Managing Editor position

Managing Editor – contact donnan@Lpalmer.com – Location – Las Vegas, NV on-site only

The managing editor will oversee and manage the scheduling and business aspects of the Editorial department including the management of contract and freelance writers.

Interested candidates should possess the following:

• Bachelor's Degree in English, Creative Writing, Journalism, or Communications or related field
• Minimum 3 years managing editor experience related to book publishing
• Must be highly organized and able to multi-task
• Must be very computer literate and web knowledgeable
• Work experience and familiarity with psychology, counseling, or other behavioral healthcare/medical experience will be helpful.
• Knowledge of publishing design and manufacturing processes, especially digital
• Knowledge of design and manufacturing vendors

Competitive salary and benefits provided. Relocation available.  Strict drug-free environment. EOE.

Marketing Manager

Reports to: SVP Marketing 
Location: Company HQ, New York, NY

Tutor.com is a great place for talented, hands-on people who have a passion for education, and like to get things done. We’re a privately held company with venture capital backing. We’re the world leader in live, online tutoring—our tutors have served over five million students. Right now, we’re focused on growing. We have some huge opportunities, and we need a great marketer who can work hard, work smart, and keep multiple projects on track at the same time. If this sounds like a fun and rewarding challenge, we’d like to hear from you.

Overview: Seeking an experienced, hands-on, business-to-business marketer to focus on K-12 school and public library customers. The Marketing Manager is responsible for developing and executing marketing campaigns and creating collateral materials to support our field sales team.

Position Responsibilities:

• Manage the execution of all marketing programs including advertising, direct mail, email, trade shows, and conferences for the library and K-12 school markets.
• Create effective brochures, specification sheets and other collateral materials to inform the market about the benefits of our products and services.
• Develop highly impactful presentations to support critical sales meetings.
• Continuously refine our product and company messaging
• Collaborate with various marketing and account management functions including public/press relations, social media, and client services to create marketing programs and support materials for our existing clients
• Conduct formal and informal market research, in addition to managing existing advisory panels

Position Requirements:

• Successful track record of creating and executing marketing programs within a budget.
• 5 to 7 years of overall marketing experience with at least 2 years of relevant K-12 or library market experience.
• Excellent copywriting and communications skills.
• Strong organizational and project management skills.
• Experience with community-based programs and tactics is a strong plus.
• Bachelors Degree in Marketing, Business, Education or a related field is required.

Benefits:

• Health/Dental/Vision/Life insurance
• Disability (short and long term) options
• Paid PTO time for holidays, personal days, sick days
• Unlimited free online tutoring for family
• Stock options
• Opportunity for personal and professional growth, advancement, and leadership within an innovative but stable growing company

Please email a letter of interest and resume to Jill Musguire, Director of Marketing, at jmusguire@tutor.com with B2B Marketing Manager in the subject line.

Publishing News: July 15, 2010

It has been far too long since I have updated this blog, and for that I feel like I deserve some kind of publishing-related punishment. Death by paper cuts, perhaps.

I've decided, therefore, to keep my posts short and sweet, and focus on news items related to our wonderful, beleaguered profession.

Japanese Novelist Skips the Middleman, Publishes on the iPad (WSJ.com)

"Novelist Ryu Murakami plans to release his latest novel exclusively for digital bookworms throughApple Inc.’s iPad ahead of the print version. Mr. Murakami, the acclaimed author of over 15 novels including “Coin Locker Babies” and “In the Miso Soup”, replaced the publishers with a software company to help develop the e-book titled “A Singing Whale,” or “Utau Kujira” in Japanese. The digital package will include video content and set to music composed by Academy Award winning composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, according to the Japanese business daily Nikkei."

Publishers are obviously still needed if quality is going to be maintained, but they've got to adapt their offerings to address this new 3-dimensional platform or risk being marginalized.

How to Survive as a Small Publisher . . . Get a second mortgage?

The Guardian goes behind the press to look at the success of Dedalus Books. They scored their initial funding from a house mortgage, yet they've "grown into an award-winning force to be reckoned with," says the Guardian.

Hmmm . . . using a home mortgage to launch a publishing house. Success or no, this is not a start-up methodology that I'll be adopting any time soon.

The E-Reader vs. The Book: Aren't They on the Same Team?

by guest blogger, Jennifer Dawson

That was the topic of conversation at the June meeting of the New York University Publishing Alumni Association. For most in attendance, the answer to the aforementioned question was yes. While the majority did not own an e-reader and admitted that they had no desire to run right out and purchase one, the role e-readers will play in the future of the publishing industry is quite clear: e-readers are the future and stand to make it a positive one. 

