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.

Meet the Spring Faculty: New Faces and Surprising Facts

We know you have been waiting for this, so here’s our annual introduction to the new faculty members teaching during the spring semester at NYU’s M.S. in Publishing: Digital and Print Media program. Their interests are far-reaching, from expertise in mystery, science fiction and horror publishing to tablet and app creation. Our talented teachers can help students understand worlds ranging from Apple to analytics, consumer marketing to social media marketing, fiction to finance, metadata to magazine editing, video to new views of the future of media. Read on for profiles of the latest publishing executives to join our roster of media leaders in the classroom. Plus, you will learn a few fun facts about what our faculty members do in their time away from teaching:

Digital Book World 2013: Change and Cooperation

NYU M.S. in Publishing students David Stuzin, Nicole Estrin, Michelle Cashman, Pam Majumdar, and Lorna Field volunteer at Digital Book World.

During a Digital Book World 2013 panel discussion so crowded that some attendees sat on the floor, Matt MacInnis, Founder and CEO of the interactive book company Inkling, made a particularly perceptive comment: “It’s a miracle that the book was a thing the whole world agreed on.” That is, up until recently, it is fair to say that “the book” as we know it has retained the same static, linear structure across various nations and fields of study since the invention of the printing press 500 years ago. Going forward, MacInnis continued, “It’s not gonna be one monolithic thing serving the med. school book and serving the novel.”

Pop Culture Publishing: Liars, Werewolves, and Mockingjays

Moderator Justin Chanda, Vice President & Publisher, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, Atheneum Books for Young Readers, and Margaret K. McElderry Books

A sea of familiar faces greeted attendees of the thirteenth NYU Media Talk, sponsored by the NYU-SCPS Center for Publishing Digital & Print Media. Sure, students and faculty filled a jam-packed Rosenthal Pavilion at the Kimmel Center, but what instantly got the crowd buzzing were the displays of book cover blow-ups featuring today’s most beloved characters of young adult fiction, including Bella Swan, Sebastian Verlac, and Emily Fields. The latest NYU Media Talk was titled “Pop Culture Publishing: Young Adult Megahits,” and everyone in attendance wanted the answer to one particular question: “What is the secret sauce to producing hits like Twilight, The Hunger Games, The Mortal Instruments, or Pretty Little Liars?” Indeed, as young adult books continue to transcend their traditional audience and shape a new generation of readers (including plenty of adults!), the publishing industry is actively trying to understand how and why children’s books succeed in acquiring their blockbuster-level status.

Networking? Here’s How With YPG and Ed2010

Young to Publishing’s Sara Sargent and Ed2010′s Chandra Turner

One of the greatest perks of being a student in the M.S. in Publishing: Digital and Print Media program at NYU-SCPS is the industry events we are frequently invited to attend. I was delighted to be able to go to a brown-bag lunch with speakers Chandra Turner, Executive Editor of Parents magazine and founder and president of Ed2010, and Sara Sargent, Assistant Editor, Balzer+Bray (an imprint of HarperCollins Children’s Books) and the chair of the Young to Publishing Group (YPG) Planning Committee. [YPG is part of The Association of American Publishers (AAP), which has more than 300 publishing organizations as its members.] Both speakers offered valuable insights on how to break into the industry, as well as all the opportunities for entry-level publishing professionals to connect with each other. The lunch was informative, interesting, and a great opportunity to listen to the wisdom of people who have gone through exactly what we are going through now as we attempt to get a foot in the door of publishing. And they have come out on top!

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.

Book Expo America: Rock Concert for Book Lovers

SPI students Vivian Roberson and Chloe Goodhart at BEA

After the first three days of classes, NYU’s Summer Publishing Institute (SPI) students experienced a change of pace from the classroom when they attended Book Expo America (BEA) at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. The conference center was transformed into a huge mall where every “store” featured the same thing: books. Even better for the students, the big books for fall were not only prominently displayed, but in some cases given away as advance reading copies.

McNally Jackson’s Espresso Book Machine: Write it. Print it. Now!

Espresso Book Machine at McNally Jackson’s Manhattan Bookstore

“I like the part where it pops out,” says Beth Steidle, who is one of two primary operators of McNally Jackson’s Espresso Book Machine. “It’s kind of like Willy Wonka.” But despite the analogy, this machine isn’t popping out candy (or coffee beans or a steamy brew!); it’s printing books. One at a time. Exactly how the customers want them. Last week, NYU’s M.S. in Publishing: Digital and Print Media Program students got a first-hand look at the machine and its wonders during a private visit to the Nolita bookstore.

The Espresso Book Machine (EBM) is a giant contraption that creates print-on-demand paperback books, fully bound, in minutes. The 87 EBMs in the world are sold or rented/leased by On Demand Books. The New York-based company was founded in 2003 by publishing legend Jason Epstein, who had long envisioned an efficient way to print books at an affordable cost in a neighborhood setting. Today, the company stores all of its books on a network database. They’re boldly tackling the old publishing model of gambling on print runs. And they are partnering with major publishers like HarperCollins to deliver out-of-print books at the customer’s convenience (and expense!). In addition, On Demand Books is providing an instant means for self-publishers to see their e-creations in printed form. With all this undeniable business potential, it’s no wonder McNally Jackson was the first in New York to invest in an Espresso Book Machine—and they’ve never regretted it.

From the Publishers’ Perspective: “HTML5, EPUB 3, and a Little Merlot”

(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.”

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: