Duff and Cohen speak to NYU Publishing students

“What experience do we want to cultivate for readers?” was a question on everyone’s minds during the latest NYU-SCPS M.S. in Publishing alumni event, a discussion entitled “Visions in Video” recently held by the NYU-SCPS Office of Alumni Relations, the Publishing Alumni Association, and the Publishing Student Association. Speakers Craig Duff and Samantha Cohen each talked about challenges for the magazine and book industries presented by new technology, including video and multimedia.

Craig Duff, Director of Multimedia and Chief Video Journalist at Time, Inc., told the group that ideally, online content should be “webby, wiki, and sticky” – meaning content (especially in terms of long-form journalism) should be current, have a collaborative/educational value, and make a reader want to stick with a story until the end. Digital and online audiences face more distractions than print readers, and thus have a tendency to hit-and-run read, which can hinder a story’s impact.Video, noted Duff, fits naturally into the magazine world online and increasingly on tablets and e-readers. In the past—and Duff admits even now—decisions to add video to an article generally start with the question, “Wouldn’t it be cool to see that?” If the answer is yes, then the writers and editors look at a specific person or incident that a video can magnify in a piece. “A story can tell facts, but people tell how to live with facts,” Duff said. The point of video in an online or digital magazine, according to Duff,  is to enhance existing content. Video shouldn’t detract or compete with a story; it should increase its draw and discoverability, and overall it should work with the available technology to help create an experience unique from print.

To illustrate the advancement of video, Duff presented examples ranging from cinéma verité (a highly stylized form of interaction between subject and filmmaker popular in the ’60s and ’70s) to rotating GIFs in the ’90s (the first simple moving images online). He also spotlighted TIME’s recent 9/11 oral history piece, “Beyond 9/11: Portraits of Resilience,” containing video testimonies from 40 men and women who provided support and inspiration for the nation during and after the 9/11 attacks. Another example Duff presented of how video successfully supports content is The Waste Land app, which includes a video performance of T. S. Eliot’s poem, along with accompanying commentary and readings, published by Touch Press and Faber & Faber. Duff pointed out that a key to successful video production now involves the joint cooperation of writers, editors, and video journalists. Ideally, video should be on everyone’s minds at a story’s inception, and the writer and video journalist act as a team on the story to capture a richer, more detailed, and more honest experience to share with readers. While this process is still a work-in-progress, Duff hopes to see it become the norm very soon.

Similarly, Samantha Cohen, Director of Digital Content Development at Simon & Schuster, expressed optimism that video in book publishing will drastically improve as books in some stage of production for the last two years now near their publication dates. The idea, explained Cohen, is that publishers will have recognized “what works and what doesn’t in video” and “put what they’ve learned into practice” for upcoming 2012 titles. Video is now something editors must consider at the manuscript acquisition stage or at the beginning of the editorial process, just like in magazines. To improve reader experiences, today’s video must be integrated into the editorial process so that publishers can produce video unique to a title.

Currently, said Cohen, the major video successes are in enhanced ebooks, such as Simon & Schuster’s Nixonland by Rick Pearlstein, a history of the era containing 27 video clips taken from CBS News archives.  “The best videos for books are instructional… [or] include historical footage,” noted Cohen. Non-fiction titles in crafts, gardening, and cookbooks all lead to good instructional video. As for video in fiction, Cohen believes  it “just doesn’t work” because it interferes with the reader’s own version of an imaginary world.

Despite the growing interest in video, there are still many challenges to a strong business model. Cohen explained that difficulties include problems obtaining rights and permissions for video footage; actual video production (publishers are not necessarily filmmakers); accelerated ebook production schedules that make it difficult to add video; multiple ebook formats (an industry standard format would likely streamline the production process); and the relative lack of digital storefronts for enhanced ebooks. While magazines are using video to draw readers to their content, book publishers are finding that it is very difficult for readers to discover enhanced ebooks; demand is still low, and e-retailers shape their storefronts based on reader demands. However, as more and more enhanced ebooks hit the market and readers develop a taste for these new products, it is likely that e-retailers such as Apple and Amazon will begin to give enhanced ebooks more attention and better placement. Until then, book publishers must struggle with the discoverability issue and getting enhanced ebooks into the public consciousness (and online shopping baskets).

At the conclusion of the session, Duff and Cohen concurred that video has an enormous future in both magazine and book publishing.  In truth, the question, “What kind of experience do we want to cultivate for readers?” has magazine and book publishers answering in the same way: to create a rich experience that is fun, current, and will keep readers reading. After hearing Duff and Cohen’s enthusiasm and watching some great examples of their craft, students and alumni alike left the talk looking forward to what’s next in video in the publishing world and how it will surface in their own companies.

by Laura Flavin

The BookSmugglers.com, a blog co-created by Thea James, Digital Sales and Promotions Manager at Workman Publishing.

The Book Smugglers blogger Thea James

When and why did you start your blog?
My friend Ana Grilo and I first came up with the idea of starting a book review blog back in 2007. This grew from our mutual love (obsession, really) for books and a desire to share our passion for genre fiction with other like-minded bibliophiles. With The Book Smugglers, we wanted to create a blog where we could write in a conversational and reader-friendly voice and include more than the short reviews on Amazon; we also wanted to be more flexible than genre-specific blogs or staunchly traditional review outlets. With these goals in mind, Ana and I began The Book Smugglers on January 7, 2008, and have never looked back.

How did you decide on the format, platform and design, as well as tone and voice?
When we started the blog, we viewed it purely as a hobby; as such, we went with the free blogging platform Blogger (from Google) and used a generic two-column template from the Blogger design package. I’m the resident “techie” (HTML/Photoshopper/Webmaster) of the duo, but back in 2008, I had no HTML or design experience. I knew that we needed to find a way to brand ourselves and make our blog stand out, so  (very painfully!)  I learned how to manipulate CSS and HTML, and worked on improving our very first site design.

