They're listed as Columnists (as opposed to Contributing Editor, which means you're an employee), have non-pcmag.com (unlike all of their other authors) email addresses in their Author Bios on PC Mag's site and with one exception (a twice-yearly contributor anyway) they all have published PC Mag articles within the last week. Moreover, they all have full-time jobs which are not at Ziff Davis.
> (as opposed to Contributing Editor, which means you're an employee)
It might mean that at PC Mag, but it definitely does not mean that on other magazines. In fact, at most publications it refers to someone who is not an employee. For more, see [1]
You're certainly right. In fact most authors actually have Analyst or Reporter. I was looking at Tim Gideon and a few others as an example, who happen to have a pcmag emails. Thank you for the correction.
Knowledge is power.