“Webby, Wiki, and Sticky:” Video for 2012

Duff and Cohen speak to NYU Publishing students

“What experience do we want to cultivate for readers?” was a question on everyone’s minds during the latest NYU-SCPS M.S. in Publishing alumni event, a discussion entitled “Visions in Video” recently held by the NYU-SCPS Office of Alumni Relations, the Publishing Alumni Association, and the Publishing Student Association. Speakers Craig Duff and Samantha Cohen each talked about challenges for the magazine and book industries presented by new technology, including video and multimedia.

Craig Duff, Director of Multimedia and Chief Video Journalist at Time, Inc., told the group that, ideally, online content should be “webby, wiki, and sticky”—meaning content (especially in terms of long-form journalism) should be current, have a collaborative/educational value, and make a reader want to stick with a story until the end. Digital and online audiences face more distractions than print readers, and thus have a tendency to hit-and-run read, which can hinder a story’s impact.

A Visit to Entertainment Weekly

Stivers and Cagle (center) with M.S. in Publishing students at Entertainment Weekly

“You’re never done,” said Cyndi Stivers, managing editor of EW.com about career trajectories and the importance of staying current.   “Get comfortable with that idea and keep learning. The stuff that comes easily to you may actually be a rare and marketable skill.” Next to her, Jess Cagle, managing editor of Entertainment Weekly (all Time Inc. top editors have this title instead of Editor-in-Chief), nodded in agreement. Both editors had agreed to sit down with NYU’s Master of Science in Publishing students to talk about careers, publishing, and the challenges of entertainment journalism.

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.

Faculty Spotlight: Who’s New for Summer and Fall?

Alexis Mersel

At the Center for Publishing, we continue to add new courses and grow our faculty of industry experts, so we thought we’d blog about some new faces at the front of the classroom this semester and next fall.  For those of you new to our blog, we created NYUPubPosts earlier this summer. While our initial focus was on our Summer Publishing Institute (scroll down to read all about our great speakers and field trips), SPI has ended. Now, we are shifting our focus to our Master of Science in Publishing program. Throughout the year, we’ll be posting about our many events, new courses, faculty and much more—and inviting students and faculty to contribute as well.