In 2009, after a year of blogging, we unveiled our first major site overhaul. In addition to hiring a professional designer to help us with the art for our blog, we also took the big step of moving from a free platform to purchasing our own domain name and web hosting. Migrating all of our posts, comments, and media assets from Blogger to WordPress – while maintaining permalinks, feeds, Google page rank, and with NO site downtime, mind you – remains to this day one of my most painful experiences.  As for our style, both Ana and I are rather verbose, so our reviews are something of an anomaly in the review blogosphere – but it’s worked for us these past three years!

How often do you post?
When we started The Book Smugglers, our first policy to our readers stated that we would review at least once a week. Looking back at that cracks Ana and me up – we’ve never been that scarce with content. Now, we post at least once a day.

How do you market your blog and get traffic?
In order to get readers, we made contacts with other bloggers, commented on other sites, and started to build a community of “blogging buddies” to help get our name out there. We’ve also been incredibly active on the social media front, having set up a Twitter account way back in 2008, an active Goodreads profile, and a Facebook page. From our meager beginnings, this sort of word-of-mouth marketing and content integrity has given us a steadily growing audience that has reached 90,000 page views and 50,000 unique visitors per month.

Tell us about your challenges and rewards
My biggest challenge with The Book Smugglers is time management. Being an M.S. in Publishing candidate, taking class three nights a week, as well as working full-time is a big load to carry. Trying to squeeze in time to read and review three books a week as well as dealing with site maintenance and upkeep – well, let’s just say it’s a juggling act!

How did your education in the M.S. in Publishing program help you with the blog?
In terms of brand building and monetization, the program has been an invaluable source of knowledge and has sparked ideas for how to grow the blog even further. Since starting the program, I’ve set up a Book Smugglers web-app for mobile devices on iOS and Android systems. We’ve also enabled advertising on our site—something we’d previously never entertained—through a controlled network, thanks to advice received in my Digital Financials class. While we aren’t raking in the big bucks, as our costs grow proportionally with our increased readership, this monetization has helped us cover the costs of hosting –which makes us very happy.

FictionBrigade.com, an online Literary Magazine created by Bethany Habinek, Editorial Assistant in Journals at Oxford University Press, and Sabrina Ricci, an eBook developer at Simon & Schuster.

Sabrina Ricci and Bethany Habinek working on FictionBrigade

When and why did you start your online literary magazine?
It began over burgers. We were getting dinner, talking about our summer plans, and the idea came up to start an online literary magazine.  The idea really took off from there.  Both of us are obsessed with fiction, and flash fiction fits well into people’s fast-paced lifestyle.

How would you describe flash fiction?
It’s basically a very short story, but we decided to give our own parameters for FictionBrigade. We see flash fiction as a complete online short story, with a beginning, a middle, and an end. In written form, flash fiction is 50-1500 words. Flash fiction can also be art or video. That is trickier to define, but we see flash fiction videos as under two minutes long.

Is this a hobby or a business?
Our intention is to turn FictionBrigade into a business, and it’s been challenging to do so. Right now FictionBrigade is a quarterly magazine, but we have plans to publish content more regularly. We’ve also developed a Twitter project where people can collaboratively write a flash fiction story and connect it with specific hashtags. Our website has helpful links to articles about flash fiction, a regularly updated events page featuring literary events in the New York City area, and a blog written by people in the field who can give aspiring storytellers advice.

How often do you update your site?
We have a separate blog that features different writers each week. Writers post advice and information about publishing, writing, editing, and creating stories. We’re trying to incorporate more regular contests in between the quarterly issues of our literary magazine. We also update our events page monthly, so our New York readers can see what literary events are happening locally.

How do you market your magazine and get traffic?
We market through various social media tools such as: Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, StumbleUpon, Reddit, Digg, Delicio.us, Chime.in, LinkedIn, MySpace, FourSquare, WhoHub, and Youtube. We also reach out to MFA programs via email and send out regular newsletters to our subscribers. Word-of-mouth has been another great marketing technique—we can’t stop talking about FictionBrigade and we carry business cards with us everywhere in case we meet someone who may be interested.  We also monitor our site via Google Analytics.

Tell us about your challenges and rewards.
Despite all our  efforts, we’ve found we’re not the best at marketing—not for want of trying. In reality, it’s just really difficult. We’re actively marketing FictionBrigade through the Kickstarter project. Kickstarter is an online funding platform for creative projects. Our Kickstarter project page can be found at http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1257267741/fiction-brigade-online-literary-magazine. Every week we make a new video—the last one involved muppets—and we try to entice new people to back us and our idea. The deadline for our project is December 2, at 7:50 a.m. Eastern time, and so far we have 25 backers. We plan to use the money we raise from Kickstarter to expand and keep our website running, help us form an LLC so we can grow as a company, and market our magazine and website to a wide audience. For more details, please visit our Kickstarter page.

How did your education in the program help you with FictionBrigade?
If not for entering this program, we would have never met. Friendship aside, we’ve learned a lot through the digital classes, such as Digital Financials, Introduction to Interactive Media, Web Analytics, Web Editing and Writing, and New Media Technology: From eBooks to Mobile. These classes have helped us shape and hone our ideas and learn hands-on how to produce a website. Coming out with our first issue was very rewarding, since this was something that was new to both of us. We both felt humbled and proud.

Pateleditorial.com, a blog created by Bintal Patel, a rotating intern at Open Road Integrated Media.

