Magazine salary survey released

The median salary for a top editor at a Canadian consumer magazine is just over $100,000 and about $45,000 for a feature writer, according to a survey released by Magazines Canada and Cultural Human Resources Council.

The study was conducted by Mercer (Canada) Ltd. in the Fall of 2008 and the data compiled is from survey submissions from 113 publications representing 29 organizations.

The salaries presented in the survey results are the median, meaning that fifty per cent of companies pay less than this amount, while fifty per cent pay more.

The results are divided into three categories: consumer, trade and special interest.

The median salary of a consumer mag publisher is $d159, 373, while a special interest publisher will earn a media yearly wage of just $40,000.

A selection of other results:

Consumer

• Managing editor – $72, 438
• Section/feature editor – $45,396
• Researcher – $47,877
• Photographer – $42, 070
• Copy editor – $48,543

Trade

• Publisher – $109,120
• Top editor – $68,437
• Section/Feature editor – $46,993

Special Interest

• Top editor – $58,239
• Managing editor – $39,179
• Section/Feature editor – $33,763

One anonymous commenter on D.B. Scott’s Canadian Magazines industry blog noted: “Amazing how out of whack with reality these numbers are. At my pub,
take the salary numbers from this survey and half them, and you’d be
closer.”

But Scott reminded the poster that it’s important to note that the results given are median numbers.