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.

Martin Maleska: “There’s no digital business anymore. It’s all blended.”

At a recent NYU Publishing event students had the opportunity to meet a few of the publishing program’s advisors. We’ve covered Jamie Raab of Grand Central Publishing and Stephen Riggio, CEO of Barnes & Noble. Next up is Martin Maleska, a partner at Riverstone Partners, LLC.

When Mr. Maleska opened up with his story about getting into publishing, I felt like I was hearing a broken record. Like the two speakers before him, he says it was, “an accident.” Now, 30 years later, Mr. Maleska owns parts of seven media companies. Oops! Before breaking into publishing at McMillan, Maleska actually worked building polyester plants in Brazil. It just goes to show you never really know how things are going to play out . . .

So, what exactly does the part-owner of seven media companies do every day?”

“What I do is look at new business models,” said Maleska. “The world is incredibly more complex than when I grew up. I don’t understand all of the technology that we use – not even close – but I always assume that if I can find the business rationale for doing something, there’s someone who will figure out how to do it. The technology is there and is infinitely more capable of doing things than we have yet tested. You are coming into an industry with endless opportunity that is only limited by your own imagination.”

Maleska tempered this wave of optimism with the brief caution that publishers "need to remain very flexible . . . You may say you’re book people or you may say you’re magazine people . . . but at the end of the day, all of the distinctions between media are blurring. There’s no digital business anymore, it’s all blended.”

Digital or no, in the end, Mr. Maleska couldn't help waxing a bit nostalgic, singing the same oh-to-be-young refrain as his fellow panelists.

“This is a very exciting time for the business. If anything, I envy all of you the careers that are ahead.”

Barnes & Noble CEO: “We’re almost like a public trust”

At a recent NYU Publishing event students had the opportunity to meet a few of the publishing program’s advisors. We’ve met Jamie Raab, Senior Vice President and Publisher at Grand Central Publishing, now on to Stephen Riggio, Chief Executive Officer and Vice Chairman of a little retail shop called Barnes & Noble.

Riggio started with a brief history of the bookselling giant, explaining that B&N started out with a single New York store, catering primarily to the NYU crowd. Now, obviously an international brand, they concentrate on three primary business segments: college, trade, and internet. B&N is an $8 billion company, so Mr. Riggio certainly has his hands full.

“I spend most of my time recruiting people,” said Riggio, who has been in the industry for 35 years. “I think that what defines us is that we’re a publisher-driven company. It’s all about the books. We take very seriously the idea that we’re almost like a public trust. There’s something very different about selling books than selling a piece of electronics.”

When it comes to the vitality of the book publishing industry, Stephen Riggio is unflappable. “For 35 years people have been predicting that the industry is dying,” he said. From television to Atari, the internet to smart phones, he's heard every doomsday declaration. Not only have these devices not killed books, he said, "a National Endowment for the Arts study released just a few months ago said that Americans are reading more than ever.”

“I think that this is a very exciting time for the industry. People are consuming more media than ever, and now there are more ways than ever to distribute it. I’m very optimistic about books, publishing. and book distribution.”

Jamie Raab: “Everything about books is changing…”

At a recent NYU Publishing event students had the opportunity to meet a few of the publishing program’s advisors. Jamie Raab, Senior Vice President and Publisher at Grand Central Publishing, was among the impressive group (check back for posts about the other attendees).

“In all the years I’ve been in publishing – about 30 now – I don’t think I’ve seen change so rapid,” said Raab, who oversees the publication of approximately 300 titles per year on Grand Central Publishing’s hardcover, mass market, and trade paperback lists. “Everything about books is changing . . . but books still remain.”

Jamie Raab came up the editorial ranks after falling into publishing more or less by accident. “I wanted to be a diplomat,” she confessed to the room of students. Fortunately, she added, she gets to use those diplomatic skills every day with authors and agents.

Not surprisingly, given the setting of the talk and the eager eyes staring back at her, Raab was extremely optimistic about the industry’s prospects. She called it, “a really interesting time,” to get into publishing, adding that, “you are all lucky because you came of age in the digital world.”

How does Raab spend her days in this new digital world? Not so differently than she always has: finding and nurturing talent.

“I think [book publishing is] a very personal business. It’s really about caring about the book and caring about the author. That to me is the exciting part. Everything else is exciting too, but our job is to find and nurture that talent.”

Since joining Grand Central - formerly Warner Books - in 1986, Raab has personally acquired and/or edited a wide range of titles, working with authors from Jon Stewart to Nicholas Sparks.

Check back for brief profiles of other NYU MS Pub advisors. Next up: Stephen Riggio, CEO of Barnes & Noble. On a side note, if you're doing the jobhunt rounds, this advisory board isn't a terrible place to start. Sure, they are busy executives, but if you can make a connection, you never know what could happen. Each one of these advisors wants to see NYU publishing students succeed.

Feb. Meet-up, Part II: The Weakest (and Strongest) Links

continued from Feb 4....

The second round-robin question at Monday's meetup was posed by Karina: What are the strongest and weakest sectors of the publishing industry, and what specific departments are the safest and most vulnerable?

In terms of strong markets, everyone had their own opinions. “Editorial,” said Ken, “because in the end, no one can do anything without editors.”

“Books are safer,” said Tony, “because they’re less subject to commotion and revolution.”

“Sales seems to be the most safe,” said Sarah, adding that if you bring in the money, they’ll keep you on the team.

When it came to naming the weakest, most vulnerable positions in publishing, there was one lamenting refrain: “my position.” Multiple people around the table, from editors to proofers, had lost their jobs in recent months. Ira Dittersdorf recounted how McGraw-Hill recently made major cutbacks to copyediting and proofing departments, leaving editors of educational textbooks to do their own proofreading. Others have less specific, more blanket cuts across their sector, with even top execs getting the axe.

When it comes to making your position a strong, indispensable one, “it comes down to the individual,” said Joanne. “What do you bring to the table?”

And, hard though it is to hear, editing alone isn’t enough anymore. “I can make a web site and not hire a single editor,” said Sarah.

My own two cents – that scientific, technical and medical (STM) trade pubs do well in a down economy – was echoed by Stephanie. But what if you don’t want to go the STM route? If you want to stay in a sector of publishing that is taking hits like a freshman in glee club, you are going to have to look long and hard at staying professionally relevant. SEO? XML? CMS? If your boss asks about it, you’re going to need to know about it. Scratch that, you can’t just know about it, you have to know how to USE the information to take your publication to the next level.

So what’s the best way to stay ahead of this curve? We’ll have to leave that for another meetup.