Book Business, along with its sister publication Publishing Executive (for the magazine publishing industry), commissioned Accelara Publishing Research to conduct the “Best Publishing Companies to Work For” study. Based on survey data, companies were assigned as book publishers (eligible for the “Best Book Publishing Companies to Work For” study), as magazine publishers (eligible for the “Best Magazine Publishing Companies to Work For” study), or as both (eligible for both studies).
Who Could Participate?
Participation was open to all publishing company employees. Invitations were sent via three e-mail blasts to Book Business and Publishing Executive readers with e-mail addresses on file. Respondents were encouraged to forward the invitations to colleagues. Advertisements were placed in the Book Business Extra and Publishing Executive Inbox e-newsletters, and on BookBusinessMag.com and
PubExec.com. The study was announced in one issue each of Book Business and Publishing Executive. Additionally, several industry organizations announced the study to their members, and several industry bloggers announced it to their audiences.
What Data Was Collected and How?
Respondents were invited to complete a 5- to 10-minute online survey hosted at AccelaraResearch.com. (Separate online surveys were hosted for readers of Book Business magazine and of Publishing Executive magazine.) The survey included:
1. 50 employee-satisfaction and workplace attributes, rated on a five-point scale.
2. Whether respondents considered their company a “great place to work,” followed by questions asking respondents to explain why or why not.
3. Open-ended questions in which respondents were asked to explain the best thing about working for the company and what should most be changed to improve work life at the company.
4. Respondent and company data, including age, gender, job classification, primary publishing products and company size.
5. Opportunity to nominate employer as one of the “Best Publishing Companies to Work For” (if companies were not nominated, they were excluded from the study). Companies were required a minimum of three nominations to be included.
6. Additional company contact information for president and human resources manager at nominated companies.
Data was collected between July 20 and Aug. 20. In total, 869 surveys were received by the closing date. As incentive, respondents were invited to enter a drawing for a prize from a selection of five options valued between $400 and $750. Participants also were promised a final report on survey findings regarding what makes a top publishing work environment, to be written and mailed by Accelara following conclusion of the research.
Company Size
In the company profiles (pages 18-26), companies are assigned a “company size,” which falls into one of four groups:
• Large: 501 or more employees
• Medium/large: 101-500 employees
• Medium: 51-100 employees
• Small: 15-50 employees
Company size was based on each respondent’s report of the number of employees involved in book and/or magazine publishing at their company. (Companies with fewer than 15 employees involved in book publishing were excluded from the study.) BB