STAFFING & COMPENSATION STUDY How Organizations Staff Their Content Marketing Endeavors 2011

Job Title & Compensation

Specialty Roles vs. Communicators Summary  Since 2000, the task of producing custom content has shifted from being the role of generalist communicators to being the responsibility of those in specialized editorial or design functions.  In 2011, 75% of the positions involved in custom content were specialty roles (editorial 49% and design 26%), a trend that underscores an increased recognition of the importance of custom content as a communication strategy and a greater demand for quality.

Year-to-Year Compensation Summary  Average compensation for all types of professionals tasked with producing custom content rose to $63,241, a 3.33% increase from last year.  Since the beginning of this study in 2000, average compensation for all professionals tasked with producing custom content has grown 35.9% (or $16,692).  Reversing a trend, editorial and design specialists saw their compensation increase this past year (4.8% and 7.6%, respectively). For communications specialists, however, compensation declined slightly (less than 1%).

Summary  As in previous years, it continues to pay to work at large organizations, as they compensate custom content staff at a higher rate than small organizations do; average overall compensation is 12.8% ($8,024) higher than average at organizations with over $1 billion in revenue.  However, the gap between compensation at large and small organizations narrowed significantly in 2011 compared to last year, when the pay differential was 39.4%. In general, pay at large organizations decreased while pay at small organizations increased. Year-to-Year Compensation c Large vs. Small Organizations

Summary  For the second year, the gap in overall pay between for-profit and non-profit organizations was fairly narrow, with a slight edge going to for-profit (as opposed to a much larger tilt in favor of for- profit businesses for the bulk of the past decade).  Also in line with the 2010 results, design functions were actually paid more by non-profits, the only group for which non-profits provided higher compensation. Communications generalists displayed the greatest disparity in pay; this year, that meant 13.3% higher pay for communications positions at for-profits. Overall, content creators received an average of 4.1% more pay ($2,579) across all functions at for-profits. Year-to-Year Compensation c For Profit vs. Non Profit

c Anticipated Pay Increases Summary  Average anticipated pay increases for all positions continued to creep up, from 2.32% in 2010 to 2.53% in 2011, reflecting optimism throughout the industry.  For most of the last decade, anticipated pay increases have generally ranged from 3.0% to 4.0%, following a moderately pessimistic trend that, unsurprisingly, reached a nadir during the recession that began in 2008.

Summary  Anticipation often does not match reality, as seen in this chart that applies each year’s anticipated increase to the following year’s actual average compensation. This year, however, the two weren’t terribly far apart.  Sometimes the anticipated pay increases are less than the actual hikes. For instance, in 2010, the average pay increase for 2011 was anticipated to be 2.32%. Had that occurred, it would have brought the average compensation to $62,261. As it turned out, there was actually an increase in pay of 3.33% in 2011, which brought the average compensation to $63,241. c Anticipated vs. Actual Pay Increases

Staffing & Productivity

Average Time Commitment per Person Summary  For the second year, responders reported the time spent by staff creating “other” types of custom content–websites, e-zines, podcasts, etc.–in addition to the time spent creating publications.  The average person involved with custom content spent 49.9% of his or her time on publications, down from 56.3% last year. Other content creation consumed 38.0% of the average responder’s time, compared to 41.3% last year.  This decline suggest that either custom content creators are increasingly tasked with a variety of roles within their organizations beyond simply creating content, or organizations are outsourcing more custom content creation.

Time Commitment to Publications by Position Type Summary  Corresponding with the 6.4 percentage point drop in time spent on publication creation overall, each position type within the realm of content marketing – Editorial, Design, and Communications – reported a respective decline in the range of 5.7 to 7.1 percentage points, meaning the drop was spread quite evenly among all functions.

Time Commitment to Other Content by Position Type Summary  As previously noted, 2011 marked the second year that responders were asked to report the time staff spent creating custom content other than custom publications.  In 2011, editors reported spending 31.3% of their time on other types of custom content, compared to 37.6% for designers and 51.1% for communications generalists.  Time spent by editors on other content changed most dramatically: this fell from 43.1% in 2010 to 31.3% in Time spent on other content by designers and communications generalists was fairly stable, with 2010 figures of 35.7% and 50.7%, respectively.

c Staffing in Custom Publishing Summary  The average company assigns 2.09 full-time equivalents (FTE) to its custom content initiatives, a slight decrease from last year (2.39).  Had the survey included FTEs assigned to other content in the years prior to 2010, the FTEs assigned to custom content would have shown a steady increase throughout the decade.  Even factoring this year’s overall decline, and the longer-term trend toward fewer FTEs staffing custom content publications, the decade-long trend of FTEs assigned to custom content activities would have been a gradual, general increase.

c Hours Committed by Staff per Organization Summary  Another way to assess time allocated to custom content endeavors is to calculate the total annual hours spent by staff on custom content endeavors.  By this calculation, the average amount of staff time spent on creating custom publications decreased to 2,466 hours per organization per year, down 13.9% from  The average amount of staff time spent on creating other types of custom content was 1,877 hours per organization per year, leading to a combined total of 4,343 hours spent on creating all types of custom content.

c Staff Costs Allocated to Pubs Summary  By combining wages and time expended, the amount of money organizations invested in staffing custom content projects can be calculated.  In 2011, the average organization spent $74,977 in wages for staff creating custom publications and $57,079 for staff creating other types of content.  The average organization spent a combined total of $132,057 in wages for the time its staff spent creating custom content. This is a 9.7% decline from 2010, attributable to the drop in percentage of staff time spent on custom content endeavors and not to a drop in average salaries (which increased).

Sponsors The Custom Content Council (CCC) is the lead trade organization representing custom publishers in North America. The research herein was conducted by the free newsletter ContentWise, the leading source of news, information, and research on the custom publishing industry. Methodology The research was conducted via a mailed survey targeting a random sample of for-profit and nonprofit organizations across all industries. More than eight thousand surveys were sent out and approximately 156 were completed and returned, producing a +/- 6.4% degree of accuracy at a 95% confidence level. Among the responding organizations were: ASPCA, Bristol-Myers Squibb, GE Healthcare, US Army, Hoosier Energy, Macy’s, Sirius XM Radio, State Farm Insurance, and the University of Minnesota. More Information For more information on custom publishing, go to or call the CCC in New York by dialing To subscribe to ContentWise call or go to