Mr. Magazine

Publishing During A Pandemic (27)

“The great thing about magazines is it’s a collaborative effort. It’s a team effort. You get an exchange of ideas; you pound a table; you raise your voice; the best stories get into the lineup; the best layout, that kind of stuff, in a very collegial way though. My advice or instinct is you have to find a way to replicate that and Zoom is one way, just whatever you have to do. That’s what sets magazines apart. Teamwork makes the dream work. (Laughs) There’s no “I” in team. And I believe that. That comes from taking care of your team too. Making sure people aren’t nervous and to help them bring out their best, you have to make sure they’re safe and healthy.” … Blaise Zerega

“From a business perspective, all of our revenue is really about subscriptions. So, that has been strong and growing. We actually just raised our prices at the first of the year, so that feels like we’re in a good place financially. We’ve added some things to the mix like other publishing enterprises where we’re doing virtual events. We just had one recently with Susan Straight; it’s called “Alta Asks Live.” We did another on true crime. And that’s been a lot of fun. And I think that’s going to be a real evolutionary cycle of change for publishers, doing more virtual events. The question is, is it a short-term change or is it here to stay? I think it’s going to be here to stay.” … Blaise Zerega

Alta magazine is a quarterly journal dedicated to California and to celebrating California’s culture, issues and all-important history. Unfortunately, like everyone else in our country and most of the world, the Alta team has been dealing with and operating around COVID-19. William R. Hearst III is the founder and publisher of the magazine and certainly knows his way around the world of print, but when facing a pandemic, many things had to change and we all had to learn to adapt.

Blaise Zerega is managing editor of Alta and isn’t a stranger to magazines either, having helped lead such titles as Wired, Conde Nast Portfolio, and Forbes. I spoke with Blaise recently and we talked about how things were being handled during this life-altering pandemic. The things that have remained the same for the Alta team, such as working remotely, and the things that have changed, the closures of bookstores and newsstands.

Blaise is into the smart, timely essays that Alta does so well, both in print and online. He said enabling his readers to think more broadly about a topic is definitely a goal. And with the Alta content, that would seem to be no problem. The brand is timely and most certainly innovative, as he explains that the magazine is coming out with a science fiction cover package, which gives an opportunity to bring in new fiction from some really great writers.

And right now the truth seems stranger than most science fiction, so good storytelling is a definite escape we all need.

And now the 27th Mr. Magazine™ interview in the series of Publishing During A Pandemic with Blaise Zerega, managing editor, Alta magazine.

But first the sound-bites:

On how he has been operating during the pandemic: In some ways, as a quarterly, we have a different experience than a weekly or a monthly, but in many ways it’s the same. When the pandemic hit and shelter-in-place was announced, we were embarking on the production of our summer issue. We quickly had to put on hold any story that required onsite reporting, travel, photography, which of course, are all the tools of magazine-making.

On being a remote staff anyway, but handling other issues during the pandemic: Some of the other issues we’re dealing with are, even though we’re a remote staff, we do depend on getting together quite often to meet face-to-face. We were already on Slack and we’ve now added Zoom to the mix. But the copy editors, they want the paper still and so we’re trying to figure out how we get printouts for proofreading. You can proofread on a screen, but at the end of the day, it’s a paper product that we’re producing, so we want to see that paper to proofread.

On whether he had ever thought of working during something like a pandemic and if he thinks someone could prepare for something like it: No, I did not prepare for a pandemic. I had no idea it was coming. When 9/11 happened, I was in San Francisco at Red Herring, and then when I went to Portfolio, a lot of people from The Wall Street Journal were there. And they had continued to put out issues during 9/11. So, I heard their stories and how they did it.

On why it is important to continue to have the ink on paper product in the hands of readers during these uncertain times: One of the things that we went through as we put together the lineup, we went through various versions of what we were going to be putting out in July, and it forced us to answer those questions: what is the value that we’re giving our readers, our members? What’s the experience that we’re going to provide them.

On any challenges he hasn’t been able to easily overcome during the pandemic: The biggest things aren’t on the editorial and the production side of things. Yes, our printer announced bankruptcy, but that’s not going to change anything because of Chapter 11 and so on. The biggest challenge is the newsstand and the bookstores.

On any additional words of wisdom: The great thing about magazines is it’s a collaborative effort. It’s a team effort. You get an exchange of ideas; you pound a table; you raise your voice; the best stories get into the lineup; the best layout, that kind of stuff, in a very collegial way though. My advice or instinct is you have to find a way to replicate that and Zoom is one way, just whatever you have to do. That’s what sets magazines apart.

On what keeps him up at night: As someone who has been in the industry for a long time, with magazines you buy paper, you add a value to the paper and you resell the paper. And that value is the stories, that’s the magic. So, what does that look like coming out of the pandemic? Do we need to change? What are people going to want? And I believe, this is heresy to say it to you even, but I’m wondering if the monthly magazine is now really imperiled.

And now the lightly edited transcript of the Mr. Magazine™ interview with Blaise Zerega, managing editor, Alta magazine.

Samir Husni: How have you been operating a quarterly print magazine during this pandemic?

Blaise Zerega: In some ways, as a quarterly, we have a different experience than a weekly or a monthly, but in many ways it’s the same. When the pandemic hit and shelter-in-place was announced, we were embarking on the production of our summer issue. We quickly had to put on hold any story that required onsite reporting, travel, photography, which of course, are all the tools of magazine-making. We basically sat back and asked, “What are we going to do? What is our issue going to look like? What can we put out that is in keeping with our focus on the big pictures?” Sometimes my boss, Will Hearst, jokes that we cover the past and the future, but not the present, (Laughs) but we do strive to be timely and relevant.

What we ended up doing was basically tearing up our issue and produce a summer reading issue. Initially we thought it would be a departure, sort of a one-off, but now as we’re producing it, we’re thinking that this might be where Alta should have been all along, which is a journal of Alta, California, our magazine’s title.

As an example, we’re scrapping the sections, the typical magazine sections. Instead, we’re going to be more of a journal, so it will be a great read from beginning to end. We’re going to do more poetry and I’ll tip my hand here, we’re coming out with science fiction as a cover package, which gives us an opportunity to bring in new fiction from some really great writers, as well as the classics and some really smart essays on the genre, how it’s sort of a first draft history of science fiction in many ways.

It seems on one hand, because we’d been thinking about doing science fiction for a while, suddenly it seems smart and relevant. Lawrence Wright, when he sat down to write his book that’s out now about a virus and a pandemic, that was like two years ago, who would have thought? And now his book is well-timed. I think that we’re experiencing a little bit of that same coincidence or serendipity.

But like any other publication, our chief concern is the safety and health of our team and our audience. So that has driven a lot of our schedules in how we’re producing the magazine. We are a remote staff already, so that wasn’t terribly new. Except that we do get together frequently with our boss, Will Hearst, to put the covers out on the conference room table and I definitely miss that. So, that has been a big change, and not just the physical touching of paper, but of being in the room, there’s only so much you can do with Zoom holding stuff up.

Samir Husni: Since your publication works remotely anyway, has it been fairly seamless to continue working from home even though many things have changed, such as traveling and photography? How have you been handling those other issues?

Blaise Zerega: Some of the other issues we’re dealing with are, even though we’re a remote staff, we do depend on getting together quite often to meet face-to-face. We were already on Slack and we’ve now added Zoom to the mix. But the copy editors, they want the paper still and so we’re trying to figure out how we get printouts for proofreading. You can proofread on a screen, but at the end of the day, it’s a paper product that we’re producing, so we want to see that paper to proofread. So, we’re basically working with drops, someone drops it off at someone’s house. We just coordinate runs that way.

From a business perspective, all of our revenue is really about subscriptions. So, that has been strong and growing. We actually just raised our prices at the first of the year, so that feels like we’re in a good place financially. We’ve added some things to the mix like other publishing enterprises where we’re doing virtual events. We just had one recently with Susan Straight; it’s called “Alta Asks Live.” We did another on true crime. And that’s been a lot of fun. And I think that’s going to be a real evolutionary cycle of change for publishers, doing more virtual events. The question is, is it a short-term change or is it here to stay? I think it’s going to be here to stay.

