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.

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.

Meet Adam Moss

Editor Moss at NYU's Center for Publishing

New York magazine is a mindset, according to its Editor-in-Chief, Adam Moss, and students in NYU’s Summer Publishing Institute were given the opportunity to probe that mindset during a question-and-answer session with the man who has run the weekly for six years.

“It’s a magazine about a way of looking at the world,” Moss said, as cover images of Lindsey Lohan, LeBron James, and Caroline Kennedy, among many more, streamed across a screen, delineating the magazine’s prolific range of topics. “Even though we’re out there against a sea of other publications, we feel we have something to offer,” Moss said. And those who critique the world of magazines agree. This year, New York won four National Magazine Awards, including General Excellence in its category, 250,000 to 500,000; NYmag.com won a General Excellence National Magazine Award for the second year in a row.  Moss and his team of editors achieve such renown through an uncanny eye for putting unique spins on local and national news stories, and by staying one step ahead of the competition.

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.