NYUPubPosts

Abu Dhabi Adventure: Part II

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Publisher Judy Galbraith speaks at the "Education Chapter 3" forum at the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair.

While the main activity at the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair was, well, selling books, there was also a major emphasis upon education. One of my jobs was to help staff “The Education Chapter 3” of the fair. The “3” indicates that this was the third annual Education Chapter, which brought together exhibitors, teachers, librarians, publishers, institutional buyers, and presenters in an effort to provide professional training to Arab teachers and librarians. [Read more…] about Abu Dhabi Adventure: Part II

Abu Dhabi Adventure: Part I

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NYU M.S. in Publishing Students (l to r) Karlyn Hixson, Courtney Sanks and Erin Cox with Program Administrator Jennifer Goodwin at the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair

After a fourteen-hour flight from New York City, four graduate students from the Center for Publishing at New York University’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies (NYU-SCPS) stepped onto Abu Dhabi soil, eager to begin work as volunteers for the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair. The four had been selected after an intense competition that included submitting an essay about their goals for the volunteer experience and appearing before a committee for an in-depth interview. This public service endeavor was made possible by Jane Dystel, a well-respected literary agent, president of Dystel & Goderich Literary Management, and daughter of Oscar Dystel, a legendary leader in the publishing industry and former CEO and chairman of Bantam Books. Jane oversees the Oscar Dystel Publishing Research and Development Fund, which provided the resources for Joana Costa Knufinke, Erin Cox, Karlyn Hixson, and Courtney Sanks to travel to Abu Dhabi and work alongside Emirati volunteers and staffers of KITAB, a joint-venture between the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH) and the Frankfurt Book Fair. Below, please read the first two posts on the students’ Abu Dhabi adventure:

[Read more…] about Abu Dhabi Adventure: Part I

The Art of Getting Hired

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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.

[Read more…] about The Art of Getting Hired

The Social Network: The Panel

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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 20th 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:

[Read more…] about The Social Network: The Panel

Digital Book World Day Two: Catering to Kids

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Blogger Stephanie Pitts
Blogger Stephanie Pitts

As a lover of children’s books, I was pleased to find that there were three panels on day two of Digital Book World devoted to this segment of the marketplace. So, once my volunteering duties at the coat check were over, I made a beeline for the first kids’ book panel of the day. (As my fellow NYU Publishing student Thea James noted in her post about day one, hanging up wet and snowy coats wasn’t a bad trade off for the chance to sit in on a conference where registration costs upwards of one thousand dollars!)

Kristen McLean of the Association of Booksellers for Children moderated a presentation of findings from the 2010 ABC/Bowker Pubtrack Consumer Study: Understanding the Children’s Book Consumer in the Digital Age. The study provided many insights into the children’s market and debunked two prevailing myths surrounding teenagers. The first myth is that teenagers are universal adopters of technology and a ready-made market for ebooks. In fact, the study demonstrated that no segment in the teen market shows significant ebook sales (5-6% average adoption compared to about 30% in adult trade). The panelists attributed this to the fact that teenagers tend to adopt technologies that are sharing in nature like texting and social networking. Ebooks with limited sharing capabilities are actually less social than print books, which are readily passed around friendship circles or classrooms. Furthermore, many teens still don’t have access to e-readers, and because not all have credit cards, they rarely shop online for books. [Read more…] about Digital Book World Day Two: Catering to Kids

Digital Book World Day One: Optimism and Excitement

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Thea James, NYU Publishing student and blogger

At 7:00 AM on a cold, snowglobe of a morning, I stood with three other students from NYU’s Master of Science in Publishing program outside a ballroom at the Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers, bleary-eyed but eager to participate in one of the biggest and most relevant digital publishing events of the year. The second official Digital Book World conference (“DBW”) was about to begin in earnest, and there was much work to be done. As one of a small number of students lucky enough to snag a volunteer position at the event, I was determined to help pave a smooth experience for all attendees, even if that meant  working at the coat check in return for time in the actual conference sessions. Not a bad trade-off at all!

After the morning rush finally subsided and attendees settled into the main ballroom, the coat checker crew was invited to sneak away and catch one of the first panels of the day. In “A CEO’s View of the Future,” speakers Brian Napack (Macmillan), Jane Friedman (Open Road Integrated Media), David Steinberger (Perseus), Michael Hyatt (Thomas Nelson), and David Nussbaum (F+W Media) discussed trends in the digital publishing realm and fielded more than a few tough questions about strategic corporate decisions and preparations for the future. [Read more…] about Digital Book World Day One: Optimism and Excitement

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