Bintal Patel at work on her blog

When and why did you start your blog?
I have always been the one who friends ask to copyedit their essays in school. Correct spelling comes naturally to me and I always nag my sister about her grammar. (You’d think she’d appreciate it… nope.) I decided to start freelance proofreading under the name pateleditorial while living in Austin in 2010. I already copyedit various documents for people, so I figured I might as well take the next step.

I decided to make my business web-based so I could reach a wider audience. Freelance copyediting was a fun, casual hobby that I am now turning into a business. My work is online-based so I can communicate with anyone around the world. I have had clients in both the US and the UK. Past projects have included fiction and children’s book manuscripts, medical essays, and resumes. I will be copyediting  a screenplay  in the near future. Clients usually send me their work through email and then I  edit to perfection!

I started the blog on my company website as a personal way to connect with readers and potential clients. I comment on  current events and issues in the publishing industry, as well as my own experience in the industry.

How did you decide on the format, platform and design, as well as tone and voice?
I like clean-looking pages with modern design and a lot of white space. My website is still basic but I have plans to overhaul the design and add more sections. So far, the website includes my blog, an “About” page, and my Twitter feed. I am working on adding a portfolio of sample work, reviews, and the industry links that I always check out.

As for voice, I am a very casual person, so my blog reflects that. I hope that my excitement about issues and events in publishing comes through in the way I write. I actually post more on Twitter and Facebook than I do on my blog. I am constantly retweeting and sharing publishing news that I find fascinating. I post weekly on the blog, and constantly share ditties on Twitter and Facebook.

How do you market your blog and get traffic?
Twitter is great for online marketing. I follow relevant key people and publishers in the industry and then share my favorite news and blog posts from them. I believe that a basic, yet underappreciated form of marketing is the good old business card! I had some printed up in Austin and only included contact information that would stay the same if I moved. I make sure to keep a few with me at all times and I hand them out at the right opportunity, either to editors looking for freelance proofreaders, potential clients who have work they want edited, or to use in a quick exchange of general contact information.

Tell us about your challenges and rewards.
I’m more of an editor than a writer (which is why I created a freelance editing company!), so it takes me a while to perfect a new blog post. I also recently discovered how to schedule posts, so I can write a block of posts at once and publish them consistently. Blogging is rewarding for me because it helps me to connect to a subject I care deeply about. I love sharing information I’m interested in and having a conversation with people about it. You can learn a lot and be inspired with new ideas through a simple conversation.

How did your education in the program help you with the blog?
The program’s emphasis on digital publishing helped feed my curiosity about  eBooks and how digital publishing will affect the industry. I obtained my current internship at Open Road Integrated Media through a listing at NYU, and I have learned a lot about the technology behind eBook publishing during my time at Open Road and through my course work.

Pete Cashmore, Founder and CEO of Mashable

Is “frictionless sharing” the way of the future? That was one of the questions at the recent Mashable Media Summit, where I was lucky enough to be one of the NYU-SCPS Master of Science in Publishing students invited to volunteer. I’ve personally been a fan of Mashable, the online news site and blog, for years, looking to its editors for the leading tech news, industry rumors, best practices in today’s emerging social media platforms, and tips and tricks for enhancing my own user experience. I was thrilled to have the opportunity to hear a number of the thought leaders and influencers from across the media industry in exchange for helping out at the registration table.Luckily for me and the other volunteers, the bulk of our responsibilities were done by 9:45 a.m., and we were able to sit in on a majority of the day’s sessions at the Times Center in Manhattan. Pete Cashmore (Founder and CEO of  Mashable) kicked things off with The Future of Social Media: The Current Landscape and 2012 Trends, giving an insightful rundown of industry innovations of 2011 and predictions for 2012, such as the growth of news aggregation apps, and social music programs like Spotify; the introduction of “frictionless sharing” between Facebook and third-party media sites (where a user’s activity in an app immediately posts to their  Facebook wall) and what that means in terms of privacy for consumers; how to market apps and app stores vs. marketing of traditional media; and how to break down the barriers between the online world and the physical world.

One of the most innovative programs for the day was From Tactile to Mobile: The Reinvention of Content Experience and Engagement, a presentation by Josh Koppel (Co-Founder & Chief Creative Officer, ScrollMotion). I was impressed by the functionality and interactivity that ScrollMotion brings its clients in its customized book and magazine apps, all based on the same HTML 5 framework that can be adapted for books, magazines, and just about any other content. ScrollMotion has created apps for O, the Oprah Magazine, Glamour, and some of Disney’s brands. However, it seems like ScrollMotion has made some of its biggest strides in the textbook marketplace. Koppel explained that his company is currently testing its enhanced e-textbooks against a sample of traditional print textbooks. Already, they are seeing higher engagement and test scores among the students using their e-textbooks. I feel like we’ve been talking about the great potential for tablet-based interactive textbooks since the announcement of the iPad, and it’s promising to see ScrollMotion making progress in this area.

Robyn Peterson (SVP of Product, Mashable) then led a discussion between Tim Dierks (SVP Engineering, Huffington Post Media Group) and Andy Mitchell (Manager of Strategic Media Partnerships, Facebook) called Who Owns Your Identity? about user privacy issues following the introduction of “frictionless sharing.” The consensus was that with new Facebook apps such as The Washington Post‘s Social Reader quickly gaining in popularity, it is more important than ever to make users aware of the available privacy controls.

After lunch, Michael Lazerow (Chairman and CEO, Buddy Media) shared the statistics that now 30% of ad impressions online and 16% of all time spent on the internet is on Facebook. From there, Lazerow emphasized the importance of re-circulating traffic between Facebook and your own website via built-in “Share” and “Like” buttons on your site. Lazerow also suggested thinking of social media not just as a marketing arm, but as part of everything we do. He also pointed out that it’s a great way to generate incremental revenue. Ticketmaster, he said,  earns an additional $5.30 with every “Share” to Facebook from its site.

