It only took six weeks for our Summer Publishing Institute (SPI) students to become industry experts, to change career paths, to expand their networks—just six weeks to transform from “SPI Students” to “SPI Alumni.” As we say “see you later” (never goodbye!) to our 2016 Class, we wanted to give them a chance to reflect on everything they learned this summer and pass their newfound wisdom on to the next generation. Read on to hear their from-the-heart advice:
People Magazine
People Person Larry Hackett
If anyone is on top of celebrity buzz, that would be People magazine’s Managing Editor Larry Hackett, who spoke last week at NYU’s Summer Publishing Institute. While Hackett spends much of his day immersed in figuring out who’s hot and who’s not, he’s also very much a businessman spinning red-carpet celebs into ROI. For People, the cover is the one chance the mag gets to draw in non-subscription readers —and finding the perfect image is the equivalent of a secret celeb sauce. “We have to sell approximately 1.5 million copies of the magazine on the newsstands every week in order to generate a profit,” Hackett said. “Our cover is a poster.”