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:

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.

Meet Our New Fall Faculty

A leading editor. Two renowned publishing attorneys. An online marketing expert. A top print and production chief. A star web designer. A publisher who discovered some of our most beloved books. A successful entrepreneur who is  now a senior digital executive. These are the new faces  joining our faculty of leading publishing practitioners at the Master of Science in Publishing program this fall. We are delighted to welcome them and thought you would like to hear about who’s who in the classroom:

The Real Editorial Opinions!

 By Andrea Chambers and Phil Scillaci Kropoth

Chris Jackson and panel of editors share a good story

“Hope” and “love” were two words tossed around freely during  a panel discussion of book editors at NYU’s Summer Publishing Institute. Sure, there was mention of “P & L’s” and other earthbound concepts like earning out inflated advances.  Yet as moderator Christopher Jackson, Executive Editor of Spiegel & Grau, deftly guided the conversation, the prevailing theme was the importance of passion. The panelists spoke repeatedly of falling in love with a manuscript or a proposal and persuading a tough-minded acquisitions board to publish it.  “You just have to believe and be willing to go out on a limb,” said William Morrow’s Executive Editor Laurie Chittenden, who calls book auctions a “legal form of gambling.” (She admitted that she is also a poker player.)