Samir Husni: Did you ever imagine that you would be working during a pandemic and do you think anyone could ever prepare for something like this?

Blaise Zerega: No, I did not prepare for a pandemic. I had no idea it was coming. When 9/11 happened, I was in San Francisco at Red Herring, and then when I went to Portfolio, a lot of people from The Wall Street Journal were there. And they had continued to put out issues during 9/11. So, I heard their stories and how they did it. In San Francisco, we’ve had earthquakes and people have put magazines out running power cords through ceiling, things like that. So, you have to react, but at the end of the day, a lot of editors have learned to have a book excerpt in your back pocket and some spare stories.

But with this, we really had to scramble and make lemonade. And definitely for a quarterly, we’re on a different frequency and different deadlines than a daily or a weekly, so I don’t pretend that it’s the same. But there are a lot of similarities there.

Samir Husni: Why is it important to continue to have the ink on paper product in the hands of your readers during these uncertain times?

Blaise Zerega: One of the things that we went through as we put together the lineup, we went through various versions of what we were going to be putting out in July, and it forced us to answer those questions: what is the value that we’re giving our readers, our members? What’s the experience that we’re going to provide them.

And more than ever, we realized that we want to weigh in on this in a smart way, in a very evergreen way, but not with endless shelf life, and smart analysis of the people’s issues and ideas of California and the West. And the pandemic is one of those factors, no doubt. But we’re not going to be able to cover the Coronavirus news cycle as a quarterly, but it will inform our coverage.

What it has done is we are publishing more online, more original content, and so we’ve done essays. We have a great essay by Dean Kuipers, who wrote The Deer Camp memoir. It turns out he and his wife own a farm in Los Angeles, yes there’s a farm in Los Angeles (Laughs) digging in the dirt, getting your hands in there, and growing your own food kind of farm. And that is an essay that’s just perfect for the time we’re living in now.

And it enables our readers to think more broadly, such as hey, it’s hard for me to plant those tomato seeds on the windowsill, or Historian Bill Deverell from USC, who wrote a really smart essay about how in California we have a cycle of racism and violence every time there’s a disease outbreak. There’s always scapegoating and so on and we need to break that cycle. Something that people are keenly aware of, but now have an opportunity to do so.

So, we’re doing it in a way that’s not breaking news, to be clear, but exposing these ideas and new ways of thinking around the virus and what comes next, in the magazine, I think the science fiction is a good bridge for that.

Samir Husni: Have you had any challenges that you haven’t been able to easily overcome during this pandemic?

Blaise Zerega: The biggest things aren’t on the editorial and the production side of things. Yes, our printer announced bankruptcy, but that’s not going to change anything because of Chapter 11 and so on. The biggest challenge is the newsstand and the bookstores. And again, Will Hearst gets a lot of credit for this, when Alta was starting he recognized that bookstores would be a great place, a great vehicle, to sell the magazine. It’s a really smart, literary/culture magazine, so let’s roll it out to the bookstores.

We all know that the newsstands have shut down and the bookstores have shut down too, Barnes & Noble has shut down. So, that’s the challenge for us. And that’s going to change. So, one of the things that we’ve done in a quick way is put up a store on our site and we’re selling single-issue copies. Something we would have never predicted we’d be doing. We’re selling them at the newsstand price, which is $10. To subscribe to the magazine it’s $24. So, it’s a good subscription tool.

Samir Husni: Any additional words of wisdom?

Blaise Zerega: The great thing about magazines is it’s a collaborative effort. It’s a team effort. You get an exchange of ideas; you pound a table; you raise your voice; the best stories get into the lineup; the best layout, that kind of stuff, in a very collegial way though. My advice or instinct is you have to find a way to replicate that and Zoom is one way, just whatever you have to do. That’s what sets magazines apart. Teamwork makes the dream work. (Laughs) There’s no “I” in team. And I believe that. That comes from taking care of your team too. Making sure people aren’t nervous and to help them bring out their best, you have to make sure they’re safe and healthy.

Samir Husni: My typical last question; what keeps you up at night?

Blaise Zerega: As someone who has been in the industry for a long time, with magazines you buy paper, you add a value to the paper and you resell the paper. And that value is the stories, that’s the magic. So, what does that look like coming out of the pandemic? Do we need to change? What are people going to want? And I believe, this is heresy to say it to you even, but I’m wondering if the monthly magazine is now really imperiled. Is it going to survive in its current form? Vogue is a bellwether, it’s doing a combined issue for the first time. The newsstand is in trouble, advertising is not coming back. So, where does paper go?

I believe strongly that at Alta we’re at a pretty interesting place. We’re the Journal of Alta California; we’re quarterly. And I think that our frequency suits us well. It suits the time well; what we’re trying to do. We’re going to make our next issue perfect bound as well. Have cover stock and more art. We’re leaning into and embracing what that idea of adding value to the content means. Let’s make it really worth the paper it’s printed on so people want it on their bookcase.

And this is only our 12th issue, if we were a monthly, we’d be one-year-old. And we’re all having fun. There are these moments of joy and creativity that are unparalleled.

Samir Husni: Thank you.

Publishing During A Pandemic (25)

“I actually think that it has made us more relevant than ever, because the amount of information coming at people now is exponentially greater than when we launched almost 20 years ago. There’s just a constant firehose coming at people on social media and various online sources. Our mission and our value proposition to the reader is the same, except that it may be even more needed now, which is: Let us read most of it for you and curate it, make sense of it, group it into categories, subjects and topics that cohere in a sensible way. And then give you a variety of opinions about a topic from a lot of different sources so you can get some perspective on the story and connect the dots, that’s what we’ve always tried to do, connect the dots.” … Bill Falk

“We’re rallying to meet this challenge and my message to staff has been that we have a real duty here to carry on in this crisis. In a sense, I think people in the information, journalism business are in the class of First Responders. People need information; they’re scared and worried and we have to convey information to them from experts and political leaders and various other sources. That’s been my message to staff. We do things to cheer ourselves up through meetings and Slack channels where we post photos of ourselves at home and our pets and families and things.” … Bill Falk

The Week magazine will soon celebrate its 20^th anniversary, and its one and only editor in chief, Bill Falk, says never has the magazine been more needed than during this pandemic. As the curation is tight, and during these ambiguous times, extremely concise and as accurate as possible, each issue will alert you to all the important updates and COVID-19 information as possible, and quite often to a few sources to follow up on.

I spoke with Bill recently and we talked about all of the particulars of working from home, publishing a magazine with your staff via remote communications, and about how journalists and information providers rank right up there with First Responders to him when it comes to helping people get the content they need to stay safe and well.

And now the 25th Mr. Magazine™ interview in the series of Publishing During A Pandemic with Bill Falk, editor in chief, The Week.

But first the sound-bites:

On how a weekly publication such as The Week is operating during the pandemic: We’re actually doing pretty well. Again, I think we are fortunate in that our business model has always been to get the majority of revenue directly from subscribers, rather than to rely on advertising. And that has held us in good stead through various recessions and other problems, obviously through the whole digital disruption of the magazine industry.

On how easy, hard or disruptive the move to working from home was: It certainly makes it more difficult. It’s a degree of difficulty of about a seven or eight to a nine or ten. I miss the ability to communicate with staff instantly, face-to-face; to huddle; to discuss things. And not being able to do that easily and having to rely on electronic communications definitely adds a layer of friction to the process.

On how relevant he thinks The Week is today in the midst of the pandemic, and in the midst of everything that has taken place over the years with the industry: I actually think that it has made us more relevant than ever, because the amount of information coming at people now is exponentially greater than when we launched almost 20 years ago. There’s just a constant firehose coming at people on social media and various online sources. Our mission and our value proposition to the reader is the same, except that it may be even more needed now, which is: Let us read most of it for you and curate it, make sense of it, group it into categories, subjects and topics that cohere in a sensible way.