The day ended with a reception sponsored by Macallan scotch. Throughout the day, we were asked to tweet highlights and quotes from the speakers with the hashtag #MediaSummit.  Keeping with that theme, we were encouraged to “Tweet What You Taste” during the reception—a fittingly fun and interactive way to end the day.

by Andrea Jo DeWerd

Blogger Andrea Jo DeWerd

Check out #MediaSummit on Twitter and the Mashable Media Summit videos on YouTube for more from the speakers, panelists, and attendees of the 2011 Mashable Media Summit.

M.S. in Publishing students in the ABRAMS conference room

The entryway of ABRAMS was adorned with framed copies of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. A table in the conference room was filled with eye-catching covers including everything from the stunning photography book Earth from Above by Yann Arthus-Betrand to the first book in a new children’s series, The Strange Case of the Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger. The NYU-SCPS  M.S. in Publishing students arriving for an industry visit were eager to learn more about the art and business of making beautiful, heavily illustrated books.

Gathered around the table were the company’s senior executives, assembled for the NYU visit by Senior Editor Andrea Danese. First up was Michael Jacobs, President and CEO of ABRAMS, who said that despite the industry-wide downturn in physical book sales, the company (founded in 1949), remains strong because it focuses on design. “These are books, but they’re also gifts, objects that people want to own,” Jacobs said. “Part of our ethos here is we want to make books that deserve to be physical objects. Everything we do is artful.”

The students were all excited to be in a publishing house where print books still make up so much of the culture and the bottom line. So far, ABRAMS’ e-book business has been mostly in children’s books, with titles that are more text-heavy. But Jacobs said that as e-reading technology improves, he expects more ABRAMS books to be made into e-books. “Because we’re small, it’s easier to adapt to change,” he explained.

Next up was Charles Kochman, Editorial Director of the company’s ComicArts division, who spoke to the students about starting the comic books imprint for ABRAMS after working at DC Comics. Kochman was the editor  who bought the rights to  Diary of a Wimpy Kid  after talking to author Jeff Kinney at New York Comic Con in 2006. “It [Wimpy Kid] didn’t feel like an adult writing like a kid,” Kochman said. “When you read certain picture books or kids’ books, you can see the hand of adults. This felt like it really could be the diary of an eight-year-old.”

The book, of course, became a  mega-hit series and now ABRAMS is printing six million copies of the latest Wimpy book Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever, which, according to Kochman, is the largest print run of any physical book this year. The launch plans this month include a six-city bus tour replete with a snow-making machine. The series is not yet available as an e-book, but the executives mentioned an e-book in the near future.

While the Wimpy Kid series may dominate the ABRAMS children’s list, Susan Van Metre, publisher of Abrams Books for Young Readers and ComicArts, said ABRAMS allows her to take risks that bigger publishers might not allow. As an example, she showed students Lauren Myracle’s bestseller ttyl, a book written for tweens that uses Internet slang and is printed in two colors to look like an IM conversation.

In the adult division, ABRAMS recently published George Harrison: Living in the Material World, a visual biography by his widow, Olivia Harrison, priced at $40. ABRAMS is about to publish the official legacy book of The Oprah Winfrey Show with a $50 price point.

Deborah Aaronson, Associate Publisher of ABRAMS, explained that although the higher price point on some of the heavily illustrated books may deter some buyers, the publisher needs to sell fewer books at $40 or $50 to make a profit. Generally, though, ABRAMS customers seem to regard their purchases as art objects and therefore have little problem with the price point.

Students also got a peek into the collaborative cover-design process. Art Director Michelle Ishay showed iterations of various covers, including some compelling designs that were ultimately rejected. A cover of JFK with a cigar in his mouth for a book entitled Portrait of Camelot: A Thousand Days in the Kennedy White House was replaced with a more conventional candid shot of Jack and Jackie.

“Nobody today wanted to see JFK smoking,” she said. Ishay explained the challenge of designing a cover, which serves so many purposes: “It needs to be beautiful, it needs to be functional, and now, it needs to work as a thumbnail on Amazon,” she said.

At the end of their visit, the NYU publishing students toured ABRAMS’ art-filled offices and received signed copies of a new book in the legendary Babar the Elephant children’s series, Babar’s Celesteville Games by Laurent de Brunhoff, son of the original creators. Like the Wimpy Kid series, the Babar books are another example of how ABRAMS nurtures classics and grows talent.

by Kristin Vorce

(l-r) Publishers Sarah Crichton, Bob Miller, Ana Maria Allessi and Brian Tart speak at NYU's Center for Publishing

It was anything but the usual doom and gloom at the latest  event in the NYU Media Talk series hosted by The Center for Publishing at The New York University School of Continuing and Professional Studies. Far from expressing apprehension about the transitional nature of the industry and the demise of print, the four panelists—all members of the Center for Publishing faculty—discussed their excitement and optimism. Speaking to an audience of NYU students and faculty as well as industry professionals, panelists Ana Maria Allessi, Sarah Crichton, Bob Miller and Brian Tart spoke candidly of their triumphs and failures, and how they’ve used these learning experiences to improve their business practices. The talk was moderated by Michael Cader, the founder of the widely-read newsletter Publishers Lunch, who was similarly upbeat about the state of mainstream publishing:  “Ninety nine times out of 100, the story a publisher has to tell about their success in real numbers is very convincing,” said Cader. “I wish Simon and Schuster were up there telling how many books  the Steve Jobs biography moved the first day because I think it’s a very powerful statement. I don’t think a startup can do that and I don’t think a web-only company can do that…. There are still things here that established companies and experts who have done this for 20 or 30 years can do very well, and probably do better than anyone else.”

Sarah Crichton, Publisher of Sarah Crichton Books, an imprint of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, began by saying that “publishing has been changing for hundreds and hundreds of years, and it’s going to keep changing. You have to stay nimble, adaptable, and open-minded.” The best way to stay open-minded? According to Brian Tart, President and Publisher of Penguin Group’s Dutton imprint, it’s by developing a thick skin. “In  the industry you learn how to do things to be successful, but in publishing…you learn how to fail really quickly,” he said. “Everything has changed around us so dramatically; we’re all learning how to publish in a new way and how to be successful at it.  One of the ways [to do so] is to continue to experiment and figure things out.”

Ana Maria Allessi, Vice President and Publisher of HarperMedia, a division of HarperCollins Publishers, recommended taking “very educated, calculated small bets, watching them closely and then understanding where to apply resources.” With the rapid growth of e-book sales, she noted many publishers’ desire to develop new products with the same, limited resources. “How we choose to fund, support and execute those ideas is important,” she stressed. Bob Miller, group publisher of Workman Publishing, said watching trends, particularly in the digital world, is key to determining which ventures should be pursued. “We’re all nostalgic for the old days when we could just print a book and the same object would be going all the possible places it could go,” Miller said. “Now on top of all that, we have to mix a little HTML5 with EPUB 3 and a little Merlot,” he joked, “and try to figure out where to put it.”

The panelists also discussed how decreasing shelf-space has impacted their day-to-day jobs. “I think of all the challenges, that’s the scariest one for us,” Crichton said. “It’s not just the loss of independent bookstores; the loss of Borders for [Farrar Straus and Giroux] was heartbreaking.” She remains optimistic, however, stating that many bookstores are “being extremely imaginative and very creative” in developing ways to increase their business. Miller discussed publishers’ roles in aiding bookstores in this process. Workman Publishing recently started a program designed to increase shelf-space by providing stores with tables that have built-in shelves. “It’s called Square Deal,” Miller explained. “If stores take these tables, we supply them once a month with different books.”

When asked about specific failures, the panelists expressed the need to understand what consumers want, while being patient and flexible in the development of new products. Tart offered an example of an enhanced e-book his company had created that was unsuccessful. Despite his excitement about the new features of the product, “no one cared,” he said. “I really overstepped not only what I was doing as a publisher, but what the audience was ready for and what they wanted.”  Allessi noted that timing in the development of new products (such as Tart’s enhanced e-book) is crucial. “I seem to make the same mistake over and over again, which is underestimating the time that it takes for people to adjust to something,” Allessi said. “I’m also continually surprised once consumers have sampled it [a new product] and they like it, how quickly they’ll run with it.”

Listening to the consumer is important, and so is heeding the author.  “I spend most of my time looking at what authors do—trying to figure out what they’re doing to cultivate their audience,” Tart explained. “I think we can learn a lot from that.”

Each of the panelists seemed to agree on the importance of staying aware of consumer trends while producing a quality product. “Good books are still going to find their way,” Miller said. “[Publishers] do have the ability and the basic urge to make sure we get a book everywhere it can possibly be. To me,” he said, “that really goes to the heart of what we do in publishing. We are the champion of that book.”

by KeriLee Horan

Daniell Maupai: from the Capstone to a job at Condé Nast

“I was SO nervous,” remembers Danielle Maupai of the moment she stood up at an NYU Center for Publishing Board of Advisors meeting and summarized key elements of her graduate thesis, or “Capstone.”  After delivering a flawless Capstone presentation the week before in front of her fellow graduate students in the NYU M.S. in Publishing program, Maupai had been selected to tell the Board members about her thesis.  Maupai knew this was a wonderful opportunity to outline her business plan for a new magazine for American teachers in front of executives like Nina Link, President and CEO of MPA: The Association of Magazine Media; John Q. Griffin, former Executive Vice President of Time Inc. & President of Time Inc. News Group and current President of Griffin & Associates; and Louis Cona, Chief Marketing Officer for Condé Nast.

As an added touch, Maupai even showed off a four-page color brochure outlining the key marketing elements of her project. “I was trying to be as realistic with the presentation as possible,” she notes.  “Having worked at an integrated marketing company, it just seemed natural to create a leave-behind piece summarizing the mission statement and highlights of my idea—to bring it all to life. Plus I really like playing with design software!”

Despite being nervous, Maupai was so poised, polished and passionate about the magazine industry that Louis Cona not only took note—he took action. He swiftly reached out to Maupai through the publishing program and invited her to interview at Condé Nast. Before long, Maupai was hired as a manager in the Condé Nast Media Group’s integrated marketing division. “Our department does a lot of ideating and concept development for corporate sales proposals. I think it’s proving to be a great—though challenging!—next step for me,” she says.

When Maupai first entered the Capstone classroom last January, she found herself listening to a different kind of ideation: her fellow students sharing their concepts for business plans for new media ventures. Their professor, Lavinel Savu, Director of Editorial Operations for InStyle, guided them through the early Capstone discussions and helped them shape their projects. Students in Maupai’s class focused their Capstones on the magazine industry while those in the companion class taught by Steve Rago, Vice President of Corporate Development at John Wiley & Sons, developed book-based projects.

In the months to follow, Maupai gradually refined her idea, which was inspired, in fact, by her mom, a second grade teacher. She began with some basic research on what she had identified as her core audience: teachers in the K-8 classrooms— and no parents or policymakers. “By mapping out the field, I was able to identify spaces in the market, such as a lack of content directed at the lifestyle and day-to-day experience of being a teacher,” Maupai explains. “I also found there was a real need to engage younger educators with sophisticated design and an energetic, modern editorial voice.”

Using two simple surveys created on SurveyMonkey, she reached out to nearly 800 educators in her specified target audience and heard back from about 375. “I received great, honest feedback from teachers on when and how often they consume different kinds of media, whether they own smartphones or plan to buy an iPad (overwhelmingly, no!), and what topics and services would appeal to them in a new magazine and website,” she says.

Armed with her research and convinced that there was a market for a community-based magazine for younger educators interested in lifestyle as well as classroom issues, she began creating a business model that involved multiple revenue streams. Lavinel Savu helped at every step of the way. “I wouldn’t have had the focus to really push past the idea and research stage without the classroom sessions,” says Maupai.  “My professor had some particularly insightful ideas for my project about financial modeling and mobile apps.”

Savu, in turn, was impressed with his student. “From the start, I thought Danielle’s idea was relevant and timely,” he says. “She proved that her magazine brand had the potential to become a viable launch by supporting her audience and revenue assumptions. Ultimately, it was the immaculate execution of Danielle’s final plan, from the sophisticated mock covers and TOCs [tables of content] to the thorough financial projections and break-even analysis that convinced me she had a clearly differentiated magazine brand which could thrive, even in today’s volatile economy and crowded media marketplace.”

Looking back at the Capstone course, Maupai found it rewarding. “I actually really enjoyed the process—but I recognize that the experience wasn’t as enjoyable for everyone,” she says. “Finances were a particular struggle for most of us. And the research component was difficult for some projects because of a highly-targeted audience, or emerging media formats like the iPad with little solid data to date (as of the past spring, at least!). I think having a concrete idea early on in the semester, one that you don’t mind completely delving into, really helps.  I probably lucked out by finding good inspiration!”

As for lucking out, Maupai did so in more ways than one. Her Capstone not only helped her land her dream job at Condé Nast, but is still in her dreams as a potential real-world media project down the road.  “I really would like to make my magazine for teachers happen in some form in the near future. I still see a need for it,” she says.

Meanwhile, Maupai has a little advice for this semester’s Capstone students: “My suggestion is to focus on passion points within a population segment and then see what’s missing—or what can be done better. It seems less daunting to approach it that way vs. isolated brainstorming and waiting for the ‘big idea’ to hit! Also, remember that people—especially millennials— will pay for good, useful content. So don’t give content for free unless you’ve got a surefire, innovative way to make revenue around it!”

by Andrea Chambers

Scott Alexander (Introduction to Magazine Publishing) is Editor-in-Chief of American Photo, a Bonnier Corp. publication, where he is in charge of both the magazine and the website. He also oversees the development of iPad apps. Previously, he was Senior Editor for Playboy and Popular Science, Deputy Editor for Yahoo! Internet Life, Associate Editor at iVillage, and Associate/Online Editor for Home Office Computing. Scott received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Colorado.

Godofredo Astudillo (The Role of Video in Publishing) is Video Editor and Producer of TV Guide Magazine where he produces, directs and edits content for web use, behind-the-scenes footage, and short promos; he is also a freelance editor and videographer for Nickelodeon, iTunes/Apple, and CBS through his own video production company, Tidy Brighty Productions. Godofredo has worked as a photo editor for TV Guide and freelancer for InStyle and Entertainment Weekly. He holds an MFA in Directing from NYU Graduate Film School.

Seale Ballenger (Public Relations and Corporate Communications) is Vice President & Group Publicity Director for HarperCollins imprints William Morrow, Avon, Harper Voyager, William Morrow Trade Paperbacks, and Morrow Cookbooks, where he works with authors such as John Grogan, Bill O’Reilly, Amy Ephron, and Neil Gaiman. His previous positions include Vice President and Director of Publicity for Atria Books at Simon & Schuster, Vice President and Director of Publicity for Pocket Books at Simon & Schuster, and Corporate Communications Director for Outside. He is a graduate of The University of the South.

Jonathan Burnham (Introduction to Book Publishing) is Senior Vice President and Publisher of the Harper division at HarperCollins; the Harper list includes authors Michael Crichton, Barbara Kingsolver, Milan Kundera, Ann Patchett, Anderson Cooper, Michael Chabon, Louise Erdrich, Paulo Coelho, Doris Lessing, Daniel Silva, former Governor Sarah Palin, and many others. He also oversees Harper Perennial, William Morrow, Avon, and HarperVoyager. Previously, he was President of Miramax Books and Publishing Director of Chatto and Windus in the UK. Jonathan was educated at Oxford University in the United Kingdom, where he holds a Ph.D. in Literature in Italian twentieth-century poetry.

Daniele Campbell (Introduction to Interactive Media) is Vice President of Marketing and Business Development, CRM Group at MTV Networks, where she develops and executes strategic partnerships and cross media digital marketing programs. Previously, she had been Vice President, Interactive and Director of Corporate Strategy and Development at Rodale, and Associate Director of Finance, Strategy and Business Development at TIME. She received her MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Shannon Casey (Desktop Publishing) is Associate Art Director of Marie Claire, where she designs layouts for all sections of the magazine, art directs and supervises freelance designers, directs photo shoots, and commissions art and illustrations.  Previously she was Designer for Lifetime magazine and a freelance designer for magazines such as Seventeen, Parents, Newsweek, and Time Out New York. Shannon holds a degree from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications/College of Arts and Sciences.

Pablo Defendini (ePUB and eBook Workflow) is Interactive Producer, Open Road Integrated Media, where he helps manage the development of in-house online marketing platforms, websites and enhanced eBook production as well as research and development and workflow. Previously, he was a designer and producer for Tor.com, a division of Macmillan Publishing, and an art director for J. Walter Thompson and NRG Magazine. He graduated from the Pratt Institute.

