“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.

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.

Google, E-Readers and More

David Carr(l) and Ken Auletta have a Google chat

Did you know that employees at Google’s Mountain View, CA campus get free oil changes and car washes on Thursdays? Or that there are five doctors on campus? How about the fact that engineers can spend 20% of their time working on what they want? This 80/20 rule, which has spawned Google Wave, Google News and Gmail, is part of a corporate culture where boss and cofounder Sergey Brin rollerblades (late) to meetings in his gym shorts. Every building has its own cafeteria serving everything from Mexican food to sushi and free food is everywhere.