Laura Reid An interview with

Laura Reid, a retired mother of two, spends most of her time on her farm in upstate New York. She loves gardening with her husband, and spending time with her cat while she drinks hear coffee in the morning. Upon first glance, my mother does not come across as someone who would live a completely different life at work from the one she lived at home. I vividly remember when my mother would return from her busy work day, dressed in her clean black pantsuit and hauling a large handbag through the doorway. I would run up to her and hug her tightly, and I could smell the scent of freshly printed magazines on her as if she had worn it as perfume.

My mother has been an inspiration to many. As the Vice President of Production at Hearst Magazines, not only has she proved her worth within a male dominated industry, but also proven to my sister and myself that we can do the same. I decided to sit down with my mother to understand the trajectory of her career, and what it was like to work in this industry.

Molly: What inspired you to pursue a career in magazine production, and how did you get started in the industry?

Laura: I always loved magazines and newspapers as a kid. My father had his master’s degree in English literature and when he wasn’t working at his job as a technical editor in the aerospace industry, he liked to write for the local newspaper just for fun. My mother worked in the local library for many years so there was always talk at home about books, magazines, newspapers, etc. I got involved with my school newspaper in middle school and was editor-in-chief of my high school newspaper my senior year. In college, I was very involved with the layout of the school newspaper my freshman and sophomore year and became the managing editor my junior year. Lots of late nights writing and editing articles and getting things ready for the printer every week. I liked the excitement of creating pages, turning it into a publication, sending it off to the printing plant, and then to see the results of all that work in a printed publication that was distributed around campus the very next day. Wow! I found it all very rewarding. There’s nothing like seeing a fairly quick tangible result for all your effort. So — I got the media and publication bug pretty early. I graduated from college and started working for a very small magazine right away. Eventually that magazine was bought by a large New York City-based publishing company and I started working for them. Eventually I got a job working for an even bigger NYC magazine publisher and I stayed there for more than two decades before moving to another large publishing job for a bigger job where I was the head of production. All in all, I worked in the industry for almost forty years. Some days were very difficult for sure, but for the most part it was a great ride.

Molly: What are some of the key skills required for success in magazine production, and how have you developed those skills over time?

Laura: I learned quickly that success wasn’t necessarily about how good I was at a particular technical skill and that there were more general skills that were important and really could be applied to any career— things like good communication and organizational skills, the willingness to try new things, to work hard even at tasks that seemed menial or boring, to show up for meetings on time and prepared, to be curious and informed about the company I was working for as well as the industry and the world at large, etc. More important than any of this though I learned to be resourceful and to realize the importance of working as a part of a team. There was a lot to learn from the smart people who were all around me and they could learn from me, too. The work “team” is usually more productive than the individuals working separately. I found this to be true more often than not.

Molly: Can you walk me through your typical workflow for producing a magazine, from ideation to final print and distribution?

Laura: Things have changed a lot in the last decade or so in the magazine industry — with the advent of digital and the fact that you can essentially read a magazine in print, or on the internet, or on your phone. Way back when I started in the industry everything was just about the printed magazine. In simple terms — there were basically two components and this is basically still the case: editorial and advertising. The workflows around each were (and still are) a bit different but decades ago both workflows ended up in film that would then be packaged up and mailed overnight to printing plants for production there, involving huge printing presses, lots of ink and paper, and then distribution(typically via trucks) to newsstands or to the postal service for subscription copies. Many, many steps involved in this process still today although now the editorial and advertising data (not film) is distributed digitally and of course much faster and to all different outputs (print, web, phone, social, etc.). Still, there are lots of complications and plenty of people involved in managing the technology so that the final output — the final product — is still true to its mission and true to its original design even in all its differently distributed formats.

Molly: How do you ensure that the design and layout of a magazine aligns with its target audience and editorial mission?

