Discovering NYC

I spent most of last week visiting New York City with the Magazine Club. It was my first time in the city, so there was a lot to take in. I wish we would have had more free time to explore the city, but the time was well spent. We had the chance to sit down with editors of different magazines in the city and saw how many of them operated. Some of my favorite visits were GQ, Real Simple, Gourmet and Spin.

That whole world seems daunting to break into. I was surprised to learn that most of the editorial assistants we spoke to had actually majored in English. I still wonder how pertinent a journalism degree actually is, especially when all these non-journalism majors have gotten jobs without one. On the other hand, I have to wonder what they really knew about working on a magazine before they got their jobs. I guess it gives me a little hope about getting a job in the future.

Also, I was happy to hear from industry people that grad school is pretty unnecessary in this field. Glad to have that decision validated.

Finally, here are a few photos from the trip:

First, the Conde Nast building. During our tour with Gourmet, the editorial assistant, Chris, showed us Anna Wintor's power table in the infamous cafeteria.

Second, I had the chance to see the Museum of Modern Art on their free night. MoMA is so huge and we didn't have a lot of time, so we just started wandering. How funny, then, that we found a print exhibit. (Fitting for a Magazine themed trip, eh?) There were some neat photos showing how CMYK printing works, typography examples and my favorite, an exhibit of George Lois' Esquire covers. Also included in this display were the outtakes from the photo shoot for Esquire's well-known Andy Warhol cover.