On whether he had ever thought of working during something like a pandemic and if he thinks someone could prepare for something like it: It’s impossible to be fully prepared for something like this. I think like a lot of other media, we have run stories in the past from experts predicting that this day would come.

On what message he is communicating with his staff during these uncertain times: To the staff, I try to convey the message that we have a really important responsibility here and this is the biggest story of our lifetimes. I guess we thought 9/11 and the aftermath would be the biggest story and this supersedes that. We have a great opportunity to use the skills we’ve honed to help readers understand this, make sense of it, to give them tips.

On any additional words of wisdom: I recently read an editor’s letter about this, that there is a reminder here that nothing in life is sure or guaranteed. We should appreciate every day. I find myself being very grateful for a lot of things , including the fact that I can continue to work under these circumstances. I know many people cannot and are in dire economic straits as a result.

On what keeps him up at night: In terms of the magazine, my big fear would be that members of my staff would become ill and this could interfere with our ability to work, so I have some contingency plans on that, but so far, we’ve all been healthy, thank God, but that is something to worry about. We are a small staff, we need all hands on deck, so that is a danger.

And now the lightly edited transcript of the Mr. Magazine™ interview with Bill Falk, editor in chief, The Week.

Samir Husni: You’re publishing a weekly magazine, so how is The Week operating during this pandemic?

Bill Falk: We’re actually doing pretty well. Again, I think we are fortunate in that our business model has always been to get the majority of revenue directly from subscribers, rather than to rely on advertising. And that has held us in good stead through various recessions and other problems, obviously through the whole digital disruption of the magazine industry.

So, where our advertising has been hurt, just like everyone else’s, we can’t escape that, but subscriptions are going strong and we actually raised our prices before the pandemic hit. We’re actually anticipating an increase in revenue from subscriptions this year. We should be pretty solid through this pandemic.

Samir Husni: How easy, hard, or disruptive was the move to working from home?

Bill Falk: It certainly makes it more difficult. It’s a degree of difficulty of about a seven or eight to a nine or ten. I miss the ability to communicate with staff instantly, face-to-face; to huddle; to discuss things. And not being able to do that easily and having to rely on electronic communications definitely adds a layer of friction to the process.

But we’ve been increasingly moving to doing our surveying of what’s in the media to online sources, just because it’s so convenient now. Most of our major source newspapers and magazines we can access digitally. In a lot of ways, that hasn’t changed dramatically. We’re able to still look at all the original source material with relative ease.

It’s the actual making of the physical product that is more complicated. We have Slack communications among the staff. We also use email for certain things. And on deadline days, which for us are Monday and especially Tuesday and Wednesday, the messages are flying fast and furious. If multitasking makes you stupid, as they say, then we’re very dumb indeed. (Laughs) We’re multitasking like crazy, sometimes editing, fielding an email, looking at photos, answering copy editors’ questions, all at the same time.

It gets really stressful. I think that the degree of stress that we experience on deadline is greater. It’s more multitasking and more things to pay attention to. You miss something without the direct face-to-face communication. Sometimes in the office I could just pick my head up and say to the art director who was five feet away, “Did you get that photo from Mark yet?” (Laughs)

Whereas at home I’ve got to Slack him and maybe he’s doing something else and I have to wait and then I get interrupted by a different message and a different problem to deal with. It reminds me of that old Ed Sullivan Show skit where the guy would come out with 10 sticks and 10 plates and try and spin all the plates while the Flight of the Bumblebee played without dropping any. (Laughs again)

But it is doable. We’re fortunate that within the last year we moved our office and in so doing we upgraded our technology. We’re all equipped with laptops that can very easily access the server. It was more complicated before with the dial-in and all sorts of things. And now we can all be on the server and work pretty seamlessly remotely in that way.

Samir Husni: The Week launched almost 20 years ago, so how relevant is The Week today in the midst of the pandemic, and in the midst of everything that has taken place over the years with the industry?

Bill Falk: I actually think that it has made us more relevant than ever, because the amount of information coming at people now is exponentially greater than when we launched almost 20 years ago. There’s just a constant firehose coming at people on social media and various online sources. Our mission and our value proposition to the reader is the same, except that it may be even more needed now, which is: Let us read most of it for you and curate it, make sense of it, group it into categories, subjects and topics that cohere in a sensible way. And then give you a variety of opinions about a topic from a lot of different sources so you can get some perspective on the story and connect the dots, that’s what we’ve always tried to do, connect the dots.

And there are a lot more dots now, so it’s harder. What we’re doing is still very much needed and I think now in the midst of a time where we’re all frightened, worried, scared and overwhelmed, I feel an even greater responsibility to our readers to be able to sift through this information and try to detect a signal in the noise and give people an idea of what we know about COVID-19; what we know about the policy disagreements; what we know about the science and treatments; and where this may go. What’s happening in the rest of the world.

We had a briefing on a longer story recently about the South Korea experience with COVID-19 and how they were so successful in minimizing the number of cases and deaths without destroying their economy. And we explained that to readers.

There are many different ways we can cast light on this, and honestly, I’m pretty obsessed with the subject. I find myself going from reading three or four hours a day in preparation for work to maybe six hours a day reading constantly. I have CNN on and various other networks, switching around, trying to educate myself every day as to what the latest developments are and what the smart people are saying about this.

Samir Husni: Did you ever imagine that you would be working during a pandemic and do you think anyone could ever prepare for something like this?

Bill Falk: It’s impossible to be fully prepared for something like this. I think like a lot of other media, we have run stories in the past from experts predicting that this day would come. There have been many people in infectious diseases, after SARS, MERS, Ebola and HIV, who said there would be more new pathogens emerging, probably across the species barrier from animals and at one point we’re going to be very unlucky and one of these pathogens is going to be very infectious and spread easily.

So we have runs stories about that in the past, but it’s like running a story about an asteroid strike on the earth, we all know it’s possible, but you don’t really believe it until something like that happens. On one hand it’s not surprising, but on the other hand it’s shocking.

Samir Husni: What message are you communicating with your staff, advertisers, and readers during these uncertain times?

Bill Falk: To the staff, I try to convey the message that we have a really important responsibility here and this is the biggest story of our lifetimes. I guess we thought 9/11 and the aftermath would be the biggest story and this supersedes that. We have a great opportunity to use the skills we’ve honed to help readers understand this, make sense of it, to give them tips.

We actually created two new pages, we changed our format which we rarely do, but we got rid of the travel page, which is obviously irrelevant at this point, and we turned it into a page called “Life At Home” that’s full of stories about how to make-do in quarantine, and dealing with your kids and how to make a mask. We’ve devoted our art section to various streaming movies and series that people can watch. We’re heavily covering any kind of entertainment that you can still access online.

So, we’re rallying to meet this challenge and my message to staff has been that we have a real duty here to carry on in this crisis. In a sense, I think people in the information, journalism business are in the class of First Responders. People need information; they’re scared and worried and we have to convey information to them from experts and political leaders and various other sources. That’s been my message to staff. We do things to cheer ourselves up through meetings and Slack channels where we post photos of ourselves at home and our pets and families and things.

To the readers, we’ve actually put a few letters on the cover of the magazine addressed to our readers telling them not to worry, we will continue publishing and that we’re all working remotely and safe. So they don’t have to worry about us. And that should there be any disruption in the ability to print or distribute the magazine, we’ve asked people to give us their email and we can give them information. We will then make it available to all the print subscribers online, get them behind the paywall, or look at our APP version of the magazine. So, that’s been our message to readers, that we will continue to publish and we will be here for them.

Samir Husni: Any additional words of wisdom?

Bill Falk:  I recently read an editor’s letter about this, that there is a reminder here that nothing in life is sure or guaranteed. We should appreciate every day. I find myself being very grateful for a lot of things , including the fact that I can continue to work under these circumstances. I know many people cannot and are in dire economic straits as a result. It’s just particularly gratifying to be able to be immersed in this and to meet the challenge of trying to make sense of what is going on. And I’m grateful to be in journalism.

Samir Husni: My typical last question; what keeps you up at night?

