Masters of Publishing celebrates 25 years

The Masters of Science in Publishing Program is celebrating its 25th anniversary. The program began at the University in 1984 to allow students "to make publishing more than accidental," Director of M.S. Publishing professor Sherman Raskin said. The program also provides students the opportunity to be trained in all aspects of the business of publishing from books and magazines to new technology.

The Masters degree is designed especially to create a "comprehensive hands-on training in every important area of publishing," according to the University's Web site. It is noted that the University's M.S. in Publishing Program gained the trust and recognition of publishing industry due to the fact that University's goal is to "prepare tomorrow's publishing leaders with experiences and expertise for today's top professionals."

The program is held at the University's Midtown campus and has online classes available in acquisitions, editorial, marketing, distribution, production, design, contracts, subsidiary rights and information systems. The electives cover copy editing, magazine circulation and current topics of interest such as ethics in publishing.

Internships are also required for the degree if the student is not currently working in the industry. The University is able to recruit top experts as faculty members because they work nearby. Professor Raskin stated, "that all the faculty members had previous experience in the industry."

"Graduates of this program are working at major publishing houses and magazines and now after 25 years returning to teach in the program," Professor Raskin said. The number of students enrolled in the program went from 24 in 1984 to 150 today, with 40 of the students taking courses online, Raskin explained.

Full-time students take a year and a half to finish the program. About 60 percent of students enrolled are recent graduates and the other 40 percent are full-time professionals that attend part-time to advance in the profession. Nearly 400 alumni are working in the publishing industry.

"A high percentage of alumni obtain a job upon graduation from the University's M.S. degree program. It is estimated that around 95 percent of the students obtain a job within and related to the industry of publishing," Professor Raskin stated.

Due to the changing climate in this industry however, it might take a bit longer for graduates to find jobs now with some internships leading to full-time jobs. Internship placements with magazine and book publishing houses include Harper Collins, Springer Publishing and American Media, Inc.

Graduates of this program are all over the world working in the publishing industry. As mentioned in Publishers Weekly, "Kelly Allen, director of content acquisition at Sony; Linda Bathgate, senior editor, communication studies, at Routledge; Kerry Morris, client services manager at Harper Collins/Tokyopop; Denolyn Carroll, deputy managing editor at Essence; and Erin Bascom, production editor at John Wiley," graduated from the program.

The recognition the program has received continues to grow as Professor Raskin was invited to the Frankfurt Book Fair, the largest trade fair for books in the world, by Phoenix Publishing Media Group to give a talk on Chinese Publishing. Professionals were invited by the Global Chinese Publishing Forum to discuss the issues currently facing Chinese publishers. In February and May, the faculty will offer corporate training to major publishing organizations from China.

The ever-evolving publishing business has caused changes to occur within the curriculum at the University. Due to digital changes taking place, this semester one of three marketing courses in the publishing program is offering students the opportunity to use the Amazon Kindle, which takes the need for printed textbooks away, as students can download the materials for their course right from their Kindle.

Students are also taking part in expanding their knowledge of the electronic book (e-books) as well as e–publishing.

E–publishing changes the publishing industry because it uses new technology to deliver books and content to its readers. Current types of e–publishing now are e-books, print-on-demand, email publishing, wireless publishing, electronic ink and web publishing, which are causing dynamic changes to the publishing industry.

"Not many colleges offer publishing degrees, but Pace provides the oldest publishing program available," Professor Raskin said. It is continuing to gain worldwide recognition.