How much does a fashion magazine editor make? *Australia*

[i_wona]

Hi everyone!

Apologies in advance if this is posted in the wrong place - I seem to remember a careers sub forum, but I can't find it anymore! Anyway, I live in Australia and was wondering if anyone knows what the average salary is for a fashion magazine editor? Sub editor? Beauty/fashion/general journalist? any kind of job at a magazine? LOL I can't seem to find info anywhere online...

 

[Liz_x3]

Hmm well I remember reading up on this kind of information a while back and I think that an entry-level job at a fashion magazine (Elle, Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, etc.) would be around $20,000-$35,000 - maybe! When you start going up the ranks your pay gets higher. A top level fashion editor would probably be getting in the upper 5 figures to the low 6 figures. Anna Wintour makes around a million a year, maybe even a little more but few people rarely ever get to her level. The fashion industry is not one to get into if you want to make the big bucks. I mean, yes, some people are raking in case but those people had to work their way up the ladder!

 

[amanda]

i'm a magazine journalism major, so maybe i can shed some light. a beginning staff writer makes 25-35,000USD a year at most mags, section editors probably 50-65,000USD, and editors further up the food chain maybe closer to 80-90,000USD. depends a LOT on the magazine (Vogue makes more than an upstart, obviously), and the salaries may be less in australia because the mags are less powerful and influential. most writing is farmed out to freelancers these days, so there aren't many staff writer positions to be had and it's very hard to become an editor without having been a regular freelancer or a staff writer for the mag first, unless you have a really strong background/internships in editing and layout.

overall, jobs in mag journalism are tough. you have to start young and be willing to work lots of long hours for not a lot of pay. and clips! clips are so important! get published - get published ANYWHERE.

 

[i_wona]

Thank you so much Liz_x3 & Amanda - you wouldn't believe how much research I have done and I haven't been able to find even indicative salaries for this field. The best I could find was a tiny sentence on how "the perks make up for the (terrible) pay and long hours..."

It's like a secret society! I figured that salaries are probably open to negotiation, depending on how much experience you have, but even then you need a starting point.

Many thanks again!

 

[amanda]

actually, mags usually run on super tight budgets (the rise of blogs has really put a strain on print media), so salaries probably aren't particularly negotiable unless you have an absolutely PHENOMENAL resume, know someone at the mag, or manage to get the editor drunk before they make you an offer.