Laura: A lot of this depends on the decisions of the folks at the very top of company management. There are lots of meetings between editors on the editorial side of the “house” ,publishing companies are often referred to as “houses”,and the magazine publishers or chief operating officers on the business side of the house. It can get a little contentious sometimes as the editorial side might want to do something that the business side is concerned about — like covering a story that might be controversial and maybe an advertiser won’t like or maybe a particular story that might make an advertiser look bad. These kinds of things get hashed out in meetings and conversations (sometimes with great difficulty) but what both sides typically come to agree on is a focus on mission — why does this publication exist and are we properly serving our audience? There are always focus groups too that involve subscribers where the management gets reader feedback. Plenty can be learned from letters to the editor, comments via social media, and that sort of thing. Adjustments on editorial or advertising content, the look and feel of the magazine, things like design, typeface, paper quality, etc. are often made as a result of reader feedback. The environment in a publishing company is always very dynamic as every day brings the opportunity for something new and different to be created and to quickly appear in the marketplace. It’s all very fast paced.

Molly: What strategies do you use to manage the timelines and budgets for magazine production, and how do you balance competing priorities?

Laura: Meeting deadlines doesn’t end with handing in all those college term papers and being aware of the finances in any situation and sticking to a budget will always matter too. No matter what career you have you’ll always be up against a deadline for something. Making sure that all the players working on a project are clear on their roles, what work they are responsible for and on what timeline is key to the success of any project. Every team member has to buy in and be held accountable for their piece (this is where good managers and good delegators really matter). If things are not going according to plan and it looks like a deadline is going to be missed or a budget is going to be blown, best to always raise concerns as early as possible so that adjustments can be made. Things happen. Delays and surprises are part of life. I made a lot of mistakes early on with taking on too much and not managing priorities well and maybe not raising my hand early enough when the road to completing a task got bumpy. I learned that it was ok to let others take on some of the load and that it was more important to do a few things well than to do a lot of things and just perform in a mediocre kind of way. It’s okay to do great work and allow plenty of room for your teammates and colleagues to do great work too.

Molly: How do you collaborate with editorial teams and photographers to create engaging and visually stunning content for the magazine?

Laura: What I really liked about the jobs I’ve held was the role I played in helping editors, writers, designers, photographers see their vision successfully come to fruition. Maybe more important than anything was that I always respected their talents and I knew that with my skills and those of the staff around me, I could help them achieve whatever it was they were hoping to do. I listened, I asked questions. Once you’ve earned the trust of the people you work with and have shown them that you will do what you say you’re going to, all sorts of doors open up. It sounds simple but it’s pretty amazing to realize that not everyone is good at doing what they say they will.

Molly: How do you measure the success of a magazine, and what metrics do you use to evaluate its performance?

Laura: To be successful a magazine has to be financially stable. This means that readers are willing to pay for the magazine and in most cases it also means that advertisers are willing to pay for advertising space in the magazine as well. So it’s always a balancing act as to how much revenue is coming in from readers and how much revenue is coming in from advertisers. Recent years have been very difficult for the magazine industry as the business models had to be significantly adjusted as digital production began to outpace print production. It was a lot easier way back when to know that money would be coming in from basically two revenue steams — readers and advertisers. Now — there are so many different revenue streams and they’re often not as profitable as one might hope. Plenty of magazines that were around for decades have ceased publication as a result. Still, the industry continues to attract super talented, engaged, smart people and the marketplace will always be hungry for good content.

Molly: What do you see as the biggest challenge for magazine publishing today?

Laura: I think a big challenge is related to the stunningly easy spread of inaccurate reporting or misinformation. The magazines and newspapers of yesterday provided content that was curated — as in... it was up to highly respected and experienced writers, editors, designers and the like to make considered decisions about what content was put in a publication for public consumption and in what format. Now, anyone can put pretty much anything out in the universe for public consumption and readers are not always good at being able to spot what’s good information and what’s not. So much uncurated content out there and people are often not willing to spend the money for curated content. It’s a big problem.

Molly: What advice would you give to someone interested in pursuing a career in magazine production, and how can they best prepare for success in the industry?

Laura: Given all the changes in the industry, it’s probably best to widen the scope a bit and focus more on “media” or “publishing” rather than just “magazines”. If you’re very lucky, exceptionally talented, or have an industry contact (!), maybe you’ll be able to start in a junior position at one of the larger publishing houses. More likely though, you’ll have to be willing to start at a small start-up, get some experience, and see if you can leverage that experience for a job with more responsibilities at a bigger company. The first few years can be difficult in terms of finding your way and making enough money to support yourself but if you love it, and are willing to work hard, and show respect for the talents of those around you, your chances for success are much improved.

by Molly Reid