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Publishing in the knowledge economy
The industry today
7.5 Skill levels and training
Skill levels in newspaper publishing are
generally high in management and editorial,
but markedly less so in sales, marketing and
administration, and in advertising (Table 7.2).
This is especially the case when compared with
magazines, where 40% of sales and marketing
staff have higher or advanced qualifications,
and a further 33% have intermediate level
qualifications, while 29% of advertising staff
have higher or advanced level qualifications
and a further 38% have intermediate level
qualifications.
However, significantly higher percentages of
newspaper employers have a training plan
compared with magazine employers (64%
against 40%) and only 5% of employers in
newspapers provide no training, against 11%
of magazine employers.
Only 8% of newspaper employers reported
having hard-to-fill vacancies, compared with
10% in publishing as a whole (Table 7.3). The
turnover rate in newspapers, at 15.9%, is also
lower than in publishing overall (22.4%).
Table 7.2 Skill levels in newspaper publishing
No or Basic Intermediate Higher Advanced
low e.g. e.g. e.g. e.g.
level O levels A levels degree postgraduate
Management 2 2 18 68 8
Editorial 1 4 25 64 4
Support 1 22 64 11 1
Office admin & sec 1 51 42 3 0
Production 1 49 46 1 0
Sales, marketing and
circulation 1 55 39 3 0
Advertising 1 83 12 0 0
Other 90 8 0 0 0
Source Publishing NTO
Table 7.3 Newspaper employers reporting
skill shortages
Employer reporting skill shortage, % 20
Employer reporting no skill shortage, % 80
Total 100
Source Publishing NTO
42