The AAP's trade executive committee, meanwhile, has invited a number of speakers to address the question of the industry's hiring practices at a May 9 meeting. One of the speakers at the meeting will be Newmarket's Margolis, who, along with Applause Books' Kay Radtke, held a one-day publishing seminar earlier this year at their alma mater, the University of Michigan. All they thought about were editorial jobs. A more aggressive recruitment policy is necessary because, as PW 's survey illustrates, publishers find it more difficult to recruit new employees than to retain them. The best people are going elsewhere.
People have many more options now, and publishing can still be a slow career advancement industry.
The corporate administrator at a nonprofit publisher reported that she had to hire a new production person who had fewer skills than the previous employee at the same salary because the job had been open for three months. A number of survey respondents reported that many jobs have remained unfilled for a long period of time. The low unemployment rate and the rise of Internet companies, with their stock-option plans, has created a different mindset among today's younger workers, and is starting to change the thinking among some managers. The ability to provide equity to employees is one reason IDG Books went public, Kilcullen says. While the number of publishers that offer stock options is growing, the industry will never match the potential that Internet startups have to make millionaires out of their employees before they reach the age of 30.