Why work in consumer magazines?
After cutting your teeth selling classified advertising, you could be part of a display advertising sales team on a consumer magazine within 12-18 months.
You’ll be earning a good salary plus commission and other benefits; plus you’ll also be out of the office a lot of the time for meetings with advertisers and agencies.
Many consumer publishers have fantastic 'W1' offices and this is the part of the industry with the money-can’t-buy perks too – lunches, dinners, trips away, openings… how’s that accountancy graduate scheme looking now?!
"You also need to be fairly charismatic, have the ability to blag things when you have to but, most importantly, you need to be able to build strong relationships with your clients."
womens consumer magazines director
If it's not the glitzy women's sector that appeals, then you'll find a great crowd working on hobby mags - often enthusiasts themselves.
If you want a cool family atmosphere with a bunch of fellow mountain bikers or garage music aficionados, you should be able to find it...
What a lot of people don’t realise is that many, if not most, publishers spend the early part of their media career on the advertising side of the business, gaining an understanding of and building relationships with clients and their advertising agencies.
So if you want to go all the way and run a magazine, you’d be well placed to start on the phone flogging ads rather than running round trying to satisfy the needs and whims of a talented (but perhaps a little difficult) fashion editor.
Fashion journalism sounds glam but may only pay peanuts (if you aren't working for free) in return for many many hours of hard slog!
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