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What key trends have you witnessed in 2017?
Today’s digital market requires publishers to adapt quickly in order to remain competitive. In 2017, we have witnessed an increase in social media usage and personalised content, which meant publishers had to increase and deliver digital experiences in order to keep readers engaged. As content is easily accessible online, the focus has been on designing a customer journey that encourages users to engage and interact with content in a more creative way, across multiple channels. For this reason there has been, and will continue to be, a high demand of candidates with powerful storytelling capabilities, demand generation, SEO, online advertising and customer experience skills.
What key trends do you expect to see over next 12 months?
Virtual and augmented reality is already changing the way people engage with content. As the industry starts to increasingly explore technological capabilities, we can expect an increase in demand for these niche skills which is likely to increase salaries. This will largely be prevalent in the interim sector.
Last year, more and more companies invested in video as a communication channel and as such, marketers are not only expected to know how video is used in marketing, but master briefing, scripting and editing videos for online channels. Blogging and publishing articles will continue to be an important aspect of marketing in the publishing industry and so knowing how to use content management systems (CMS) will be essential.
Being able to promote content, especially through influencers and PR, will also be highly desirable. The new digital-first world of publishing may begin to attract candidates with those niches skills from other industries, for example, technology.
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What methods are companies using to attract and retain the top talent?
In order to attract top talent, employers are increasingly looking for candidates outside of the sector, predominately to technology and to smaller, more agile and innovative companies which means we would anticipate more competitive salaries. Publishers are investing in flexible working policies, flexible benefits and technology devices that allow for remote working; all of which attract new candidates.
Do you anticipate any changes to permanent salaries and bonuses over the next 12 months?
In order to attract technically-savvy candidates, publishers will find that they have to increase salaries. In the technology market this is typically above inflation and can be as high as 10%. Candidates within the sector that are able to adjust and develop new skills, such as video editing, HTML coding, posting blogs and analytics, will find themselves in demand and thus will be able to demand higher salaries.
Contract roles & day rates
Within the contract publishing space in 2017, there was an increased need for specialist email marketing, a key skill that has picked up across the board for contract roles, as well as knowledge of business intelligence. In 2018 we predict there will be an increase in the number of contractors in the publishing space in general, with an additional demand seen for product based marketing roles.
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