1905 11C Harpers Wyeth
Was talking to a good friend the other day, one I had worked with back in my magazine publishing days. (I worked at various publications, trade and consumer, for several years, including a long stint at Disney Adventures.) He reported that he and just about everyone I had worked with on staff have been laid off from their current jobs at various magazines. One of them just up and moved to Florida with the advice, “Go back to school and look for a new line of work.” He also said he had answered an online ad for a Art Director job and been told that there had been 550 applications for this single post.

It goes without saying that In This Economy, in every field, even people who are at the top of their game are now struggling, It hadn’t previously occurred to me, though, that an entire class of professions is being swept away, as surely as the people who used to set hot type no longer exist. Not necessarily creators, but the people who put things together, photo editors, page layout people.

Will they find new ways to make a living aggregating Twitter content, I wonder?

Art by N.C. Wyeth.

10 Kidnapped Wyeth Islandear

1 COMMENT

  1. Hundreds of applications is nothing new. It’s surprising when most of those are highly qualified people.

  2. I have to disagree with this post, seems more than a bit alarmist. Yeah, we’re all in rough waters but, as the other person pointed out, those positions always get tons of applicants (maybe the art director friend was just naive never encountering that before).

    As someone who works in publishing also, this isn’t going to wipe out the production people. If anything, what we’re seeing is sales and editorial take the brunt of it so far. Every week another longtime editor is let go (people with imprints, 20+ years experience, etc)- they’re cutting the costly jobs (editors who make 100K+ vs 45K production staff).

    And hot type went away because it was obsolete, that analogy doesn’t work.