M.S. in Publishing

INDUSTRY OUTLOOK

In the last decade, the publishing industry has undergone a revolution, embracing new digital technologies and practices. Magazine publishers have dramatically redesigned their websites, adopting many of the video and social networking strategies successfully pioneered on You Tube, Facebook, and MySpace. In addition, they have explored other interactive platforms to extend their brand and attract new audiences. Mobile content is growing in importance, as is the blogosphere. To put this in perspective, there were 606 new magazines launched in 2007; 120,000 new blogs are launched each day (source: Technorati). Advertising growth on the Web is significant: U.S. online advertising spending as a percent of total media advertising spending increased from 2.5 percent in 2002 to 6.6 percent in 2007 (source: eMarketer).

Students who want to succeed in the magazine industry must understand the role of digital publishing in enhancing and extending a traditional brand. Our role at NYU’s Master of Science in Publishing program is to teach students the basic skills of magazine editing, production and design, consumer marketing, finance, law, advertising and promotion, as well as the new digital platforms so that they are fully prepared to succeed in this complex industry.

The book industry, too, is in an area of modest growth and change. Book sales totaled $16.77 billion last year, a 1.1%increase over 2006. (Source: the U.S. Census Bureau). To further increase sales, publishers are turning increasingly to Web strategies such as author platforms (personal websites, Facebook pages and e- newsletters), blogs, podcasts, discussion forums, digital photo sharing and video and social networking sites to introduce readers to authors and enhance the reader experience. In a survey conducted by Publishing Trends, 70.9% of book publicists said they devoted 50% of their resources to online marketing. The latest TV show about books, Titlepage, will be hosted on the Internet. We believe that our students need a solid education in all the traditional publishing areas: editorial, production, law, sales and marketing, as well as a full introduction to the new digital methods. As the book industry evolves in creative new directions, our students will be prepared to contribute in exciting new ways.