Bill Falk: In terms of the magazine, my big fear would be that members of my staff would become ill and this could interfere with our ability to work, so I have some contingency plans on that, but so far, we’ve all been healthy, thank God, but that is something to worry about. We are a small staff, we need all hands on deck, so that is a danger.

I worry about disruptions in delivery, but the postal service seems to be carrying on. And I obviously worry about the pandemic’s effect on our country and the economy, the political divisions. Some of what’s going on is very disturbing.

Samir Husni: Thank you.

“I think that in this day and age, something that can just completely delight, entertain and engage you is what makes a huge difference. And we see that in all of our communications from our readers.” … Amy P. Wilkins

Even in the midst of gloom and doom, Smithsonian Magazine shines with its 50^th anniversary issue which focuses on and celebrates the future of our planet. While Americans, along with much of the world, learns to work from home and to self-distance themselves from others to stop the spread of the Coronavirus, Smithsonian offers a look back at half a century of covering the planet, and also offers some reasons for optimism, even in today’s climate of uncertainty.

When Smithsonian magazine debuted in 1970 in the midst of cultural havoc surrounding the first Earth Day—including concerns such as oil spills, the looming energy crisis, the rise in pollution and the decline of wildlife— the magazine promised to examine the circumstances and ideals that shape humanity. In the five decades since, the magazine has continued to be optimistic in its exploration of the challenges and discoveries of life on Earth in a nonpartisan manner.

Earlier this week I talked with Chief Revenue Officer Amy P. Wilkins about this 50^th anniversary issue and the state of the magazine media world today. Amy was the epitome of optimism as she firmly believes the world will return to normal and be better because of what we as a global community have endured together. Hope for our planet’s future abounds and the Smithsonian and its flagship print publication celebrates that profound optimism.

So, please enjoy this Mr. Magazine™ interview with Amy P. Wilkins, chief revenue office, Smithsonian Media Group as we all connect through the power of magazines.

But first the sound-bites:

On why she thinks the Smithsonian magazine and brand has not only survived, but has thrived for 50 years: It’s a combination of things. The first thing is, there’s something about the Smithsonian itself that inspires people. So, it’s mission-driven. And then what happens is somebody receives the magazine and they become a national member of the Smithsonian. And the magazine is the core member benefit. And the minute they get it, they’re like wow! Every issue of Smithsonian is a surprise. They have no idea what’s going to be inside.

On being in an age where there is a divided media landscape, among other things, and how she thinks the Smithsonian has managed to deal with some very important and sometimes controversial subjects, yet stay away from any particular political party: I love that you said we’ve stayed away; I feel that the truth is it’s very hard to stay away completely because almost any topic can become politicized in an environment like this. I would say that our editors work very, very hard to deliver truthful, balanced reporting and journalism. It’s less about reporting, because we don’t “report” news, we tackle topics and subjects and we deliver them in a way that is meant to explain or delve deeper into a topic and really cover it in the most balanced way we can. And it’s a mandate really for us, because when you think about it, the Smithsonian is a nonprofit and we feed the central trust, that is our responsibility. So, we have to be nonpartisan, because we are basically everyone’s magazine. The Smithsonian belongs to everyone.

On how she thinks the media landscape has changed since the ink on paper magazine began 50 years ago: It has definitely changed a lot. There are some fundamentals that still oddly work for the moment, in terms of how we reach new subscribers and new members. And that is, direct mail still works for us. And overall, the industry becomes less efficient and we’ve had to create teams who can handle both print and digital, whether they be on the ad sales side or what is happening now with our editorial team newly uniting to create our future. So, we are definitely having to look at how we will invest digitally and where those investments will be best-placed, where we will reap the most benefits. And that’s where a lot of our energy and effort is going right at this moment.

On how she plans to sustain the magazine for the next 50 years as the chief revenue officer: Some of what we’re looking at right now is how we can actually expand the way we look at membership. Membership is an important part of who we are and why people actually come to us. It’s not why they always stay, but it’s definitely why they initially will join. But there are a lot of memberships throughout the Institution and we’re working very closely with some of those other important memberships, which are more about philanthropy, to figure out if there are other member benefits that we can be offering that would dramatically impact what people are willing to give.

On whether she can envision a day without the ink on paper magazine: I think that’s possible, at some point in time. I don’t see that right now because the commitment and connection that this existing membership base has is  really strong. And we are going to have to bring new people into the fold. What we find is that because we are really all about curiosity and that love of learning, it’s clear and it’s true that there are lifelong learners at every stage of life, but it’s also true that there’s a moment in time when you get to actually learn just because you love learning. And that has often been the audience that is attracted to Smithsonian, which tends to be older. Because at that point you’re not necessarily learning because you’re trying to learn about a specific career or you’re trying to forward something in your business; you’re learning because you want to learn. And that’s something that we’re grappling with. How can we attract a younger audience?

On whether she uses a different side of her brain when she works for a non-profit versus a for-profit entity: People have said that when you think of Smithsonian, it’s almost like you have to think of a massive university; it’s a little like that at times. (Laughs) For me, the most important thing, the only part of my brain that I get to use here that maybe I didn’t get to use anywhere else is – I love what we stand for, this mission is inspiring to me, increasing and diffusing knowledge, that’s what the Smithsonian exists to do. So, I’m inspired by the mission.

On how she thinks the pandemic will affect the Smithsonian and the magazine going forward: It’s going to be impacted. We’re seeing a significant impact in the upcoming months and that’s across both our print and digital. We are highly reliant on the travel category and that’s a category that’s obviously hurting significantly in this moment. But we’re also noticing the other sectors are pulling back. I think they’ll return and I’m already hearing that; we have a travel business that’s already planning for what’s coming. I’m fortunate that we have our own business in travel and they can keep me informed about what’s happening at the lowest part of the funnel in travel, so that we are in a position to respond when things are ready to go.

On living and working in these uncertain times, and the message she sends to her team and those in the industry: I am on phone calls with my team every day and it’s saying that this too shall pass, and we may feel some pain from it. We’re fortunate that we went into our fiscal year that started in October way ahead of the game, so I’m not concerned at all. We were really strong, both on our consumer marketing side, to the point where we were reinvesting in direct mail and still are, and we were way ahead on our digital ad sales. And our print ad sales were really strong as well. I know we may miss our budget this year due to what’s happened, but it’s not going to be anywhere near what it could have been if we weren’t so far ahead.

On how her role has changed, going from publisher previously to chief revenue officer today: When I was the publisher I was responsible for ad sales only. In the role of CRO, consumer marketing is also my responsibility, so all of the revenue that gets generated flows through me. So, that’s a different role and that’s how it changed. I didn’t have that responsibility when I was the publisher previously.

On whether her present-day role is easier or harder: (Laughs) It’s more exciting. It’s a huge challenge, but I love it. I learn something every day and I have to be on my toes at all times and that I love.

On anything she’d like to add: Only that people should really pick up this issue. They can pick it up or get it on all of our platforms. They can visit our site and get access to it. It’s chocked full of hope for the future of our planet.

On what someone would find her doing if they showed up unexpectedly one evening at her home: Most likely I would be re-watching Schitt’s Creek and laughing my butt off. (Laughs)

On the biggest misconception she thinks people have about her: I’m not sure I can answer that. Oh wow…I just don’t know. (Laughs) Maybe that I’m too serious. They might actually think that.

On the future of magazine media in one sentence: I would say focus on what you do best, and give it to them in every format that you can think of.

On what keeps her up at night: Right now it’s how to support my team remotely.

And now the lightly edited Mr. Magazine™ interview with Amy. P. WIlkins, chief revenue officer, Smithsonian Media Group.

Samir Husni: Why do you think the Smithsonian has survived for 50 years as an ink on paper magazine and now has expanded to all of these other platforms? What are the secret ingredients that have seen the brand not only survive but thrive with 1.6 million subscribers?

Amy P. Wilkins: It’s a combination of things. The first thing is, there’s something about the Smithsonian itself that inspires people. So, it’s mission-driven. And then what happens is somebody receives the magazine and they become a national member of the Smithsonian. And the magazine is the core member benefit. And the minute they get it, they’re like wow! Every issue of Smithsonian is a surprise. They have no idea what’s going to be inside.

