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M.S. in Publishing: Digital & Print Media

Class Acts: New Spring Faculty

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An oenophile, a closet jigsaw puzzle addict, a photographer with a one-man show: these are just a few of the outside-the-classroom passions of the leading publishing executives joining the faculty this spring in the Master of Science in Publishing Program at NYU-SCPS. Read on to know more about our new instructors, including the Editor-in-Chief of TV Guide, the Chief Financial Officer of The Huffington Post, leading publishing attorneys from Time Inc. and Penguin Group USA, top marketing executives from Bonnier and Reader’s Digest, digital leaders from Hyperion and Rodale, and a corporate development expert from John Wiley & Sons. We’ve also asked our new faculty about everything from their private lives to their content consumption: the what and the how.

Eric Ashman (Web Financials) is the Chief Financial Officer of The Huffington Post.  Prior to joining The Huffington Post in May 2009, he served as the Chief Financial Officer of TheStreet.com.  His earlier positions include Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer at Text 100 Public Relations, a global technology public relations firm, and Audit Supervisor at Kenneth Leventhal & Company (prior to the firm’s merger with Ernst & Young).  Eric received his BBA in Accounting from the University of Massachusetts and became a Certified Public Accountant in 1993.

You’d never guess from his bio that: He loves to head off into the woods with his family for a week of backpacking and camping.

What he’s reading now: “Do More Faster: TechStars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup” by Brad Feld & David Cohen

Must-read websites: huffingtonpost.com, his Twitter digital publishing list (http://www.twitter.com/ericashman/digitalpublishing), techcrunch.com, paidcontent.org, mashable.com, businessinsider.com, avc.com (venture capitalist Fred Wilson’s Blog)

Favorite e-reader: Kindle on the iPad [Read more…] about Class Acts: New Spring Faculty

Meet Random House’s Markus Dohle

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Random House Chairman and CEO Markus Dohle speaks to NYU-SCPS Publishing students in the company's conference room.

As part of a group of NYU Master of Science in Publishing students eagerly gathering in the lobby of Random House last Friday, I marveled at the display cases that enclosed hundreds and hundreds of Random House books, old and new, of every category and representing a myriad of international editions. I was one of 30 students lucky enough to ride the elevator up to the twenty-fifth floor conference room to meet with the company’s Chairman and CEO, Markus Dohle, and hear his viewpoints on book publishing.

When the elevator doors opened and we piled out into the hallway, it came as no surprise that more bookshelves lined the walls outside the conference room, which was adorned with yet more bookshelves.

While most of these books featured the name of a single author on the cover, one of the major points I took away from Dohle’s talk is that publishing a book is a team effort. After Andrea Chambers, director of the program, introduced Random House’s chairman, he jumped right into revealing the way in which he leads Random House, which has over 120 publishing imprints worldwide —through “shared values, a collaborative spirit, and teamwork.” [Read more…] about Meet Random House’s Markus Dohle

Abu Dhabi Diary, Part II

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Peter Balis shows his iPad to Sulaiman Adebowale from Senegal

The delicate art of the swipe and the pinch was demonstrated again—and again—as 25 publishers from all over the Arab world (and beyond) fingered iPads and also got acquainted with the Kindle, Nook, Sony Reader and the new Kobo eReader. Peter Balis, director of digital content sales for John Wiley and  Sons, had hauled his stash of digital toys half way around the world to demonstrate the latest technology to his 24 students assembled in the brand new, high-tech classroom on the campus of NYU Abu Dhabi.

It was day three of the four-day executive training sessions for Arab-region publishers co-sponsored by The Center for Publishing at NYU-SCPS and KITAB, the joint venture company formed by the Frankfurt International Book Fair and the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair. Today’s subject was digital publishing: the what, the why and—for some in the room—the when. [Read more…] about Abu Dhabi Diary, Part II

Abu Dhabi Diary, Part I

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Philip Patrick lecturing in Abu Dhabi

“It’s profoundly important to be willing to fail. What’s important is trying new things,” said Philip Patrick, a publisher at Crown Publishing, a division of Random House, as students from 14 nations listened raptly. Most were thousands of miles from home, seated at student desks at the brand new campus of New York University Abu Dhabi, participating in the inaugural executive publishing training sessions for publishers from the Arab world (and beyond). [Read more…] about Abu Dhabi Diary, Part I

