Recent magazine industry turmoil – disruption by the internet, revenue declines, buyouts, downsizing – seems not to have had an overwhelmingly negative impact on the job satisfaction of the magazine-industry workforce, according to Folio:.
Folio:‘s first-every industry job-satisfaction survey found that nearly three-quarters (73%) of magazine workers say they are satisfied with their jobs, while more than a quarter (27%) say they are dissatisfied.
Other key findings:
- The most satisfied are corporate managers and events staff – 85% and 82%, respectively.
- The least satisfied are finance and sales staff – 60% and 66%, respectively.
- 80% of respondents said training and education are key to job satisfaction.
- Yet 70% said they spent less than 10 hours on job-related training in the previous 12 months.
- Fear of job loss is most prominent among mass/consumer and B2B magazines: 26% and 25% of their workforces, respectively, say they fear losing their job.
- 68% said their companies had not downsized in the previous 12 months; 32% said there has been downsizing.
- 22% said their companies have changed hands in the past two years
- More than one-third – 38% – of those that changed ownership were acquired by private equity firms.
- 74% of those acquired by PE firms said the impact was positive; 26% said it was not.
- 40% said they believe the industry’s future is bright; 39% said it isn’t (and blamed digital media).
- However, 64% said print remains the area of the company that has the most status.
(Folio: has many more findings and charts here, here and here.)Â
About the study: The survey email list of 10,179 was selected from a Folio: database of magazine professionals. E-mail and tabulation were handled by Zoomerang. Data was collected via email from August 3 to August 10, 2007. The survey was closed for tabulation with 1,082 usable responses – an 11% response rate.