And it’s going to be this range of topics that really just delights them; it’s science, history, nature, the arts, and it’s always this idea of “it’s what you don’t know that you don’t know.” They don’t even know that this is something that they’re interested in. It would be difficult to Google this topic because you didn’t even know it existed or you didn’t know it existed in this way.

So, that’s what the Smithsonian is capable of doing. And I think that in this day and age, something that can just completely delight, entertain and engage you is what makes a huge difference. And we see that in all of our communications from our readers. When they send us mail, and they send us a lot, the number one thing that they like to do, they like to correct us, every once and awhile there might be a typo. (Laughs) We have had that happen, which is hilarious. But on top of that they tell us that we are a respite from a weary world. We’re there to entertain and engage, and really challenge them intellectually. They love that we speak up to them. If we’re speaking at their level; we’re not dumbing things down, we’re delivering it in a really intelligent way. And they like that too.

Samir Husni: You deal with a lot of controversial subjects, yet at the same time you deliver the information in a nonpartisan way. You’ve managed to stay that trusted media brand. In this age of the divided media landscape, among other things, how has the Smithsonian managed to deal with those very important and sometimes controversial subjects, yet stay away from any particular political party?

Amy P. Wilkins: I love that you said we’ve stayed away; I feel that the truth is it’s very hard to stay away completely because almost any topic can become politicized in an environment like this. I would say that our editors work very, very hard to deliver truthful, balanced reporting and journalism. It’s less about reporting, because we don’t “report” news, we tackle topics and subjects and we deliver them in a way that is meant to explain or delve deeper into a topic and really cover it in the most balanced way we can. And it’s a mandate really for us, because when you think about it, the Smithsonian is a nonprofit and we feed the central trust, that is our responsibility. So, we have to be nonpartisan, because we are basically everyone’s magazine. The Smithsonian belongs to everyone.

Samir Husni: In April, you’ll be celebrating the 50^th anniversary of the ink on paper magazine. And you’ll be looking at the future of our planet. What about the future of the magazine and the future of ink on paper? How has your media landscape changed since 1970?

Amy P. Wilkins: It has definitely changed a lot. There are some fundamentals that still oddly work for the moment, in terms of how we reach new subscribers and new members. And that is, direct mail still works for us. And overall, the industry becomes less efficient and we’ve had to create teams who can handle both print and digital, whether they be on the ad sales side or what is happening now with our editorial team newly uniting to create our future. So, we are definitely having to look at how we will invest digitally and where those investments will be best-placed, where we will reap the most benefits. And that’s where a lot of our energy and effort is going right at this moment.

Samir Husni: As the chief revenue officer for the Smithsonian, I know you’re not for profit, but to sustain the ink on paper magazine and all of its expansions, what are your plans for sustainment?

Amy P. Wilkins: Some of what we’re looking at right now is how we can actually expand the way we look at membership. Membership is an important part of who we are and why people actually come to us. It’s not why they always stay, but it’s definitely why they initially will join. But there are a lot of memberships throughout the Institution and we’re working very closely with some of those other important memberships, which are more about philanthropy, to figure out if there are other member benefits that we can be offering that would dramatically impact what people are willing to give.

And it’s going to take something. It’s going to take some creativity on our part to figure out what kind of member benefits are going to make a real difference, given the fact that our audience – our members live everywhere. They’re not in the DC/Metro area where a number of our most logical member benefits would exist, our physical member benefits. So, that’s one area that we’re looking at very closely. We’re in the middle of a very big project on that as we speak. We see membership as a big part of that.

Samir Husni: Do you believe that the printed magazine is that membership card or can you envision a day without the ink on paper magazine?

Amy P. Wilkins: I think that’s possible, at some point in time. I don’t see that right now because the commitment and connection that this existing membership base has is  really strong. And we are going to have to bring new people into the fold. What we find is that because we are really all about curiosity and that love of learning, it’s clear and it’s true that there are lifelong learners at every stage of life, but it’s also true that there’s a moment in time when you get to actually learn just because you love learning. And that has often been the audience that is attracted to Smithsonian, which tends to be older. Because at that point you’re not necessarily learning because you’re trying to learn about a specific career or you’re trying to forward something in your business; you’re learning because you want to learn. And that’s something that we’re grappling with. How can we attract a younger audience?

And we see that we do that digitally; we’re looking at a lot of different ways of capturing that. We’re in the middle of this massive project to look at both how we are offering ourselves up digitally, expanding and attracting new audiences, which we already can see that we do digitally because our digital audience is significantly younger by almost 10 years than our magazine audience. So, that’s an important area for us.

The other is the alignment that we have within our own division; we have a travel unit, which obviously is having some challenges at the moment, but that won’t be forever, and we work with them very closely because our audiences love to travel. And so the ways in which we can actually feed and support other businesses within Smithsonian Enterprises is important, whether it’s ecommerce or travel; whether it’s our book unit, those are areas that we can continue to be an important player in and supportive of.

Samir Husni: You’ve worked with a for-profit, you were the group publisher at Martha Stewart Media and you worked with Martha Stewart Omnimedia before Meredith; do you have to use a different side of your brain when you work for a for-profit entity as opposed to a non-profit?

Amy P. Wilkins: People have said that when you think of Smithsonian, it’s almost like you have to think of a massive university; it’s a little like that at times. (Laughs) For me, the most important thing, the only part of my brain that I get to use here that maybe I didn’t get to use anywhere else is – I love what we stand for, this mission is inspiring to me, increasing and diffusing knowledge, that’s what the Smithsonian exists to do. So, I’m inspired by the mission.

I’m driven every day to make sure that we’re delivering what the castle and the central trust need from us, and that is trying in these moments. Over the years we have given millions and millions of dollars back to the Institution, but we’re giving less. So, we’re consistently looking at how we can serve the broader organization and still be a financial contribution, but also find other soft contributions that make a difference.

Samir Husni: As we look forward, past this horrible pandemic, how do you think revenue will be affected for the Smithsonian and the magazine?

Amy P. Wilkins: It’s going to be impacted. We’re seeing a significant impact in the upcoming months and that’s across both our print and digital. We are highly reliant on the travel category and that’s a category that’s obviously hurting significantly in this moment. But we’re also noticing the other sectors are pulling back. I think they’ll return and I’m already hearing that; we have a travel business that’s already planning for what’s coming. I’m fortunate that we have our own business in travel and they can keep me informed about what’s happening at the lowest part of the funnel in travel, so that we are in a position to respond when things are ready to go.

But there’s no doubt that we’re going to be impacted by this. We had some significant wins around our anniversary, both because we were celebrating the planet at a time when the Institution was also celebrating the planet with a program called “Earth Optimism,” and they’ve had to cancel that live event. It’s now going to be digital only. We had a number of sponsors that were part of that and they’re still with us, but they’re not going to be able to do the event.

We’d also moved Museum Day, which I actually created on our 35^th anniversary as a way to celebrate members across the country. It was getting free access to a museum on one day. We launched it on our 35^th anniversary and this year we decided to move it from the fall because that happened when I left the Smithsonian, they actually moved it to the fall (Laughs). We moved it back to the spring this year, it was going to be April 4 and we did have to cancel that. Lexus was our partner on that. To be responsible, there was no way that event could move forward. We had over 1,200 museums that were going to participate in the spring event. It’s one of the biggest events that we do a year. And it will come back, but not this spring.

Samir Husni: When you are meeting with your staff, either in person or as today, virtually, are you telling them “Have no fear, Amy is here?” What’s your message to the people in the industry, including your own team?

Amy P. Wilkins: I am on phone calls with my team every day and it’s saying that this too shall pass, and we may feel some pain from it. We’re fortunate that we went into our fiscal year that started in October way ahead of the game, so I’m not concerned at all. We were really strong, both on our consumer marketing side, to the point where we were reinvesting in direct mail and still are, and we were way ahead on our digital ad sales. And our print ad sales were really strong as well. I know we may miss our budget this year due to what’s happened, but it’s not going to be anywhere near what it could have been if we weren’t so far ahead.

