Advertising Sales Salary Survey

Salaries rose in most areas, but many are bracing for the effects of recession.

By Joanna Pettas
06/01/2008

Advertising sales is a hot field to be in right now. According to FOLIO:’s Industry Job Trends report from March, it’s one of the most in-demand areas of magazine publishing—so much so that Discover Media’s CEO Henry Donahue said demand was outstripping supply, driving salaries up. Executives from Aspire Media, National Geographic and CurtCo all noted plans to staff up on sales people to help drive revenue during economic downturn.

But the sales directors, managers and reps who responded to FOLIO:’s Advertising Sales Salary Survey this year present a mixed report from the field—especially when it comes to the impact of e-media. “Online sales will offer additional earning potential,” one respondent said in a verbatim response. “Can’t make as much selling Web offerings as print pages, but they are just as time consuming,” said another.

Still, the survey shows ad salaries, in many areas, are healthy and growing, particularly for ad sales or regional managers at consumer magazines who saw an increase of almost 27 percent in base salary last year over the year before.

SALARY BY CATEGORY:
ADVERTISING SALES DIRECTOR

ADVERTISING SALES OR REGIONAL MANAGER

SALES PERSON, ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE, OR MANAGER

METHODOLOGY
The survey sample of 771 was selected by Red 7 Media and Readex Research and represented all FOLIO: subscribers classified as sales management at the time of sample selection. Data was collected via mail survey from February 25 to April 9, 2008. The survey was closed for tabulation with 315 responses (a 41 percent response rate). To ensure representation of the audience of interest, results have been filtered to include only the 249 respondents who completed the compensation information, work full time, and indicated their job functions are best described as advertising sales director; advertising sales or regional manager; advertising salesperson, account executive, or category manager. The margin of error for percentages based on all 249 respondents is 4.8 at the 95 percent confidence level.