Salaries and workloads increasing for circulators - Folio:'s 1994 Circulation Salary Survey

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Dec 15, 1994 by Tony Silber, Rolf Maurer

Salaries for circulation executives increased at a solid, sustained pace for the second year in a row in 1994, with both circulation directors and managers doing better than 6 percent on average. Nonetheless, circulators report that workloads are increasing more rapidly than pay, making raises seem, at times, inadequate. "In circulation, the responsibility always increases while the pay alway stays the same," writes a vice president of circulation from a trade magazine in Illinois.

In case after case, and for a slew of reasons--downsizing, for example, or obtaining an audit, or gaining additional titles, or taking newsstand distribution in-house--this year's respondents say they're doing more but not being compensated equitably. "In 1992, they eliminated the circ-director position and put the director of production over circ as well," writes a circulation manager at a trade title in Minnesota. "She isn't a working circulation person, so I've taken on the daily work of the circ director without the title or pay."

Circulation directors saw major increases in bonuses (which are sizable to begin with), another indication that the industry is moving toward rewarding performance based on specific goals. Overall, circulation directors' bonuses increased by 22.1 percent, from $6,255 to $7,642.

Their base salaries went up, too, but much less spectacularly. On the consumer side, salaries for circulation directors increased by 9.1 percent, from $45,470 to $49,600. Trademagazine circulation directors had smaller pay increases, but still make more, on average--they went from $48,876 last year to $50,600 in 1994, a 3.5 percent increase.

Circulation managers--generally the number-two people in the department--enjoyed more consistent pay increases, with those on the consumer-magazine side going from an average of $31,968 in 1993 to $33,800 this year, for an average increase of about 5.7 percent. Their trade-side counterparts enjoyed an increase averaging 6.7 percent, from $31,776 to $33,900. Bonuses for the circulation managers were more erratic. Consumer-magazine circulation managers saw their average bonuses decline by 42.2 percent. Trade-side circulation managers reported an increase in their average bonuses, but only from a modest base.

METHODOLOGY

FOLIO: mailed its 10th annual circulation salary survey to 942 circulation professionals in two mailings, July and August. Three hundred thirty-one circulation professionals responded, yielding an overall response rate of 35.1 percent. Of all the questionnaires received, 293 contained sufficient information for tabulation. Some respondents gave expected salary and bonus ranges. In these instances, the mean was used for tabulation. Half of those in each group work for consumer magazines, the other half work for trade titles. Overall, 35 percent of the sample in each category work on magazines with circulations of 100,000 or more. The remainder work for magazines with smaller circulations.

Survey results were tabulated by Accu-Tab, Inc., Bayside, New York.

CIRCULATION DIRECTOR

CIRCULATION DIRECTOR OR TOP CIRCULATION EXECUTIVE: Plans, directs and coordinates circulation-marketing efforts. Directly responsible for budgeting and analyses of single-copy sales and all subscription programs, list rentals and database planning and maintenance.

Typically, the greater the frequency, the higher the pay. But our survey shows this is not necessarily true for circulation directors who work on monthly titles. Their colleagues on less-frequent magazines earn close to the same amount.

Circulation directors who work on more than one magazine report that they make more money than those who work on just one. This bucks a trend in magazine-industry salaries--even in circulation pay as recently as last year. Our data also show that it pays to work on an audited title, and it pays a lot to work on one with an ABC audit. Directors who work on audited titles earn on average $15,000 to $20,000 more than their counterparts on unaudited magazines.

                                              Average     Average
                                    Average   Business   Consumer
BY AGE
Up to 29                            $34,252   $33,166     $35,348
30-39                                49,321    50,147      48,608
40-49                                57,252    55,738      58,626
50 or more                           51,789    56,909      44,869
RESPONSIBLE FOR
One magazine                        $43,377   $46,342     $41,735
More than one magazine               52,987    51,767      54,446
BY NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES SUPERVISED
None/one                            $35,311   $37,611     $33,717
2-4                                  50,173    48,184      52,086
More than 4                          76,355    68,892      88,709
BY CIRCULATION
Up to 19,999                        $30,794   $35,677     $24,714
20,000-49,999                        41,024    42,003      39,375
50,000-99,999                        42,457    50,233      39,069
100,000-499,999                      61,100    62,142      59,308
500,000 or more                      82,074       (*)      84,656
BY FREQUENCY
Weekly/biweekly                     $58,147   $57,361     $59,544
Monthly                              48,822    47,498      50,137
Other                                45,472    49,533      43,617
BY CIRCULATION TYPE
Paid                                $51,830   $53,084     $51,360
Unpaid                               47,869    49,464      39,880
AUDITED BY
ABC                                 $59,689   $59,433     $59,791
BPA                                  49,607    48,045      58,427
Both/other                              (*)       (*)         (*)
None                                 34,273       (*)      31,822