So, what I’m doing right now is working with each member; we’re on the phone often with each other and we’re going to be creating a strategy for when things get moving. And we’re going to be respectful of how we communicate. One of the questions my team has is how do I call people no in the middle of this pandemic? I tell them that people want to connect right now. I’ve actually noticed that people want and need to connect, so as long as you’re adding value to a conversation, they’re going to want to have it with you. If you’re just calling and asking, hey, when are you going to start advertising again, then that’s going to be a problem. (Laughs) But if you’re calling them with an offer of how can I help you, such as when this thing gets moving, I want to be ready to support you in your message.

We’re looking at all the areas that matter to the Institution and that matter to our audiences: the environment, education, equality; all of the topics that are just so important. And we’re going to look at the companies that have already said those things also matter to them, and be ready to have those conversations and to build a case for why we can help support them when they’re ready to go. Because they will be. They’re going to be ready to go; just right now, maybe not. So, I think it gives us space to do that.

And at the same time we’re looking at initiatives within the Institution that are important and that we believe could be in perfect alignment with us, so we can partner. Like we did with “Earth Optimism,” that was an event, a program, an initiative of the Institution and we got really close to the unit that was responsible for it. And we have identified a few others like that which will be great for us in 2021. So, I’m optimistic.

Samir Husni: Twenty years ago you were the publisher of the Smithsonian and then you came back as the chief revenue officer; how has your role changed since then?

Amy P. Wilkins: When I was the publisher I was responsible for ad sales only. In the role of CRO, consumer marketing is also my responsibility, so all of the revenue that gets generated flows through me. So, that’s a different role and that’s how it changed. I didn’t have that responsibility when I was the publisher previously.

Samir Husni: Is it easier for you or harder?

Amy P. Wilkins: (Laughs) It’s more exciting. It’s a huge challenge, but I love it. I learn something every day and I have to be on my toes at all times and that I love.

Samir Husni: Is there anything you’d like to add?

Amy P. Wilkins: Only that people should really pick up this issue. They can pick it up or get it on all of our platforms. They can visit our site and get access to it. It’s chocked full of hope for the future of our planet.

Samir Husni: Once we’re done with the social distancing and I show up unexpectedly at your home one evening after work, what do I find you doing? Having a glass of wine; reading a magazine; cooking; or something else? How do you unwind?

Amy P. Wilkins: Most likely I would be re-watching Schitt’s Creek and laughing my butt off. (Laughs)

Samir Husni: What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about you?

Amy P. Wilkins: I’m not sure I can answer that. Oh wow…I just don’t know. (Laughs) Maybe that I’m too serious. They might actually think that.

 Samir Husni: Could you sum up the future of magazine media in one sentence?

Amy P. Wilkins: I would say focus on what you do best, and then give it to the audience in every format you can think of.

Samir Husni: My typical last question; what keeps you up at night?

Amy P. Wilkins: Right now it’s how to support my team remotely.

Samir Husni: Thank you.

“The plus is that creative things come out of chaos, so we have some really great art coming out now. Complacency makes you just keep on doing the same thing and difficulties make you see things in new ways. There is some incredible print out there, but also visual, music and many other different formats, it’s an incredibly creative time. The negative is that people get distracted by things that they can’t control and a lot of creative people are depressed.” … Lori Perkins

The innovative hybrid publisher, Riverdale Avenue Books, has just acquired the assets of independent publisher Circlet Press. Riverdale Avenue Books will obtain the complete backlist and republish Circlet’s catalogue under Riverdale’s new Circlet imprint.

Publisher Lori Perkins, owner of Riverdale Avenue Books said she is thrilled to be acquiring Circlet Press and can’t wait to reposition and relaunch the over 170 titles Circlet has. Cecilia Tan, founder of Circlet, will remain on staff to edit Circlet’s upcoming titles and Circlet’s entire backlist will remain in print.

I spoke with Lori recently and we talked about this bold move and how excited she is to bring Circlet under her wing:

“I’ve known Circlet and I’ve known the books. They’ve had their life and they’re good books, but they were marketed specifically to the science-fiction, fantasy and erotic reader. And some of these books have a wider audience. And we’re going to reposition and relaunch them and see if we can find that. And it’s really exciting.”

So, please enjoy this Mr. Magazine™ interview with a woman who knows her way around the world of publishing and is determined to prove that books and reading will never go away – the Mr. Magazine™ interview with Lori Perkins, publisher, Riverdale Avenue Books.

But first the sound-bites:

On why she’s buying when many other book publishing companies are trimming down or even closing: We’re a small, boutique publishing company. We have very low costs. Every single one of our books makes back the money that we put into it, so it’s fine for us to keep on publishing. We’ve bought another company, so these books already exist. We cover and promote them, but it’s not like we’re doing it from scratch. I know these books well, Cecilia (Tan) and I have been colleagues for probably two decades.

On why she decided to buy a book publishing company in this digital age: I’ve been in publishing for 30 years. The cost for entry used to be exorbitant. And once digital books came along it was possible to start a publishing company with a tenth of what it used to cost. And because I know publishing, like I said, I’ve been in it for a long time, it’s not a new business for me. There are parts of publishing that I felt was too expensive. I had been a newspaper editor-publisher decades before and one of the changes that happened with digital was that publishing could go from being a 9-5, Mon.- Fri. business to basically being a 24 hr. business and you could do things quicker, get books out sooner, almost like newspapers.

On whether she feels publishing more niche titles is the future of print and digital book publishing: That’s part of it, but there’s now two distinct publishing markets. The big publishers really need books that will sell 25,000 copies and more in order to break even because their overhead is so high. And you can see they’re doing these big, splashy celebrity books that kind of come with an audience. And then there’s self-publishing or small publishing, easy publishing, where the cost is much less. If it costs you $2,000 to do a book, then you could sell 200 copies and break even. And that’s what’s happening.

On where the money comes from for her: Well, there’s really multiple SKU’s of revenue. We have bookstores; we have digital platforms, and it’s not just Amazon. There’s iTunes,  Smashwords, Overdrive and Hoopla are library sales, which is a completely different kind of reader. We have audio sales; there are foreign rights, film rights; there are multiple streams of revenue for a book.

On why she decided to go specifically into the science fiction, erotica, romance genre: It’s a very large selection. We do fiction and non-fiction. We are the leading LGBT publishing company in the country. We do sports, memoir and lifestyle. We have an imprint specifically for women over 35, so it’s not just genre. We have a pop culture imprint and we just started the Bingewatchers Guide in print, which is a pop culture line to guide you through binging through TV shows and movie series. And we have a mystery line too. These are things that we know does have a niche audience, that’s really what it comes down to.

On whether she feels the reading experience differs when you read a book in print, digital or hear it on audio: Not really. When I read the very large Stephen King novel, 11/22/63, it was 1,100 pages and I don’t have a lot of free time. I bought it in print; I had it on CD for driving; and I had it on my Kindle. I would go from device to device to device to get through the book. And I don’t think it changed the experience. I preferred to read it on the Kindle because the physical book was so big I couldn’t read it in bed. Actually, I would love if a publisher had a bundle with a discount where I could buy the hardcover, the Kindle and the audio for the book all at once so that I could go through the different ways of reading it.

On whether she has any concerns that certain audiences prefer material on certain platforms: Over the spectrum of the 13 imprints, certain books do better in print than other books. Romance is a very digital audience. So, we don’t sell that many copies in print, but they’re there for people who want to read them or collect them. The LGBT audience is very print oriented, so we sell more copies in print. It’s the same thing with the sports audience; it’s also a very print audience. It’s easy for us to publish both books simultaneously, both formats.

