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.

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:

Eats and Feats at Every Day with Rachael Ray

Tracey Seaman (right) talks to students in the Every Day with Rachael Ray test kitchen.

The delectable aroma of herbs, spices, and Mexican cooking greeted M.S. in Publishing: Digital and Print Media students as they arrived at the test kitchens of Every Day with Rachael Ray for an industry visit. Naturally, at a food magazine, the test kitchen is key–and the perfect place to start our tour! Christine Guilfoyle, the magazine’s Group Publisher, who graciously set up the student visit, explained that a goal of Every Day with Rachael Ray is to help readers understand the everyday practices of good cooking.

NYU Media Talk Gets Social

Moderator Carr and Panelists Smith, Malda and Quittner at NYU Media Talk

Social.

If the attendees of the latest NYU Media Talk had to sum up the event using a single word, that would have been it. Students and alumni of the NYU Summer Publishing Institute (SPI) mingled with faculty members and prominent figures of the industry both before and after the highlight of the night: a panel discussion entitled “Social Content: What’s Working? What’s Not? What’s Next?”

Social Media Success Story: 7 Students, 500,000 WBN books

M.S. in Publishing Students Peraza, Cox, Flavin, Olivares (back row), and Werthan, Narasimhan and George formed a social media committee for WBN.

To the literati of the world, April 23rd used to have special meaning as the day Shakespeare was born and Cervantes died. This year, the date took on even more significance as longtime book lovers and new readers alike participated in a nationwide movement that is likely to become as addictive as a juicy novel. On April 23rd, World Book Night (WBN) debuted in the U.S. after a successful launch last year in the United Kingdom. All over America, volunteers from all 50 states handed out books to non-readers and reluctant readers in an effort to promote literacy. “Givers,” selected through an application process online, passed  out 500,000 free paperbacks in churches, bars, children’s shelters, public transit systems and senior centers—even on beaches. (One innovative “giver” put copies of Patti Smith’s Just Kids inside Ziploc bags and doled them out in Monterey Bay.) Now, who better to promote this kind of national literary love fest than the students in the Master of Science in Publishing: Digital & Print Media program at NYU?

Speed Networking: Fast Facts!

(back l-r) Neil De Young, Jaime de Pablos, Stephen Acunto, Jr, Karina Mikhli, Lavinel Savu, Laura De Silva, Angela Bole; (front l-r) Kastoory Kazi, blogger Rebecca Hytowitz, Mark Steffen, Liz Peterson

Ever wondered how to build a personal brand? (Hint: remove your home address from your résumé and add your LinkedIn URL instead.) How about best practices for social media? (Engage and interact with your audience instead of just pushing content!) These were just some of the topics and comments tossed around at the first-ever “Speed Networking” event hosted by the newly-constituted NYU Publishing Alumni Committee last week at NYU’s Torch Club. Committee co-chairs Laura De Silva and Jaime de Pablos and their devoted event committee members have been working on this for months—and their efforts showed. The committee invited seasoned and senior publishing alumni to serve as “speed facilitators” at each of five tables. Each facilitator was assigned a specific theme to discuss. Committee members were also assigned to each table to help with the discussion.

Mashable Media Summit 2011: Tweetable Moments

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.

The Art of Getting Hired

Denise Cunningham of Sterling Publishing and Ali DeBiasi of Time Inc. provide valuable career advice to NYU-SCPS Center for Publishing students.

Wouldn’t it be great to know the secret thoughts of job recruiters—what may irk, what will work, and how you can ultimately convince them to offer you the job of your dreams? At a Career Panel sponsored by the Center for Publishing at New York University’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies, graduate students were given the opportunity to do just that. Ali DeBiasi-Intrès, Executive Director of Staffing at Time Inc., and Denise Cunningham, Vice President for Human Resources at Sterling Publishing, gamely answered questions and even conducted mock interviews with two brave students, followed by a candid critique of their performances. Read on for discussion highlights, and don’t forget to make this your handy checklist before submitting your next job application.

The Social Network: The Panel

Center for Publishing faculty member Katherine Tasheff (l) and Director Andrea Chambers at social media panel

You’ve seen “The Movie,” so now it’s time to read about “The Panel,” a conversation among high-powered social media experts who gathered at Harvard Business School last week for the 20^th Annual Dynamic Women in Business Conference.  Entitled “Beyond the Buzz,” the social media panel was one of sixteen discussions focused on key issues such as work-life balance, managing teams in a global context and networking and selling with confidence.

The NYU-SCPS Center for Publishing was well represented on the social media panel by Director Andrea Chambers, who moderated the discussion, and by Katherine Tasheff, Executive Director, Digital Media and Marketing, Hyperion and Voice Books.  Tasheff teaches Introduction to Interactive Media in the Master of Science in Publishing program at NYU. To report on the many tips and tactics suggested by the social media panelists, two Harvard Business School first-year students, Alexandra Bochicchio and Valerie Galinskaya, offer this status update:

The Future of Print: Bo Sacks Speaks at SPI

Bo Sacks gives the keynote speech on Day 1 of the Summer Publishing Institute

In his animated and lively presentation, Bo Sacks, owner of The Precision Media Group, told the students attending NYU’s 2010 Summer Publishing Institute that while print is not dead, it will not be the primary way to read in the future. His State of the Union address directed toward SPI’s aspiring media professionals offered a glimpse into the blurring lines between print and digital media.