Some pointed out the e-reader's potential to overhaul an outdated print model drowning in seller returns and a glut of unused and wasted product. What the e-book means for the bookseller, particularly the independent bookseller, remains to be seen. But it wasn't that long ago that vinyl was projected to go the way of the dinosaurs and yet the vinyl record is currently enjoying a renaissance with independent record stores, the hip place to purchase both new and classic vinyl. There's no reason to believe the book and independent booksellers won't fare just as well. 

While the die-hard bibliophiles in the group were not completely sold on the e-reader, all agreed that whether in bound book or electronic form, content and the quality and production of that content is what our industry is all about.

Besides mulling the future of publishing in the digital age, there was plenty of networking and industry advice in the conversation, two things very important to those still riding out the great recession and the cutbacks and layoffs it brought. 

The next meetup is scheduled for August 24.

 

Rolling Stone: Times Are A-Changin'

Yesterday I had the opportunity to visit the Rolling Stone offices as a part of NYU's class on editorial management. We passed Jann Wenner himself in the lobby, and then bumped into Peter Traverse at the elevator door. Beyond the star sightings, the highlight of the tour – which included a brief peek at Wenner Media's US Weekly and Men's Journal – was a trip down Rolling Stone's hall of covers (above). This highly-trafficked hallway (it led to two restrooms) chronicled every RS cover since John Lennon graced the front in 1967. The cover treatment has ranged wildly, from illustrations to glossy, staged band shots, but Yann and the gang have kept pretty true to form for an impressive length of time.

Speaking of Yann, touring Rolling Stone brings up an interesting quandary for publishers. When it comes to the owner and publisher of a magazine interacting with an editorial staff, how close it too close? From what we heard, Mr. Wenner has influence on nearly every page that gets approved in Rolling Stone. He also dictates what employees can, and can't, have on their desks. On the positive side, a strong hand is good because no one knows better than the founder how to stay connected to the magazine's roots. He was the only one there in '67 and so he has a unique perspective on the product's evolution.

On the other hand, everyone in our publishing class commented on the uniform (code for dull) design of recent issues of Rolling Stone. This is in stark contrast to the beautifully inventive typography of the old Rolling Stone. I couldn't help but feel like 'times they are a-changin' at Wenner Media and maybe the titan needs to loosen his grip a little or risk losing quality. Perhaps if the reins were loosened a little – heaven forbid there actually be a little rock music playing in the RS offices – editors and designers could rekindle that old sensibility. They might even have a little fun.

Putting the Pub in Public House

The HarperCollins Emerging Professionals group is hosting an inter-house happy hour tonight at Village Pourhouse (corner of 11th St. and 3rd Ave). All are welcome!

The Specs:

Publishing professionals! HCEP invites you to meet colleagues and emerging professionals from other publishing houses.

Where: the Village Pourhouse on

When: Tonight, Thursday, March 4th, from 6-8pm.

Where: We'll be located in the Vegas Room.

David Ball: "[We're trying] to change the wheels of the car while it’s moving"

At a recent NYU Publishing event students had the opportunity to meet a few of the publishing program’s advisors, including David Ball, the Vice President of Consumer Marketing at Meredith Corporation. Interestingly, Mr. Ball was the sole NYU Pub alum representing the board that day, having received a Certificate in Publishing from NYU 25 years ago.

First, a brief note about prerequisites for entering the publishing industry, then vs. now. In what seemed slightly too random to be coincidence, David Ball was the second NYU Publishing advisor to announce that he'd majored in urban planning in undergrad. That's right, two out of six successful publishing execs on the NYU board studied not English, not journalism, not marketing or business, but the integration of "land use planning and transport planning to improve the built and social environments of communities." Sure, times have changed, but it's food for thought. What kind of understanding of the world REALLY helps in your publishing career? Perhaps a degree in philosophy would come in handy . . .

Urban planning or no, after studying at NYU, David Ball went to work at Forbes magazine. He's been in circulation management pretty much ever since, working his way up from fulfillment manager to running the department at Meredith, a company that currently comprises 20 magazine brands, from Better Homes and Gardens to American Baby.

“My job description is that I make sure we make rate base," said Mr. Ball, "but what I actually do is try to change the wheels of the car while it’s moving. 80% of my time these days is spent on two projects." The first of these projects is migrating consumers to the Internet. According to David Ball, 15% of Meredith business comes through the Internet. He'd like that number to be 50-70%.

“Equally as interesting is the other project," he continued, "product development." In this arena, Ball explained that the depression in advertising sales in the magazine industry has been a hidden blessing. "Suddenly people are realizing that advertising isn’t going to come back again the way it was and that we need to build consumer revenue. So we’re spending a lot of time developing new products that we can sell directly to consumers.”

For David Ball, this push for product development and deployment, for out-of-the-box brand extensions, is just where his company needs to be, which gets him optimistic about the future.

So, what new revenue-generating ideas are the minds at Meredith concocting? What products precisely? For that, we'll have to wait and see. Or, better yet, invent them ourselves.