We're making money but not changing the world
Well the Reptile Salary Survey turned out to be a bust. I guess we'll all have to wait to see what Masthead comes up with.
A few more entries came in bringing the sample to a lucky seven. Final results:
Imagine how hard it is to sell an ad in say Canadian Dimension, the little lefty magazine from Winnipeg (For People Who Want To Change The World)? Sure the ads go for only $1,075. But apparently there are only 3,000 people in Canada who want to change the world badly enough to subscribe and that makes for a sky-high CPM of $358. And which advertiser is targeting people who want to change the world anyways? Somehow they have managed to publish since 1963 however I don't suspect it is their ad sales that is keeping them alive. But then I've never seen an issue and for all I know, it's full of home decorating ads (maybe people who want to change the world start small, perhaps by first changing their mattress or paint colour).
Now I don't mean to pick on Canadian Dimension, it was randomly selected from the hundreds of small magazines that populate CARD. But really, it must be a bitch to sell -- no natural ad category, no audit, no PMB, no size, no sexiness... The poor rep trying to sell ads into a magazine like this will never cut through the clutter, and why should she - would you find the time for her if you were a media planner?. Then again, I don't suspect that Canadian Dimension is in it for the lucre. But many small magazines are. And it is tough!
Then there are the Chatelaines and Canadian House & Homes and Flares of this world and the fish are literally jumping into the boat making the fishermen rich paper pushers. How hard could it be answering the phone all day and printing out insertion orders? The biggest challenge is where to place all the damn ads since they all want to be up front, on a right hand page, opposite 100% editorial with six pages of separation between their competitors. Where is the justice?
A few more entries came in bringing the sample to a lucky seven. Final results:
- Last Year's Range: $68,000-215,000
- Last Year's Average: $112,300
- Best Year's Range: $70,000-215,000
- Best Year's Average: $123,000
Imagine how hard it is to sell an ad in say Canadian Dimension, the little lefty magazine from Winnipeg (For People Who Want To Change The World)? Sure the ads go for only $1,075. But apparently there are only 3,000 people in Canada who want to change the world badly enough to subscribe and that makes for a sky-high CPM of $358. And which advertiser is targeting people who want to change the world anyways? Somehow they have managed to publish since 1963 however I don't suspect it is their ad sales that is keeping them alive. But then I've never seen an issue and for all I know, it's full of home decorating ads (maybe people who want to change the world start small, perhaps by first changing their mattress or paint colour).Now I don't mean to pick on Canadian Dimension, it was randomly selected from the hundreds of small magazines that populate CARD. But really, it must be a bitch to sell -- no natural ad category, no audit, no PMB, no size, no sexiness... The poor rep trying to sell ads into a magazine like this will never cut through the clutter, and why should she - would you find the time for her if you were a media planner?. Then again, I don't suspect that Canadian Dimension is in it for the lucre. But many small magazines are. And it is tough!
Then there are the Chatelaines and Canadian House & Homes and Flares of this world and the fish are literally jumping into the boat making the fishermen rich paper pushers. How hard could it be answering the phone all day and printing out insertion orders? The biggest challenge is where to place all the damn ads since they all want to be up front, on a right hand page, opposite 100% editorial with six pages of separation between their competitors. Where is the justice?
posted by Reptile at 11:05 AM
5 Comments:
You're just begging for a comment on that, so I'll forward this to my friend who happened to sell ads for Chatelaine, and has now moved on to a smaller start-up mag. She worked darn hard and was not just an order-taker! What your POV leaves out is that every other magzine is trying to eat the lunch of the large mags, and with their mighty circulation and readership it's easy to lose readers, harder to gain. When they hire, they are flooded with applications, and can therefore have their pick. How hard you work to GET the job is just a taste of how hard you have to work to KEEP the job.
I disagree; reps at Chatelaine and Canadian House and Home receive more pie based on easy reach planning.
OK Reptile; you are back in my good books. As one of those sloggers on the fringes, I really do not want to know about those making well over 100 large repping magazines, as I put in 14 hour days to make half of that. Am I crazy? Probably, and glad to know I am not alone.
Perhaps we receive more pie because we perform well which is the ultimate objective of any campaign. We also work double as hard as other reps despite what you think. I have worked for both of these large magazine houses that represent several titles and I will tell you which reps are the ones here over lunch hours and until 7 or 8 at night. It is the reps working on the big titles, not the ones complaining that it's so hard to get a break if you are not a big player. I can also measure the stress levels of the two groups and again, our high stress levels prevail. We are also often fighting amongst eachother for the business. Not every client can afford to buy both reach books.
So it becomes a game of who will get an entire budget - when you lose that game it is not much fun...It is very easy to say we sit back and wait for the phone to ring - unfortunately, those of you complaining are probably doing just that while we are out being pro-active and finding new avenues for you to try and steal away from us.
So you're a hard working rep with a dash of paranoia. I take it that today was a bit slow and you found some time to respond to my offensive blog. Thanks for the comment - you are absolutely right of course.
By the way, how much money do you make?
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