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Archive for February, 2009

Magazines, reading in a recession, and getting a job

Friday, February 20th, 2009

I always find it fascinating to see how our reading habits are affected in an economic slowdown.

Having worked in the book industry for 15 years, I remember cut-backs and good housekeeping being the order of the day after the dot.com bubble burst, but fundamentally, we were able to tough it out as our markets (the academic sector) and their purchasing decisions were not driven by the performance of the stock market.

Of course it’s much more serious this time. High profile redundancies at newspapers, book companies and magazines publishers are just a fact of life. I was interested to see some of the statistics behind these decisions when the Periodical Publishers Association (PPA) released their industry update.

But we like magazines. We like them so much that the UK consumer buys 20 magazines a year on average, and as a nation we spent £2.1 billion on consumer magazines last year. Phew. That’s a lot of magazines and a lot of reading. But dig down into the statistics a little bit, and you start to see a more startling picture.

As the relentless pace of the home-buying industry grinds to a halt, so do house and home style magazine title sales: only 3 titles out of 18 managed to maintain or increase their circulation in July-December 2008. The rest suffered falls of anything up to 25%. Try selling that to your advertisers as they see their businesses go down the pan.

So if you want to get into the industry, you’ve got to be motivated. It always was highly competitive, but it is even more so at the moment. However, there are still jobs out there. The PPA have noted high levels of activity on their magazine sector jobs board – PPA Jobs – since it launched last May. Those wanting to enter or get further in the industry workers are using the profile facility to load up their CV so employers can scan their details for appropriate candidates. They are also seeing a lot of active searching on the jobs listed by sector, discipline, location and salary.

If you’re looking to get into magazines, I’d recommend you have a look. But if you really want to impress, make sure you also get to grips with the statistics available on the industry, and be aware of – and realistic about – the sector you are trying to get into as Homes magazines aren’t the only ones suffering. Motivation, being proactive, and knowing your onions: that’s one way to really impress a potential employer.

Read about the latest Magazine industry statistics here.

Look for a job and load up your CV on to PPA Jobs website here.

Find out more about general careers advice from Skillset’s website here.

Posted in Publishing, Skillset | No Comments »

Skills – is it time to define them?

Wednesday, February 4th, 2009

As promised, another guest blog – this time from Mike Kelt of Artem, another industry member of the Facilities Skills Council.

Skills – is it time to define them?

We all work in an industry that has, by and large, made no attempt to define the skills and competencies within it. Where entering into and progressing through the industry is like driving in dense fog, with more hope than certainty of ever arriving.

So it is with some anticipation that Skillset have formed a Facilities Skills Council with the aim of dealing with these and other issues. Myself and other industry professionals have agreed to sit on it and I am sure we will all be pushing for action rather than words. It is a laudable move – after all, how can anyone truly say they know something if no one has ever defined what it is. How can you ever arrive without knowing where you are going?

Of course all those in the industry, without such ‘qualifications’ may feel threatened if the existing skills they have are not recognised, so that has to be a prime consideration, but it is these groups of experienced practitioners that need to pass on their hard fought knowledge, and shape the industry of tomorrow. We live in ever faster moving times, with demands placed on everyone to do it quicker, cheaper, sometimes better, sometimes safer, and the pressure is always mounting. I often hear the thought expressed that the budgets can’t be squeezed tighter, but tighter they inevitably become, and along the way less and less experienced individuals are employed as a result. It can only be a matter of time before the inexperience leads to unacceptable safety lapses and ever more dangerous situations. As they say – accidents will happen.

By defining the skills and competencies in the industry there becomes a blueprint for measuring everyone against – a framework for employers and production companies that is clear and reliable. And it gives clear objectives for individuals to measure themselves against, and a career structure that has been too long in the coming.

Artem, with UK Screen, have been pushing over the last six months to do exactly the above – it is with some excitement that I view the future of our industry.

Posted in Facilities, Skillset | No Comments »