On that “wow” moment she’s had since launching her own publishing company: I don’t think it’s happened yet. (Laughs) We’re like a magazine, we publish 50 books a year. With the Me Too book, it was actually the culmination of my publishing skills, I had been speaking to various women in publishing that I knew and was encouraging them to write essays about Me Too. One of them said to me, Lori, you own a publishing company, why don’t you do a book? And it made me think. So, I contacted all of these authors I knew and I contacted people who had recently done essays and I asked my staff if they would be willing to basically work 24 hrs. to get a book out in eight days, and they said yes. So, we published a book eight days after the Harvey Weinstein story broke. And we published it for free, so it’s available for free.

On why media people aren’t as open to change as they maybe should be: Well, you have to change money. (Laughs) Look at your sales; if your sales are down you have to figure out how to change things, but the wonderful thing about this particular incarnation of publishing is you really can reinvent the wheel every 30 days. There is always a different way because there are so many different and multiple streams of revenue. You can figure out which one to work on and improve it.

On which hat she enjoys wearing the most, that of publisher, corporate head or author: Well, they’re very different skills. I love editing. I was a professor at NYU on and off for 20 years too, so that mentoring is a very important part of who I am. I love getting people published. I love taking something that’s good and making it really better and knowing that I was part of the process of getting it there. It’s a very different experience than writing something from scratch, which I also love. I haven’t been doing quite as much of that; running this company has really taken a lot of my creative energy. I’ve been writing for three decades too, I think I’ve published something like 35 books. But I haven’t published anything in the last year. I know that when I have a story that won’t let go, I’ll sit down and figure out how to make the time to write it and I’ll go to work. But not full-time. (Laughs)

On whether the current editorial environment is a plus or minus for creativity: It’s both. The plus is that creative things come out of chaos, so we have some really great art coming out now. Complacency makes you just keep on doing the same thing and difficulties make you see things in new ways. There is some incredible print out there, but also visual, music and many other different formats, it’s an incredibly creative time. The negative is that people get distracted by things that they can’t control and a lot of creative people are depressed.

On how she provides an escape with the books she publishes: What kind of books can I do to make a change? What kind of books can I do to give people an escape? That’s what I do to throw myself into the pop culture. I’m very excited about the Bingewatcher’s Guide. I have wanted to do this book for 20 years. As a literary agent, I sold a lot of non-fiction books about science fiction and fantasy. I represent Paul Sammon, who wrote the definitive Blade Runner book called Future Noir. He’s made a fortune off of it and it’s still selling 20 years later.

On touching on many pop culture themes: No, only pop culture things that I can edit (Laughs), because if I don’t know the material or the editors that I work with can’t tell me they really know the material, I cannot market it. And marketing is so important to publishing.

On what someone would find her doing if they showed up unexpectedly one evening at her home: All of that. The publishing company is truly an outgrowth of things that I’m interested in. Some more passionately than others, we haven’t done a cooking book.  And art, I have an art history degree, so I love going to art museums. But all of that. I love to read, I still read for pleasure. Travel, but travel is also work-related. I go to about 13 conferences a year. I went to Cuba last year before it was closed. It was on my bucket list and I’m so glad I did, because that was such an incredible experience.

On the biggest misconception she thinks people have about her: I think people know that I love books and that I’m trying to make this new way of publishing work, which it is for me, but on a small scale. Perhaps, they think the company is bigger than it is. It’s a good boutique publishing company, but yes, some people often compare me to Simon or Shuster and I’ll tell them, I’m eight years old. Yes, Simon and Shuster could do that, but Lori Perkins at Riverdale Avenue books can’t do that.

On what keeps her up at night: The economy and the changes in our democracy. Those are the things that really keep me up, especially the threats to the First Amendment and from that, if that happens, are we going to be able to continue to publish the books we want to publish or are we going to have to worry about that too.

And now the lightly edited transcript of the Mr. Magazine™ interview with Lori Perkins, publisher, Riverdale Avenue Books.

Samir Husni: Other publishing companies are trimming down, even closing, yet you’re buying. What gives?

Lori Perkins: We’re a small, boutique publishing company. We have very low costs. Every single one of our books makes back the money that we put into it, so it’s fine for us to keep on publishing. We’ve bought another company, so these books already exist. We cover and promote them, but it’s not like we’re doing it from scratch. I know these books well, Cecilia (Tan) and I have been colleagues for probably two decades.

We’re a more traditional publishing company than Circlet was, so we’ll actually be taking these books and hopefully improving their income. It’s a very calculated business decision. And I love the books. I really feel it’s a compatible editorial joining. Our readers know this market and they kind of expect this from us.

Samir Husni: In 2012 you started Riverdale Avenue Books, which was smack dab in the middle of the digital revolution. Why did you decide to buy a book publishing company in this digital age?

Lori Perkins: I’ve been in publishing for 30 years. The cost for entry used to be exorbitant. And once digital books came along it was possible to start a publishing company with a tenth of what it used to cost. And because I know publishing, like I said, I’ve been in it for a long time, it’s not a new business for me. There are parts of publishing that I felt was too expensive. I had been a newspaper editor-publisher decades before and one of the changes that happened with digital was that publishing could go from being a 9-5, Mon.- Fri. business to basically being a 24 hr. business and you could do things quicker, get books out sooner, almost like newspapers.

Traditional publishing has a lead time of 18 months, that’s too long. To make a book relevant or trendy you need a much smaller window. Traditional publishing had too many people and too much time off to really meet the need of a reader in that way. It used to be they would tell popular authors like Nora Roberts and Stephen King just write a book a year. Well, we’ve shown that readers will read 20 books by an author if they can write 20 books during that time. Now I’m not saying Stephen King and Nora Roberts should do that, but many of these romance authors do indeed write a book a month because they also see writing as a job where they’re working 40 hours per week writing. As a journalist, if you’re good, with 40 hours a week, you’re going to produce more than one book per year.

Samir Husni: Do you feel that the future of books, both in print and in digital, is going to be very niche, such as with magazines? In your case, with Riverdale, you have 13 different imprints and it would appear the more specialty titles you have, the better. Do you feel that’s a glimpse of the future?

Lori Perkins: That’s part of it, but there’s now two distinct publishing markets. The big publishers really need books that will sell 25,000 copies and more in order to break even because their overhead is so high. And you can see they’re doing these big, splashy celebrity books that kind of come with an audience. And then there’s self-publishing or small publishing, easy publishing, where the cost is much less. If it costs you $2,000 to do a book, then you could sell 200 copies and break even. And that’s what’s happening.

But I was between being a newspaper publisher and being a publisher of a small publishing company and I’ve been a literary agent. And one of the things that I’ve always told my office is if you write a book; if you feel there’s an audience for a book, it may only be 50 people, but that’s 50 people who would like what you’re doing. And that’s where self-publishing and indie publishing comes in. If you’re not trying to reach 25,000 people and if you can break even at 200, 600, or 2,000, it becomes viable.

Samir Husni: And with this age of digital printing, you can afford to print 500 or 1,000 copies.

Lori Perkins: Absolutely. Reading is never going to disappear and both fiction and non-fiction have a place in our society. It’s just how we get it and how many copies we get that’s going to change. We see fluctuation in how people read and get information. When digital came there was a big boom in digital, but we’ve seen a return to indie publishers and indie bookstores, so that part of the business has gone back up a little bit. And audio is booming because more people are listening to books that way. So, I think we’ll continue to grow and evolve, but I don’t see book publishing disappearing. I just don’t know about breaking even on 25,000 copies for everything that’s published. I think that model is hard.

Advertising is very difficult now and that used to support the newspaper and magazine business. Today, it’s evolved. And subscriptions have also evolved. There’s so much free content that people don’t want to pay if they can get it free and they expect to get it free. So, where does the money come from?

Samir Husni: Can you answer that for me? In your case, where does the money come from? Unlike the newspaper business, you have one source of revenue.

Lori Perkins: Well, there’s really multiple SKU’s of revenue. We have bookstores; we have digital platforms, and it’s not just Amazon. There’s iTunes,  Smashwords, Overdrive and Hoopla are library sales, which is a completely different kind of reader. We have audio sales; there are foreign rights, film rights; there are multiple streams of revenue for a book.

