Pathways to publishing can be very convoluted, we learned as members of the Board of Advisors of NYU’S Center for Publishing convened at the Midtown Center recently to tell graduate students in the M.S. in Publishing program about their backgrounds and share their thoughts on the industry.
All Roads Lead to Publishing
As the Board members introduced themselves, it became evident that some of them began their professional careers in divergent fields and had serendipitously landed in the publishing industry. Jamie Raab, Senior Vice President and Publisher of Grand Central Publishing, had originally studied city planning, but wanted to be a diplomat; she admitted that she now exercises her diplomatic skills running her division of the Hachette Book Group. Martin Maleska, Advisory Director to Investcorp, with various holdings in media, initially supervised the construction of polyester plants in Brazil before starting a long career at Macmillan Publishing, Simon & Schuster and other companies. Martha K. Levin, Executive Vice President and Publisher of Free Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, fell into a publishing career after exiting law school. David Ball, Vice President of Consumer Marketing for The Meredith Corporation, earned a degree in urban studies before enrolling in the NYU Publishing Program and landing his first job working for The Forbes Magazine Group. [Read more…] about The Final Word: NYU’s Publishing Board Sounds Off
