What Goes Up Must Come Down

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, August, 2001

Given the steady drumbeat of layoff stories and tales of advertising woe, we all know that the industry is going through the toughest patch it's faced in a decade. But there's something about a precipitous drop in salaries that hammers home just how bad the marketplace really is.

In this issue we present the findings of FOLIO:'s 17th annual editorial salary survey-and they are not pretty. After several years of healthy single-digit (and sometimes double-digit) gains across all strata of the masthead, salaries fell in almost all categories. Business-to- business and consumer editors fared equally poorly, their base salaries heading downward in every job tide we track-editor in chief, executive editor, managing editor and senior editor. As one editor in chief found, job hunters are now actually downplaying their previous salaries; they understand that their wages from that dotcom or high-tech magazine were a bonanza they are unlikely to see again, and they don't want to knock themselves out of the running for jobs with more realistic salaries.

The bonus checks our respondents will receive are expected to be a little lighter, too. Our survey found that editors in chief anticipate bonuses more than $4,000 less than last year.

Reasons for the plunge were not too difficult to find. Competition for talent is not as intense, as many dot-corns have gone out of business or scaled back drastically. And layoffs and voluntary buyouts have removed a disproportionate number of the more experienced-and therefore more expensive-workers from the equation. In other words, it's a buyer's market.

This year, we've decided to add a little twist to our survey results-estimated salaries for some of the top editors in the business, as well as the going rates for lesser positions at magazines large and small, trade and consumer. The package, which begins on page 33, is sure to be a conversation starter. Let us know what you think.

LORNE MANLY,

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR