Meet the Summer Faculty

As we get ready for the start of summer classes, the NYU MS in Publishing: Digital & Print Media program is pleased to welcome three new media experts joining our faculty of leading industry practitioners. Yes, the new members know their subjects, but they also have some pretty cool interests outside school! Read on to learn about some new faces in the classroom this summer… and their passion for sushi, saxophones, and more.

Job-Hunting Handbook: What the HR Experts Say

M.S. in Publishing students get career tips from Stacy Berliner (back, left) and Sara Patterson (back, right).

Publishing is a tight-knit community, and for those seeking their first positions in the industry, it can be tough to break in. Luckily, last week, students in NYU’s M.S. in Publishing: Digital and Print Media program had the opportunity to attend a panel discussion moderated by the program’s director, Andrea Chambers, and featuring two senior human resources executives in the publishing industry. Sara Patterson, Head of Talent Management for Condé Nast, and Stacy Berliner, Director of Human Resources at Random House, shared their insights, key networking tips, and job-hunting techniques crucial for snagging that publishing dream job.

App-titude for Apps

Radhika Nayak and Chris Sanborn at an NYU Center for Publishing moderated conversation.

How do you produce a successful app? And what is a successful app, anyway? These were some of the questions asked recently at the moderated conversation on “The Art of the App” sponsored by students and alumni of the NYU-SCPS Center for Publishing. The event featured Radhika Nayak, Vice President for Product at Simon & Schuster, and Chris Sanborn, Founder and President of Sanborn Media Factory, a 30-person interactive agency that produces digital campaigns and products for companies such as Condé Nast and Hearst. Both panelists were asked to give the publishing industry a grade in terms of their app creation to date. Nayak, who has deep experience in building user-centered product strategies for websites and mobile applications, gave book publishing “about a C,” saying that publishers seem to be stuck on the idea of long-form content, and that they think of apps as nothing more than marketing tools for books, which is not what an app really is. 

Meet the Faculty… Inside and Outside the Classroom

Marketers, lawyers, “transformation” experts, oh my! The new faculty members teaching in the NYU M.S. in Publishing: Digital & Print Media program this fall are an eclectic and highly experienced group joining our full roster of 70 top media executives. To tell you more about them, we decided to give you not only the official bios of our latest faculty members, but some insights into their passions outside the classroom:

Jeff Barish (Magazine Advertising: Print and Online) is Senior Executive Director of Digital Sales at Condé Nast, where he is responsible for web, mobile and tablet advertising sales across all Condé Nast brands. Previously, he was Associate Publisher and VP of Advertising at Newsweek/The Daily Beast and before that, Advertising Director of Condé Nast Portfolio. He has also held senior management positions at Tribune Media Net, Thomson Financial Media, Fresh Baked Studios, and Metal Bulletin. Jeff received his degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

Green-blooded Jeff Barish lives and breathes for the New York Jets.

At SPI, Lunch Counts, Too!

SPI Alumnae Katie Levine (’07, left) and Cara Ann Serio (’05) illuminated some uncommon post-SPI career paths.

“It’s all about attitude” said Katie Levine at one of the eighteen Brown Bag Luncheons arranged this year to give NYU’s Summer Publishing Institute students a chance to meet with alumni in small groups. The subject of the lunch was “Twists and Turns: Unexpected Careers after SPI.” The speakers were Katie Levine (class of 2007), now a Communications Specialist at HBO, and Cara Ann Serio (class of 2005), Manager of Corporate Affairs at Ralph Lauren. Each shared stories of their career trajectories, insights into the industry, and the positive impact that their SPI experience had on their professional pathways.

“You’re Hired!” One Student’s Story

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.

Fall Faculty: New Faces

Who’s new on the faculty for the Master of Science in Publishing program at NYU-SCPS? Each semester, as we add new courses and expand our faculty, we invite top industry experts into our classrooms to help us shape and refine our curriculum. This fall, for example, we are adding a new course called “EPUB and eBook Workflow” and invited Pablo Defendini of Open Road Integrated Media to teach it. We created a new course in Principles of Art and Design and asked Dan Revitte of Rodale to share his design knowledge with our students. Another new course in The Role of Video in Publishing will be taught by Godofredo Astudillo of TV Guide Magazine. Other industry leaders joining our faculty this fall are: Scott Alexander of American Photo; Seale Ballenger and Jonathan Burnham of HarperCollins; Daniele Campbell of MTV Networks; Shannon Casey of Hearst; Ruth Feldman of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia; Rob Fisher of American City Business Journals at Advance Publications; Jane Grenier, Rick Levine, and Josh Stinchcomb of Condé  Nast; Robert Miller of Workman Publishing; Kate Rados of F+W Media; John Vlachos, formerly of Time, Inc; and Troy Williams of Macmillan. Please read on to learn more about them:

Mag Lab: Carey and Carr Talk Shop

Carey and Carr at NYU Media Talk

Are “two pizza” teams the future of media? Championing the value of start-up staffs being small enough to share, well, two pizzas, Hearst Magazines President David Carey praised the entrepreneurial spirit at the latest NYU Media Talk. Sponsored by The NYU-SCPS Center for Publishing, “Magazines 2011: The New Conversation” featured Carey and David Carr, Media Columnist for The New York Times, talking about important issues facing the industry. “There’s never been a better time,” Carey began about working in magazines. He described his faith in publishing as a ship that can change course, reroute and stay solvent (with proper leadership) in any tide.

Carey is widely known as an eloquent speaker about media. It was David Carr who had suggested him to Center for Publishing Director Andrea Chambers as perfect for the Media Talk. To be sure, Carey was a timely choice: earlier this month Hearst Magazines completed their $900 million acquisition of Hachette Lagardère, acquiring nearly 100 magazine titles in 14 countries, including Elle, Elle Décor, Woman’s Day, Road & Track, and Car & Driver. The merger is a bold gesture that now makes Hearst the largest publisher of monthly magazines internationally, and a dominant player in all sectors of lifestyle publishing. Carey addressed the importance of emerging markets for publishing  such as those in China and India) and commented that Hearst’s aim is to have a heightened presence in those climates, meeting the growing demands for consumer goods and Western culture. Next up for Cosmopolitan, noted Carey, was a possible move into Mongolia, though the magazine “takes a different tone” in such climates.

Mobile Mania at SPI

Matt Bean chats with a Summer Publishing Institute student while Michael Gutkowski looks on

“To infinity and beyond!” said Matt Bean at the opening of the NYU Summer Publishing Institute panel discussion on mobile publishing applications. While Bean, brand editor for Rodale‘s Men’s Health and Women’s Health, is no Buzz Lightyear, he was referring to the optimistic outlook the magazine industry has on its own technological Toy Story. The three top digital executives on the panel enthusiastically agreed.

A magazine’s mobile extension is easy, Bean said. For one, there are no page constraints, so content is limitless. And thankfully, the consumers are there and ready. Twenty-one percent of the mobile market already has a smartphone, and there are at least 200 apps listed in the Magazine Publishers of America (MPA) registry alone.  In fact, in 2010 mobile ad spending totaled $10 billion and is expected to increase to $32 billion by 2013. While these revenue statistics are certainly encouraging, Bean emphasized that of 10 total app downloads, 8 or 9 are for free apps — a conundrum for publishers and consumer marketers alike.

Faculty Spotlight: Who’s New For Spring and Summer

From an editor-in-chief  to a chief information officer, from a publisher of children’s books to a vice president for business development, the media executives joining the faculty of NYU’s  Master of Science in Publishing program  next spring and summer represent some of the leading figures in the industry.  Read on to learn more about the talented and eclectic group that students will soon meet in the classroom: