Students may not necessarily learn this in the classroom, but their new professors in the M.S. in Publishing: Digital and Print Media program this spring participate in some surprising extracurricular activities. By day, they hold down very serious and senior positions in the publishing industry. But after hours, they do everything from brushing up on their black belt skills to playing in a cover band. And their past lives have some intriguing facts to discover as well, so read on to learn who’s who and what they do (on the job and off)! [Read more…] about Faculty Factoids and Spring Surprises
Hyperion
New Fall Faculty: “Fun Facts” and More
When we recently gathered together new fall faculty joining the M.S. in Publishing: Digital and Print Media program, the conversation took quite an interesting turn! Sure, we talked about syllabus development, academic policies and the like. But things really got animated when we asked each of the high-powered publishing executives gathered around the conference table to reveal one “fun fact” that might not be apparent from their official bio. “Students like to know more about their professors,” we told them. And out poured some definitely surprising sidelines and hobbies. Heirloom tomatoes grown in backyard straw bales, anyone? How about championship hockey or Disney princesses? Read on to learn more about the new faces in the classroom this fall and what they’re passionate about—aside from teaching, of course! [Read more…] about New Fall Faculty: “Fun Facts” and More
Hyperion and The Chew: Recipe for Synergy Success
Delicious donuts (red velvet, French toast, and cookies and cream, anyone?), dancing along with Carla Hall (a chef with cool moves), and learning how to clap and laugh on command as a TV audience member: these were just some of the treats in store for M.S. in Publishing: Digital & Print Media students during a visit to the set of The Chew. We were also given the opportunity after the taping of the hit ABC daytime talk show to meet with the producers and members of the team from Hyperion, who published the bestselling companion cookbook, The Chew: Food. Life. Fun. [Read more…] about Hyperion and The Chew: Recipe for Synergy Success
Digital Book World 2013: Change and Cooperation
During a Digital Book World 2013 panel discussion so crowded that some attendees sat on the floor, Matt MacInnis, Founder and CEO of the interactive book company Inkling, made a particularly perceptive comment: “It’s a miracle that the book was a thing the whole world agreed on.” That is, up until recently, it is fair to say that “the book” as we know it has retained the same static, linear structure across various nations and fields of study since the invention of the printing press 500 years ago. Going forward, MacInnis continued, “It’s not gonna be one monolithic thing serving the med. school book and serving the novel.” [Read more…] about Digital Book World 2013: Change and Cooperation
Meet the Faculty… Inside and Outside the Classroom
Marketers, lawyers, “transformation” experts, oh my! The new faculty members teaching in the NYU M.S. in Publishing: Digital & Print Media program this fall are an eclectic and highly experienced group joining our full roster of 70 top media executives. To tell you more about them, we decided to give you not only the official bios of our latest faculty members, but some insights into their passions outside the classroom:
Jeff Barish (Magazine Advertising: Print and Online) is Senior Executive Director of Digital Sales at Condé Nast, where he is responsible for web, mobile and tablet advertising sales across all Condé Nast brands. Previously, he was Associate Publisher and VP of Advertising at Newsweek/The Daily Beast and before that, Advertising Director of Condé Nast Portfolio. He has also held senior management positions at Tribune Media Net, Thomson Financial Media, Fresh Baked Studios, and Metal Bulletin. Jeff received his degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook.
Green-blooded Jeff Barish lives and breathes for the New York Jets. [Read more…] about Meet the Faculty… Inside and Outside the Classroom
Digital Book World 2012: Changes and Challenges Ahead
This year, M.S. in Publishing: Digital & Print Media students at the NYU School of Continuing and Professional Studies were once again provided with the fantastic opportunity to volunteer at the annual Digital Book World conference. Between making sure that everyone entering the conference rooms was wearing a badge and helping to direct the 600 attendees to different breakout rooms, we volunteers were able to listen to the informative discussions about the deep changes that our industry is undergoing. On Tuesday morning, Mike Shatzkin, the respected blogger of The Shatzkin Files and DBW co-organizer (along with Publishers Marketplace founder Michael Cader) summarized the general goals for publishers this year, followed by a panel of CEOs from Hyperion, Yale University Press, Ingram Content Group, and Sourcebooks. Ellen Archer, President and Publisher of Hyperion (a Disney Company) and an NYU Center for Publishing Advisory Board member, stressed that publishers need to be open-minded to apply new strategies: “Books are elastic and dynamic,” she said. “Books can live in so many ways.” She mentioned Hyperion’s strategy of releasing mystery books based on the ABC TV show Castle in digital format. The third tie-in, Heat Rises, shot to #1. “Be really open-minded to doing things differently, and it can pay off,” she advised.
A major discussion that morning focused on the new quantitative industry research that proves once again the growing importance of the eBook industry. According to James McQuivey of Forrester Research, 25 million people now own an eReader and 61 million are projected to have one by the end of this year. The ongoing study by the Book Industry Study Group (BISG) on Consumer Attitudes Toward eBook Reading reported that an estimated 17% of book buyers purchased an eBook in December 2011. The number was 9% in December 2010 and 3% in January of the same year. This growing trend has also taken place among teens, who “report tripling their reading rate of eBooks.” The genres more likely to be bought electronically are mystery (22.9% of the market share) and romance (20.9%). Apple is, for young people and adults, the favorite reading device manufacturer. According to other research carried out by VERSO, the adoption curve of reading devices is now reaching “late majority.” However, 50% of the reading population is still very reluctant to purchase any type of reading device.
The morning sessions ended with a panel on the digital evolution of romance publishing. What was particularly interesting in this discussion was the talk about DRM (digital rights management) and the fact that romance publishers frequently omit it from their books. According to a survey of more than 6,000 users, carried out by All Romance eBooks (a specialized romance eBook retailer), 96% of the romance books sold through their platform do not have DRM, even if 91% of the total books on sale are protected by DRM.
In the afternoon, attendees could choose between four different panels that tackled issues such as marketing, design and/or social media strategies, among other topics. The second day included a presentation by Caroline Marks, CEO of Bookish, who explained more of the plans of this online digital platform for readers backed by Penguin, Hachette Book Group, and Simon & Schuster, launching next fall. Marks noted that Bookish will focus on ways to have “books find you, instead of you find books.” Overall at the conference, the push to increase discoverability was a very hot topic. Other key ideas that speakers emphasized throughout the two days were the role of Amazon as a “frenemy” of traditional publishers (who are now competing with their biggest retail customer); the difficult pricing strategies of eBooks and the impact of the agency model; the best cloud-based publishing infrastructures; the growing importance of self-publishing (now a real trend); the imperative that publishers need to know their audiences better to serve them targeted products; and the possibilities for international expansion of English eBook catalogues (either in English or in its translated versions).
In the exhibit hall, where tea and coffee were served twice a day, many publishing vendors presented their services to publishers. Miral Sattar, a graduate of the M.S. in Publishing program, presented her start-up company BiblioCrunch, a digital community where writers can write, read, and distribute their digital books into any format to any eReader. “One thing I learned,” said Miral, “was that being able to demonstrate your product live, one-on-one is very powerful.”
All in all, Digital Book World 2012 was proof of this very challenging and changing moment in the billion-dollar (and growing) U.S. eBook industry. I think DBW is an appointment no one will want to miss next year!
by Joana Costa Knufinke
The Social Network: The 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:
The Editors Speak
I was eager to grab a front row seat for “From Passion to Pages: The Editor’s Job,” an NYU Summer Publishing Institute panel where editors gave us an inside look at their backgrounds and experiences. Their message: everyone’s journey is unique and personal, and with hard work, we have the potential to achieve our lofty career goals.
Chris Jackson, Executive Editor of Spiegel and Grau/Random House, moderated the discussion, and the panel included Mauro DiPreta, Associate Publisher of IT Books; Brenda Copeland, Executive Editor of Hyperion; Will Balliett, President and Publisher of Thames & Hudson; Eamon Dolan, Vice President and Editor-in-Chief of Penguin Press; and Beth de Guzman, Vice President and Editor-in-Chief of Grand Central Publishing.
The moderator began the discussion by explaining to us that acquiring submissions, editing, and overseeing the publication process all constitute an editor’s job. The editor acts as a guardian and holds the author’s hand every step of the way; editors have to believe in their ability to judge a piece from its first draft. We learned that nearly all editors are unsure of themselves at times, and it was comforting to see that even the “best” have doubts.
Jackson elicited fascinating responses from his questions on a variety of topics. When asked how she entered the editing world, Copeland sent a sigh of relief through the audience by explaining that she got into publishing in her late thirties. She calmed some of our built-up tension by stressing that it’s never too late to do what you want to do. DiPreta offered comfort when he explained that he didn’t experience a pivotal, career-defining moment magically resulting in obtaining a dream-come-true job. “I was born in a shed in North Dakota…” he joked. DiPreta then got serious and revealed his habit of reading submissions at 2:00 a.m., as he did with the manuscript of Marley and Me. His wife woke up and found him teary-eyed, surrounded by loose pages. The next morning, DiPreta put in a bid on the book, which went on to become a massive bestseller (and a film). “If you cry, you must buy,” he told the amused audience.
Dolan shared the important notion that at the heart of any editing task, “structure is destiny.” He explained how we need to bring it back to the basics when it comes time to criticize a piece of writing. When the conversation then moved to how an editor can possibly estimate if a book will sell, Balliett explained that anticipating a book’s potential audience is something you have to keep in mind constantly, yet not live by. Simply loving a book is not enough for an editor.
For Dolan, there is a secret question he asks himself before bidding on a manuscript: “Would I actually pay $30 of my own money to read this?” If the answer is no, then an editor should pass on a book. De Guzman reiterated a key point that there’s a reader for every single book out there, but the question remains, “How big is that audience?”
The ability to hone in on one thing that makes a book special and unique is at the heart of publishing. As Jackson advised, “You have to be able to articulate that [special something].” Editors also have to refrain from underestimating authors and realize and appreciate the amount of work and passion that goes into writing a novel. And remember, they cautioned, most books are not bestsellers. Still, whether or not a book becomes a hit with readers, our panel agrees that seeing a book they’ve worked on change the way people think and live their lives is the greatest reward.
by Stacy Matusik