By Adolfo Mendez Editor Newspaper industry wages increased less than 1 percent from 2010 to 2011, according to the recently released Newspaper Industry Compensation Survey (NICS), conducted by the Inland Press Association. This annual survey, considered the industry standard, provides comprehensive pay data that compares compensation levels geographically by circulation size for more than 100 newspaper and online positions. The NICS allows newspaper publishers in 11 circulation revenue categories to compare their compensation package (base pay and incentives) with companies with similar characteristics. Specific salary ranges from the confidential survey—which is in its 24th year—are released only to study participants. “What we’re seeing in the survey is that salaries remained fairly flat, but [base plus incentives for] sales jobs spiked,” said Robert J. Greene, CEO of Reward $ystems Inc. in Glenview, Ill., who serves as the quality-control consultant to the NICS. “Total cash compensation for classified advertising managers went up 9.6 percent,” he said. “Inside sales rep went up close to 7 percent, and major accounts manager jumped like crazy to 15.9 percent.” Greene speculated that the increase in these categories might be attributed to a change in sales compensation. “It might have been due to changes in incentive plans to make sales goals more attainable. It’s often reasonable to lower these standards because otherwise it’s going to be virtually impossible for somebody to go out and achieve them in this economy,” he said. Recent cost-cutting efforts at newspapers have resulted in smaller sales forces, meaning there are fewer salespeople to cover a geographic territory, so they have “a much easier shot” of reaching their sales goals, Greene said. “Or it could be that papers have reduced those with less experience or who are not performing at a high level and just kept the very expericnced people and the top performers,” he said. “The thinking might be, ‘I’m going to have my very best salespeople on the major accounts because that’s where I really can’t afford to take a financial hit.’” Managing editors’ salary increased 2.2 percent, while entry-level and experienced reporters saw an increase of less than 1 percent. And publishers’ base pay (salary, full-time wage, etc.) increased 2.7 percent from 2010 to 2011. Greene said tying executive compensation to a company’s performance is a good business practice. “If the publisher’s compensation is flat and the performance of the paper is flat, then it makes sense. For any of the management jobs— publishers, CFOs—it is reasonable to have at least half of compensation tied to overall company performance, which should be telling you a story about how well papers are doing.” Online content producers’ base pay increased 7.1 percent and online advertising managers’ pay declined 10.1 percent. In addition, webmasters saw their salary decline 2 percent. Greene said it was difficult to draw firm conclusions from the salary results for Web and online jobs except that, “Everybody’s still looking to find their way.” He said an online compensation strategy should pay employees “fairly and competitively” and newspaper companies should not view “people as your most expendable asset.” Competive salaries help a newspaper to attract and retain appropriately skilled employees, he said. He said downsizing in and of itself is a not cure-all. “I would also say that a cost-driven equation that is really focused on cost to produce a desired result may be overly simplistic,” he said. “I remember speaking to New York publishers attending sessions on social media, and they were looking at the technology as the thing that’s going to save them. What’s going to save them is somebody with a brilliant idea that’s never been done before that customers are going to like. People get enamored with the technology, and all the technology does is sit there and stare at you.” The 2011 survey includes salary data for 110 jobs at 486 daily newspapers. The 486 daily newspapers that participated are a good representative sample by circulation and by geographic distribution of the daily newspapers in the U.S. The NICS 2011 is co-sponsored by Inland, Media Financial Management Association, New England Newspaper and Press Association, Newspaper Association of America, and the Pacific Northwest Newspaper Association. For more information about the NICS, please contact Karla Zander, Inland’s business research manager- human resources, at kzander@inlandpresss.org. Contact: Robert J. Greene, rewardsystems@ yahoo.com Inland specializes in high-quality, low-cost training options for all newspaper departments. Inland also produces industry standard research in newspaper costs and revenues, as well as newspaper compensation. For more information on Inland member services, please visit InlandPress.org.