Is Publishing Becoming a Minimum Wage Trade?

The memo received by BNP Media staffers this week alerting them to 25 percent salary cuts for the foreseeable future includes a line that jumps off the page almost as much as that "25 percent" figure: "Minimum wage will be the floor for this reduction."

It's a line that assures employees the company won't be cutting below minimum wage (which of course, would be illegal), and only applies to those support positions that may be hovering around minimum wage after the 25 percent cuts.

But still, are things so bad that we have to be assured now that salaries won't be cut to minimum wage? Salary cuts usually start at the top and the Henderson family (who owns BNP) have taken theirs as well. However, an associate editor making $40,000 who is hit with a 25 percent salary cut is suddenly making $30,000. Forget trying to live on that in publishing capitals like New York City-that's a tough hit anywhere (BNP is based near Detroit).

As publishers continue to make cuts to keep their businesses alive, they need to be mindful of labor rules and regulations in their state, particularly with employees below a certain salary level. As Southern Breeze editor Mark Newman noted in FOLIO:'s March issue, many high level employees (particularly editors) need to "stop being figureheads and do some work." But for those entry and associate level employees, for whom the historic trade-off has always been "low pay but great experience," the returns are getting harder to justify.

The company leaders who impose these cuts will need to balance their contribution margins against the eventual pushback: The unwillingness of their teams to tolerate major pay cuts even as they're being asked to do significantly more work. It's a dangerously narrow line to walk.

RELATED LINKS

BNP Cuts Salaries 25 Percent http://www.foliomag.com/2009/how-lean-too-lean How Lean Is Too Lean?

By Matt Kinsman --

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Will the last person leaving

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 04/30/2009 - 14:15.

Will the last person leaving the B2B publishing industry please turn out the lights?

Pretty soon it will be

Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 05/01/2009 - 14:44.

Pretty soon it will be unusual to have any pay associated with editorial jobs at all.

Just poor memo targeting

Submitted by Lonny Salberg on Sat, 05/02/2009 - 18:53.

It strikes me that any company that distributes a memo to executives announcing key initiatives, such as the 25 percent pay cuts, should keep in mind its target readers and their corporate net intellect. Assuming for a moment that BNP Media has hired intelligent executive level employees (and there's no reason to assume otherwise), along with editors, writers, and production personnel, does it not seem a bit thoughtless that they would include the admonition about the minimum wage? For the very few employees that might face such a concern, would they not have supervisors individually explaining the ramifications? Or is this supposed to be the one-and-only communique from the company that all employees, at all levels, are supposed to digest and interpret? If so, such knee-jerk memos may shed insight deeper into the chaos surrounding BNP Media, and perhaps the magazine industry overall, then the pay cuts themselves. As a publisher of, well, words and images, one would think they more than most would be acutely aware of a few poorly chosen (or targeted) words.

B2B Publishing Woes

Submitted by Marianne Paskowski on Sun, 05/03/2009 - 18:49.

Having worked at RBI, among the largest B2B publishing company none of this surprises me. I found my experience at RBI frustrating, the CEO did not appreciate the value that editors have in their relationships with sources. Worse yet, and hence the kiss of death, the typical B2B CEO does not value the relationships sales people have with their clients. So why is anyone surprised that is happening? I'm not. The problem is simple, RBI, like most B2B companies do not know how to monetize the Internet because they gave it away for free and never devoted resources to developing specialized products. It's a joke, glad I'm doing other things.

This is news?

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 05/05/2009 - 10:14.

Oh, please. Mag publishing--especially B2B--always paid crap. I could've made more money as night manager at Taco Bell. That's why I got out.