Ruth Feldman (Introduction to Magazine Publishing) is currently International Editorial Director and Business Manager at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. From 2004-2008, she was Editorial/Creative Director for Rodale Magazines International. Previous positions include Creative Director for Hearst Magazines International, Art Director for The New York Times, Acting Art Director for Redbook, and Design Director for McCall’s. She received her degree from Ontario College of Art and Design.

Rob Fisher (Mastering Management and Leadership) is Group Publisher and Senior Vice President of American City Business Journals at Advance Publications, as well as Senior Vice President of Circulation for Sporting News. Previously, he had been Group Publisher for their Kansas City, St. Louis, and Wichita newspapers; Publisher for their Phoenix and Portland (OR) business journals; Editor of the Portland business journal; and Managing Editor of their Kansas City business journal. He received his degree from Northwestern University.

Jane Grenier (Introduction to Marketing and Branding) is Vice President of Integrated Strategy at Condé Nast Media Group, where she spearheads development of channel-neutral custom solutions for the company’s largest marketing partners. Other positions she has held at Condé Nast include Vice President and Publisher of Flip.com, Associate Publisher/Marketing for Teen Vogue, and Associate Publisher/Creative Services at Gourmet. Prior to joining Condé Nast, Jane held posts at Esquire and in the corporate marketing department at Family Media Inc. She received her MFA from Florida State University’s Asolo Conservatory.

Rick Levine (Capstone [Magazine Section]) is Senior Vice President of Editorial Operations for Condé Nast, where he works with the company’s consumer magazines on a broad range of operational issues as well on as new initiatives, including the development of digital editions. Previously he was Vice President and Human Resources Director of The New Yorker and Managing Editor of Condé Nast Traveler. Before joining Condé Nast, he was a reporter, an editor of “The Week in Review” section, and City Hall bureau chief at The New York Times. Rick has co-authored four books and earned his MBA in Management from New York University’s Stern School of Business.

Robert Miller (Introduction to Book Publishing) is currently Group Publisher of Workman Publishing. Before moving to Workman, he was President of HarperStudio, a division of Harper Collins.  Prior to HarperStudio, in 1990 he founded Hyperion Books and served as its President until 2008. Previous positions include Vice President at Dell Publishing, Editorial Director of Delacorte Press  and Senior Editor at Warner Books. Bob began his career as an Editorial Assistant at St. Martin’s Press in 1978. He is also Chairman of the Board of New York City/Outward Bound, a non-profit organization that supports public education in New York City. He received his degree from Boston University.

Kate Rados (Introduction to Interactive Media) is Group Marketing Director of F+W Media, where she is responsible for the marketing and publicity strategy of over 19 communities; 3,500 print/1,500 eBook titles; and 25 eCommerce stores.  Before moving to F+W Media, she was Director of Digital Initiatives for Chelsea Green Publishing.  Previous positions have also included Director of Digital Markets for Sterling Publishing/Barnes & Noble, Publicity Manager for Bauer Publishing, and Press and Talent Coordinator for the Food Network. She is a graduate of Wagner College.

Dan Revitte (Principles of Art and Design) is Online Art Director for Men’s and Women’s Health magazines, where he is responsible for visuals on the websites and translating the look and feel of the print magazine to the online medium. He also works on the Rodale book line and on visual aspects of the iPhone and iPad apps. From 2007-2009, Dan was Managing Art Director of Newsweek, working on both the magazine and Newsweek books. He has also worked for The Denver Post and as a freelance art director. He is a graduate of The University of Colorado.

Josh Stinchcomb (Magazine Advertising: Print and Online) is Vice President of Digital Sales at Condé Nast Media Group, having previously been Publisher and Executive Director for their business group; Associate Publisher of Wired Media; and Integrated Marketing Director for Wired. He earned his MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business.

John Vlachos (Introduction to Multimedia Financial Analysis) was until very recently Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at QSP, Inc. (a Time Inc. Company), where he had worked since 2009.  Prior to this, he served as VP of Global Business Planning + Analysis and Chief Financial Officer of U.S. Affinities for Readers’ Digest Association, Inc.  Previous positions include SVP and Chief Financial Officer for Bookspan, Director of Finance for the Corporate Strategic Planning Group at Time Inc. and Executive Vice President and Acting President for Time Inc. International.  He has also served as CFO for Chadbourne & Parke, LLP, and as VP and Controller for Ziff-Davis Publishing Co.  He received his  degree from New York University.

Troy L. Williams (Capstone [Book Section]) is Vice President and General Manager, New Ventures, for Macmillan, where he is charged with starting up new businesses or acquiring existing early-stage companies to add to the product portfolio, largely in the education sector. Previously, Troy served as a Principal with T.L. Williams & Company in Austin, TX, where he consulted on early-stage and troubled companies. An entrepreneur himself, Troy was the founder, President, and CEO of Questia Media Company, which provided college students and researchers with the largest online collection of full-text books and journal articles. He holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School.

For more information about our program and our faculty, please visit our website at http://www.scps.nyu.edu/mspub

Summer Publishing Institute alumna Julia Nollen

“Last year, I set my sights high in hopes of breaking into the industry by applying for New York University’s prestigious Summer Publishing Institute certificate program. SPI (as it’s regularly referred to) annually accepts about 100 applicants worldwide to its 6-week-long intensive course, which is comprised of lectures and tutorials from some of the most influential and innovative members of the industry. From designing magazine feature spreads to drafting profit and loss statements [for books and e-books], students are given a crash course in all things publishing. What I found most appealing about SPI was its focus on the current and future state of the publishing industry. Print runs are shrinking, and unit costs are growing, we’re told. Texts are now tweets, and looking over your shoulder no longer reveals the identities of those ‘following’ you. But publishing houses are using the web’s unprecedented reach to enhance product discoverability and to expand existing audiences.  By offering weekly web design workshops and tutorials for both print and digital platforms, SPI’s lectures embrace this change and cover all avenues of publishing. Students are asked to analyze current trends and consider future solutions.

