Embracing Change: Ensuring the Future of Magazine Journalism [Print This Page]
- Time: 10:45 a.m.-Noon
- Date: Thursday, Sept. 11
- Place: Tucker Forum, 85 Gannett Hall
|
One media critic insists the saving grace of magazines in the Internet age is their "thingness" - the tangibility of ink on paper. Yet in their role as information providers, magazines, too, are being forced to redefine their economic and workforce models in order to build their brands and continue delivering engaging content, whatever the platform. How they are defining the future with leaner, versatile staffs and imaginative ideas is the subject of this discussion led by alumni whose time at the Missouri School of Journalism spans three decades. In this interactive session, audience members can share their own experiences as well as find inspiration to adapt to the changes taking place in their own workplaces.
|
|
Moderator: Sonja Steptoe, BJ '82, BA '82
Client Development Manager
O'Melveny & Myers LLP
Sonja Steptoe develops and executes strategic marketing and communications initiatives at O'Melveny & Myers LLP. Before joining the law firm, she served as TIME Magazine's senior correspondent and deputy Los Angeles bureau chief. She began her career at The Wall Street Journal and has been a correspondent for Sports Illustrated, People, HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, Court TV and CNN/SI. Steptoe has interviewed prominent newsmakers such as evangelist Billy Graham, prosecutor Kenneth Starr, activist Gloria Steinem and Pastor Rick Warren; has covered the Sept. 11 tragedy, the Mike Tyson rape trial, and basketball point shaving at Arizona State. Steptoe co-authored Olympic champion Jackie Joyner Kersee's autobiography, A Kind of Grace. She also wrote A Guide to Women's Golf with Ladies Professional Golf Association's Hall of Fame winner Carol Mann. Her work has been honored with numerous awards, including an Emmy, two National Magazine Awards and a National Headliner Award.
Discussion Leaders
|
|
Jack Bamberger, BJ '85
Senior Vice President
Meredith Corporation
Jack Bamberger has been instrumental in building a first-class corporate sales team that has continued to expand Meredith's top-line revenue growth in an ever-changing and competitive media environment. Named to the 2008 FOLIO:40, a list of individuals who best represent an increasingly multifaceted media landscape, Bamberger spearheaded the creation of Meredith 360, the unit responsible for building large-scale integrated advertising and marketing campaigns across the full range of Meredith assets including experiential, digital, retail, broadcast, database, custom publishing, books and magazine brands. With a newly engineered corporate sales go-to-market strategy, Bamberger's team has deepened dialogues and intensified relationships with agency and client partners, paving the way for more strategic and impactful marketing programs across a wide range of media platforms. Additionally, Bamberger oversees the Home Solutions Group, which is focused on selling advertising in the home category for multiple Meredith brands. Prior to Meredith, Bamberger served in various executive sales and marketing positions at Gruner + Jahr USA, Primedia's IndustryClick.Com, several Time Warner, Inc., titles including The Parenting Group, Sports Illustrated and Sports Illustrated for Kids, Parade magazine and SSC&B: Lintas Worldwide in New York.
|
|
John A. Byrne, MA '76
Executive Editor, Editor in Chief
BusinessWeek.com
In his first year as the executive editor and editor in chief in 2007, John A. Byrne led BusinessWeek.com to record levels of reader engagement and traffic, oversaw the redesign of the site, and launched extensive new areas of coverage on management and lifestyle. He initiated the site's twice-daily executive news summary, weekly interactive case studies and multimedia classroom videos, as well as new blogs and podcasts. Under his leadership, BusinessWeek.com won second-place honors as the Best Web Site of the Year for news and business by the Magazine Publishers Association. Byrne is responsible for the editorial operations of BusinessWeek.com and will guide the further integration and collaboration between the print and online editorial staffs. Prior to this, he was the executive editor for the print publication since 2005 and worked for BusinessWeek for nearly 18 years, mostly holding the position of senior writer and authoring a record 57 cover stories for the magazine. Bryne served as editor in chief at Fast Company magazine from 2003-2005. He is the author of eight books on business, leadership and management.
|
|
Charlene Finck, AgJ '85
Vice President, Farm Journal Media
Editor, Farm Journal Magazine
Award-winning journalist Charlene Finck became vice president, editorial for Farm Journal Media in 2007. In that role, she oversees all Farm Journal Media magazines and works closely with the editors of Farm Journal Media's other outlets such as AgWeb, Pro Farmer, AgDay and U.S. Farm Report to provide the best integrated coverage of agriculture. In 2006, she became editor of Farm Journal, the ninth person to lead the nation's largest agricultural magazine, having previously edited special sections of the publication. Prior to joining Farm Journal, Finck was associate machinery editor for Successful Farming magazine. An agricultural journalism graduate, she has won numerous writing awards throughout her career, including the American Agricultural Editors' Association "Writer of the Year" award.
|
|
Lamar Graham, BJ '87
Executive Editor
Parade Magazine
Lamar Graham is executive editor of PARADE, the largest circulation magazine in the United States, which reaches 71 million readers a week through more than 400 of the country's leading Sunday newspapers. Named to the post in November 2007, Graham added more than 60 newspapers to PARADE's distribution network while previously serving as the magazine's vice president and general manager. Graham began his career as a newspaper reporter before switching to magazines, freelancing for titles such as Spy and TV Guide and working as a staff writer for GQ and a senior writer for Men's Journal. In 1996, Graham helped to launch the online edition of Rolling Stone magazine and then moved to CondeNet, the Internet division of Conde Nast Publications. In that role, he was the founding editor of Swoon.com, which hosted the homepages of GQ, Details, Glamour and Mademoiselle magazines. Graham began writing for PARADE in 1998 while he was working as an associate professor of journalism at New York University. In 2000, he became PARADE's first technology columnist. A year later, he left NYU and became the magazine's managing editor.
|
|
Geraldine Sealey, MA '99
Articles Editor
Glamour Magazine
As articles editor at Glamour magazine, Geraldine Sealey edits news and health features, including Mariane Pearl's award-winning Global Diary column. Pearl, widow of slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, profiles courageous women to show that hope is stronger than fear. Earlier, Sealey was senior news and opinion editor at Salon.com and the founding editor of Salon's War Room political blog. In 2003, while a senior editor and writer at ABCNEWS.com, Sealey reported on HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa as a prestigious Pew Fellow in International Journalism. She has also worked as a reporter at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and in the Washington bureau of ABC News, where she was the researcher for This Week with David Brinkley and was a political off-air reporter.
|
About the Futures Forum
Top journalists, advertisers and thought leaders will lead numerous interactive sessions during the Sept. 11 Futures Forum, a day of cutting-edge discussions about the next century of journalism. Ethics, convergence and politics are just a few of the many hot topics that will be explored in this diverse program dedicated to challenging industry thinking and visualizing possibilities for the future. Sessions will be 75 minutes long and held concurrently with others on the schedule. Full schedules will be available during on-site check in during the Sept. 10-12 celebration.
|
|
|
|