Samir Husni: When you put your newspaper career on the shelf, why did you specifically decide to go into the science fiction, erotica, romance genre?

Lori Perkins: It’s a very large selection. We do fiction and non-fiction. We are the leading LGBT publishing company in the country. We do sports, memoir and lifestyle. We have an imprint specifically for women over 35, so it’s not just genre. We have a pop culture imprint and we just started the Bingewatchers Guide in print, which is a pop culture line to guide you through binging through TV shows and movie series. And we have a mystery line too. These are things that we know does have a niche audience, that’s really what it comes down to.

And how I went from newspapers to book publishing; I’ve actually always been a word person, so I’ve explored all the different ways of getting words to the public.

Samir Husni: Do you think it differs if I read a book as a print, digital or audio experience?

Lori Perkins: Not really. When I read the very large Stephen King novel, 11/22/63, it was 1,100 pages and I don’t have a lot of free time. I bought it in print; I had it on CD for driving; and I had it on my Kindle. I would go from device to device to device to get through the book. And I don’t think it changed the experience. I preferred to read it on the Kindle because the physical book was so big I couldn’t read it in bed. Actually, I would love if a publisher had a bundle with a discount where I could buy the hardcover, the Kindle and the audio for the book all at once so that I could go through the different ways of reading it.

Samir Husni: You are a publisher; are you offering that bundle?

Lori Perkins: (Laughs) We sell the audio rights, so we’re not in charge of the audio price. We have in the past done the bundle through Amazon with the print and digital, but people don’t seem to want that. They haven’t ordered it from us that way yet.

Samir Husni: Do you have any concerns that certain audiences prefer certain platforms: print over digital or vice versa?

Lori Perkins: Over the spectrum of the 13 imprints, certain books do better in print than other books. Romance is a very digital audience. So, we don’t sell that many copies in print, but they’re there for people who want to read them or collect them. The LGBT audience is very print oriented, so we sell more copies in print. It’s the same thing with the sports audience; it’s also a very print audience. It’s easy for us to publish both books simultaneously, both formats.

Samir Husni: Since you launched your publishing company what was that “wow” moment that happened and made you sit up and take notice?

Lori Perkins: I don’t think it’s happened yet. (Laughs) We’re like a magazine, we publish 50 books a year. With the Me Too book, it was actually the culmination of my publishing skills, I had been speaking to various women in publishing that I knew and was encouraging them to write essays about Me Too. One of them said to me, Lori, you own a publishing company, why don’t you do a book? And it made me think. So, I contacted all of these authors I knew and I contacted people who had recently done essays and I asked my staff if they would be willing to basically work 24 hrs. to get a book out in eight days, and they said yes. So, we published a book eight days after the Harvey Weinstein story broke. And we published it for free, so it’s available for free.

The book has been course adopted and it has won a bunch of awards, but it’s more about being able to get a book out that quickly. I always said that one of the great things about digital publishing is that if we ever had the Pentagon papers it would be out in 24 hrs. And it was wonderful to have the Me Too book out in eight days.

Samir Husni: People in the media love to talk about change, yet they are the last folks to usually change.

Lori Perkins: Well, you have to change money. (Laughs) Look at your sales; if your sales are down you have to figure out how to change things, but the wonderful thing about this particular incarnation of publishing is you really can reinvent the wheel every 30 days. There is always a different way because there are so many different and multiple streams of revenue. You can figure out which one to work on and improve it.

Samir Husni: You are a publisher, head of a company, and an author; which hat do you enjoy wearing the most?

Lori Perkins: Well, they’re very different skills. I love editing. I was a professor at NYU on and off for 20 years too, so that mentoring is a very important part of who I am. I love getting people published. I love taking something that’s good and making it really better and knowing that I was part of the process of getting it there. It’s a very different experience than writing something from scratch, which I also love. I haven’t been doing quite as much of that; running this company has really taken a lot of my creative energy. I’ve been writing for three decades too, I think I’ve published something like 35 books. But I haven’t published anything in the last year. I know that when I have a story that won’t let go, I’ll sit down and figure out how to make the time to write it and I’ll go to work. But not full-time. (Laughs)

Samir Husni: Do you think that the current climate we’re living in is a plus or a minus to the creative ability of people to sit down and write?

Lori Perkins: It’s both. The plus is that creative things come out of chaos, so we have some really great art coming out now. Complacency makes you just keep on doing the same thing and difficulties make you see things in new ways. There is some incredible print out there, but also visual, music and many other different formats, it’s an incredibly creative time. The negative is that people get distracted by things that they can’t control and a lot of creative people are depressed.

Samir Husni: How do you provide an escape with your books?

Lori Perkins: What kind of books can I do to make a change? What kind of books can I do to give people an escape? That’s what I do to throw myself into the pop culture. I’m very excited about the Bingewatcher’s Guide. I have wanted to do this book for 20 years. As a literary agent, I sold a lot of non-fiction books about science fiction and fantasy. I represent Paul Sammon, who wrote the definitive Blade Runner book called Future Noir. He’s made a fortune off of it and it’s still selling 20 years later.

And I would go around to the various mainstream publishers and say you should have a line of non-fiction books about science fiction and fantasy, from movies, interviews; how to write, just all sorts of stuff. And they would always say to me, oh Lori, you’re so funny, nobody wants to read that. But these books do very well. I couldn’t get anybody else to invest in it, so I did it myself for people who want to stay home and binge-watch.

Our first book was Dr. Who; we’re actually doing 11 books on Dr. Who because Dr. Who is a 50-year-old or so show and there’s a lot of material. The next book we’re doing is the films of Harry Potter; we’re doing The Addams Family, Friends, Golden Girls and Downton Abbey. If you’re going to sit home and binge these shows, here’s a book you can read before and after to see all the metaphors and gossip associated with them. And that will bring people tremendous pleasure. This is a very creative project that we’ve invested in.

Even taking on Circlet Press. As I said, I’ve known Circlet and I’ve known the books. They’ve had their life and they’re good books, but they were marketed specifically to the science-fiction, fantasy and erotic reader. And some of these books have a wider audience. And we’re going to reposition and relaunch them and see if we can find that. And it’s really exciting.

Samir Husni: It seems you have almost touched on every pop culture theme out there.

Lori Perkins: No, only pop culture things that I can edit (Laughs), because if I don’t know the material or the editors that I work with can’t tell me they really know the material, I cannot market it. And marketing is so important to publishing.

We started the mystery line and we worked with someone who had been a mystery editor and swore that he would be able to market them. And when the books came out he couldn’t market them to this new audience, and basically said you do the marketing and I told him, I don’t know the mystery market. And that was hard. That was when I realized I had to make a commitment to the material; I personally have to be able to go and sell it on the streets. (Laughs) And if I can’t do that then the book or the series isn’t for me.

Samir Husni: If I showed up unexpectedly at your home one evening after work, what would I find you doing? Having a glass of wine; reading a magazine; cooking; or something else? How do you unwind?

Lori Perkins: All of that. The publishing company is truly an outgrowth of things that I’m interested in. Some more passionately than others, we haven’t done a cooking book.  And art, I have an art history degree, so I love going to art museums. But all of that. I love to read, I still read for pleasure. Travel, but travel is also work-related. I go to about 13 conferences a year. I went to Cuba last year before it was closed. It was on my bucket list and I’m so glad I did, because that was such an incredible experience.

Samir Husni: What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about you?

Lori Perkins: I think people know that I love books and that I’m trying to make this new way of publishing work, which it is for me, but on a small scale. Perhaps, they think the company is bigger than it is. It’s a good boutique publishing company, but yes, some people often compare me to Simon or Shuster and I’ll tell them, I’m eight years old. Yes, Simon and Shuster could do that, but Lori Perkins at Riverdale Avenue books can’t do that.

Samir Husni: My typical last question; what keeps you up at night?

Lori Perkins: The economy and the changes in our democracy. Those are the things that really keep me up, especially the threats to the First Amendment and from that, if that happens, are we going to be able to continue to publish the books we want to publish or are we going to have to worry about that too.

Samir Husni: Thank you.