Meet the entry-level employees

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, April 1, 1996 by Tony Silber

Question: You're an entry-level job applicant or first-year employee. How do you perceive the magazine industry?

A: It's a vibrant, glamorous business, where the pay may be low initially, but the perks are good and innovation is nonstop and dazzling.

B: It's a staid industry, unable to keep pace with technology and offering an increasingly murky career path.

Answer: A--but qualified, if you're one of the 277 respondents to Folio:'s first-ever survey of salaries and attitudes among entry-level employees. People like. what they're doing, in spite of underlying economic concerns that in turn leave management wondering whether the magazine industry is still attracting the best and the brightest new job-seekers.

Our entry-level employees are largely satisfied with their jobs, even though they have a beef about their wages. They are highly educated, with 77 percent attaining a bachelor's degree and 5 percent gaining a master's degree.

The freshman class has a median age of slightly over 26. It is mainly white, with only 20 percent of respondents indicating they are non-white. Nearly 70 percent got their jobs either through an ad or a connection. And 80 percent rate the quality of life at their companies as good or excellent. "The commitment to excellence is evident among all staff, the benefits are good, the work atmosphere is pleasant and the focus of the magazine is 'happening' right now,'" writes a production assistant based in the mid-Atlantic region. He adds, however, that his salary in the mid-$20s makes living on his own beyond his means right now.

That observation underscores broader feelings of apprehension: People like what they're doing, but are concerned about the future. Says Phyllis Reed, director of the Business Press Educational Foundation's student intern program, "I think the general economic upheaval is having the same effect on people seeking careers in the trade press as it is on everyone else. Every time there's another merger, people wonder how they're going to feed their families."

And management wonders whether this uncertainty is driving the best people away from the magazine industry, despite "the still-solid demographics and largely positive attitudes indicated here." The problems that young people see in publishing today are the same problems that management sees--the whole industry is going through a metamorphosis, a transition into technology," says Roland DeSilva, head of a New York City-based recruiting firm. "Because of that, young people can't see a clear career path. They can't see what the learning curve is. So where are they going? They're going to the technology companies. They're going to the financial-services companies."

Outright pessimism is most pronounced in the New York City area. Only 44 percent from that section of the country report that they can live reasonably well on their salaries. And New York City-area respondents report that they expect only a truly minuscule salary increase of 0. 17 percent for 1996, compared to a 10.4 percent anticipated raise for all respondents and a whopping 20.4 percent hike for those in the West. What's more, New York City respondents are the least satisfied with their jobs. About 67 percent say they are satisfied, a lower percentage than from any other region. Finally, as indicated in the chart below, only 59 percent of the New York City-region respondents report that they see a future at their present companies.

What's all this telling us? For starters, New York is just a more competitive place. "The talent pool is larger," DeSilva notes. "And when the talent pool is larger, simple supply and demand takes over." It also suggests that people outside of New York are reaching parity.

Ultimately, we may simply have to work harder to recruit quality people, and here, perhaps, we can take a lesson from Vernon Henry, director of editorial training for Cleveland-based Advanstar Communications: "We really make an effort to cultivate relationships," he says. "We will go to their job fairs, go to their classes. I'm very pleased with the caliber of the people we're seeing."

RELATED ARTICLE: JOB SATISFACTION

ARE YOU SATISFIED WITH YOUR CURRENT JOB?(***)
                       YES        NO
All respondents        77%        21%
Trade                  79%        20
Consumer               76         23
Male                   84         15
Female                 74         25
BY YEARS IN POSITION
Less than a year       80%        19%
i year                 80         17
2 years                67         33
3 years                86         14
More than 3 years       *          *
BY AGE
20-24                  77%        19%
25-29                  78         22
30-34                  78         22
35 or older            71         29
BY REGION
Northeast              75%        24%
NYC region             67         31
South                  72         26
Midwest                84         16
West                   82         17

(*) Insufficient data to report results. (***) Some percentages do not add up to 100 because those who did not answer the question are excluded.