing	35,000	45,000	60,000	95,000
Management	93,250	77,625	94,500	132,000
Operations	37,750	42,750	60,000	74,500

(The survey sample is small enough that some oddities emerge here– I’m sure managment salaries don’t really tend to be lowest for people with 3-6 years experience!)

By these measures, I guess I’m not doing too badly. I have over 10 years experience and my salary is $93,000 plus a bonus that has been over $10,000 the last few years. My raise last year was around 4%, and it’s frozen for this year. I feel relatively secure about my job, at least for the moment! I like what I do and it works well for me in a lot of ways, but I don’t love it enough to not care about the money. Fortunately I’ve gotten past the entry level years when the money makes it a struggle to live in New York– now I just have to hope I can successfully navigate the turbulent waters of this fast-changing industry for another 30 years or so til I retire, or come up with some better career… Wish me luck!

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