I have made invaluable contacts through the wide breadth of resources NYU eagerly extends its attendees, and have secured three internships for the fall season. Other students were offered full-time positions because of their time at NYU. And, if building lasting relationships with HR managers from the ‘Big Six’ [six major book publishing companies] isn’t enough incentive, consider the valuable feedback you’re guaranteed to receive on your résumé, interview performance, and overall contribution to both magazine and book groups. There is nothing like nervously sliding one’s magazine designs across a table, only to be critiqued and commended by the Art Director of Esquire, David Curcurito. Though our conversation was followed by a few residual heart palpitations, Mr. Curcurito‘s advice left a lasting impression and inspired me to radically reconsider my professional goals.

While every person’s experience at SPI is unique, most alumni (including me) would enthusiastically recommend the program to others. Ultimately, there’s nothing like learning about the industry in its epicenter locale of New York City, alongside other like-minded bibliophiles and aspiring publishing professionals.”

You can read the full post here: http://publishingtrendsetter.com/industryinsight/spi/#more-1291

SPI 2011 students attend a seminar on magazine trends.

We’re extremely proud of the professors and students who make the SPI one of the leading intensives for publishing professionals in the country.The application for next year’s SPI will be available in early November and the application deadline is March 26, 2012.

For more information, please visit: http://www.scps.nyu.edu/areas-of-study/publishing/continuing-education/summer-publishing-institute.html

Perseus CEO David Steinberger talks to SPI students.

“The first book published was the Bible,” announced David Steinberger, CEO of the Perseus Books Group. “And the second book was  ‘The Demise of Publishing.’” Laughter ensued as the NYU-SCPS Summer Publishing Institute (SPI) students listened to the final address of the 2011 six-week program. In fact, Steinberger depicted publishing as far from its demise, vibrant and alive with a spirit of adaption and improvement.

Steinberger led students through his own predictions for what publishing will look like in 2021. Despite the ephemeral nature of publishing today, Steinberger—if anyone—is in a great position to forecast future trends for the ever-evolving industry.

Listen up: the future according to Steinberger could become our reality. Here are the Perseus CEO’s predictions:

There will be print books in 2021

“Books are a gift; something to be cherished,” said Steinberger. “The understanding of a book as an object cannot be solved by digital development. Unlike [consumers in the] the music business, readers are connected to the channel through which they buy books. The physical book is both a generational and personal preference, and one that cannot be satisfied by an e-reader of any make.”

Everyone’s free to be a publisher

“The barriers of who can publish are crumbling,” said Steinberger. He reminded those in the room that even two hospital employees can now be publishers.

Desire for proximity to talent

“People continuously seek a connection to others, especially to authors and celebrities,” explained Steinberger. “Publishers will work to accommodate this need.”

Goodbye, old discovery models.

In 2021, venues of discovery will be even smaller, predicted Steinberger. Creativity is necessary to reach potential readers. Only the inspired will succeed.

The Web changes discovery

“The Web is great for hunters, not gatherers,” Steinberger noted. However, publishers can remedy this. After all, it will be the publishers who use the Web, not ignore it, who will prove successful in 2021. “Successful publishers will enable discovery,” Steinberger stressed.

Reading goes social

“Pretty soon, we’ll have a mayor for each title,” Steinberger announced of the Foursquare craze. Publishing has already moved into the social media scene, but this is only the beginning. Steinberger’s list of future social media tactics include Facebook discovery, chapters issued via Twitter, social recommendation engines, points, clubs, geotagging… anything imaginative!

Turbocharged breakouts

Steinberger presented a mini-case study of this year’s sensation Go the F*** to Sleep by Adam Mansbach to exemplify his point that bestsellers can emerge without the traditional promotional vehicles. He noted that free online versions of the book were running rampant on the internet long before the scheduled publication date of the parody of the children’s classic. “They were everywhere,” Steinberger exclaimed. “Go the F*** to Sleep was was not for sale; there were no reviews, no retailers, no talk shows. Yet, it became a bestselling book in the country.” Steinberger pointed out that even though the book was available free online, people still wanted to buy a physical copy of the book. “Again,” he noted, “digital doesn’t meet each consumer’s need.” Expect this and more in 2021.

It’s a brave new world

Steinberger introduced those in  the room to  brand new business models for 2021 including lending, renting, subscriptions, “freemium,” flash sales, bundling, and of course, more. These concepts are not new, but new to publishing.

Increasing returns to talent

Throughout his predictions for 2021, Steinberger continued to stress the importance of talent. Without talent, there’s no work to be published.

The future is Lego

Compared to the traditional model of publishing consisting of print to retail, the new model of 2021 is plug and play. “It will be important to choose what makes sense for your book in the business of publishing, finding what’s right,” Steinberger observed.

Size doesn’t matter

Over time, the size of a publishing house will be just a number. The emphasis to publish with the Big Six (Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin Group USA, Random House, and Simon & Schuster) will decline by 2021. What is important is to find the right partner, no matter the size. Through the right partnership, success can be found.

Quality will always matter

“It actually matters if the book is good,” Steinberger said.

After finishing his predictions, the CEO concluded by telling the students: “It’s an exciting future. You guys are going to have a great time.” And the mood in the room was upbeat, even inspired. When asked what a digital book would look like in ten years, Steinberger said he had no idea. No one does. However, after listening to Steinberger, I felt that publishing is bound to be unstoppable, just like the Summer Publishing Institute class of 2011.

by Neena Cinquino