Media Stars Sound Off

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Media Talk panelists (l-r): Moderator Carr, Tumblr’s Karp, YouTube’s Grove, Foursquare’s Crowley, AOL’s Eun

“You’ve all got the tools of insurgency in your hand… show me what you’ve made, show me what you’ve built,” David Carr, media columnist for The  New York Times, told the M.S. in Publishing students assembled for the NYU Media Talk series,  a panel discussion  on “The Case for Media Optimism: What’s Working and Why” hosted by the Center for Publishing at NYU-SCPS. His message? In today’s business climate, you have the opportunity to handcraft your own job. [Read more…] about Media Stars Sound Off

Social Media Socializing

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Debbie Stier and Yuli Ziv speak to students and alumni

The conversation at a recent publishing event was all about social media and how to harness it for maximum profit—and have some fun along the way. Sponsored by the Publishing Students Association at the NYU-SCPS Center for Publishing, the Office for Alumni Relations, and the Publishing Alumni Association, the evening was a way for students and alumni to gather, send lots of tweets, and hear from two top social media experts, Debbie Stier of HarperCollins, and Yuli Ziv of the Style Coalition. [Read more…] about Social Media Socializing

Confessions of Student Cover Designers

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“Forty seconds left,” Michael Freidson, Editor-in-Chief of Time Out New York, said to our group as he came around collecting sketches of everyone’s  ideas for  the cover of TONY. We quickly scribbled our names on our group’s sketch and handed it in.

When we were initially invited to visit the office of Time Out New York last week, we thought we were just going on one of the educational field trips the M.S. in Publishing program at NYU-SCPS offers to help students  learn more about the media industry. Little did we know that  Freidson and Design Director Adam Logan Fulrath would turn a part of the visit into a real cover design session—and that our idea would be selected to appear on this week’s (October 7-13th) issue of Time Out New York! [Read more…] about Confessions of Student Cover Designers

On the Inside at Time Out New York

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Time Out New York Editor Freidson with M.S. in Publishing students

The Students of the M.S. in Publishing program at NYU-SCPS ventured this week to the place that helps turn events into hot parties and couch potatoes into busy bodies: Time Out New York (TONY).

Michael Freidson, editor-in-chief of Time Out New York, welcomed us in an industrial-chic conference room with whiteboards covered in notes about cover and story ideas. Freidson, in beaten denim jeans and a sharp powder blue dress shirt, began with the history of the weekly print magazine. Englishman Tony Elliott created Time Out in his bedroom in London in 1968 because, said Freidson, “there wasn’t a resource that could digest all of the events going on in London at the time.”

[Read more…] about On the Inside at Time Out New York

How I Got That Job (or Internship)

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We love hearing stories about how our students turned their internships in the M.S. in Publishing program at NYU-SCPS into full-time jobs—or how their classroom or networking experiences resulted in coveted industry positions. So, we asked a few of our graduate students and one recent alumna to tell us how their program-related experiences furthered their career goals:

From Event to E-Books

by Nicole Passage

In the fall of 2009, the NYU Center for Publishing hosted an event at which Jane Friedman,  industry icon, and former CEO of HarperCollins, spoke of her exciting new venture, Open Road Integrated Media (ORIM)—a ground-breaking digital content company that publishes and markets e-books. I was in my first semester in the Master’s program then, and when it came time to start looking for an internship for the spring, I knew that I would apply at ORIM. In January 2010, I interviewed to become a development and production intern for the company and was immediately accepted. My duties during this time were varied, but the majority of my time was spent reading books, writing summaries,  and conducting author research.  By June, I had been hired to work part-time for Managing Editor (and Center  for Publishing Adjunct Instructor) Andrea Colvin: proofreading and copyediting, writing descriptive copy, and managing metadata and schedules. Now, only three months later, I am the managing editorial assistant at Open Road, doggedly performing the  tasks mentioned above, and then some–and helping to pave the way for the future of books! [Read more…] about How I Got That Job (or Internship)

Meet Our New Fall Faculty

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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: [Read more…] about Meet Our New Fall Faculty