CAFME Recap for April 11: Seventeen Magazine Executive Assistant to the Editor in Chief Bernadette Anat

This Wednesday was the last meeting of the year, and even though we’re sad to say goodbye, we ended the semester with a great Skype session with Bernadette Anat, the executive assistant to the editor in chief at Seventeen.

Miss the meeting? Need a recap? Keep reading to see what she said!

Meet Berna

• Berna graduated as a PR major from USC in May 2011 and has worked at Seventeen since June 1, 2011.
• She says she wanted to work in magazines for her whole life, especially teen magazines and Seventeen.
• She started working with Seventeen as a freshman in college, when she was chosen to be a part of the Freshman 15 program. She blogged and video blogged for this program, acting as a college ambassador of sorts.
• Come sophomore year when the program was over, Berna was relentless about asking Seventeen to give her more work to do. The magazine eventually agreed to send her to events in LA that she then wrote about. During this time, Berna kept sending Seventeen other work, especially schoolwork, that centered on the magazine, such as mock newsletters and websites. This helped her to stay connected to the publication and showed it that she was still interested.
• The summer after her junior year, Berna got an internship at Glamour through the ASME program. Through the ASME internship, she says she fell in love with the industry and New York City.
• During the spring break of her senior year, Berna visited NYC and set up appointments with various magazines to try to find a job. Seventeen was interested in her, and the assistant there was leaving, so she interviewed for the position and got the job two weeks before graduation.
• As the executive assistant to the editor in chief, Ann Shoket, Berna keeps track of her schedule. Berna also hires interns, edits the Tramarauma page and developed Seventeen’s 24-Hour Video Challenge. She says she hopes the take on smaller pages and integrate more videos into her work in the future.

CAFME Recap for April 4: Every Day with Rachael Ray Editor in Chief Lauren Purcell

This week, we had a very special guest speaker speak to CAFME. UNC alum Lauren Purcell, the editor in chief of Every Day with Rachael Ray, talked with us about the magazine and her duties as EIC.

Miss the meeting? Need a refresher? Keep reading to see what she said!

About Lauren

• Lauren went to Duke University for her undergraduate degree but went to graduate school at UNC for journalism. Lauren says she doesn’t recommend grad school for anyone with a journalism degree, but it was useful to her because it gave her experience and led her to getting internships. She says internships really helped her, more so than any kind of degree.
• After she graduated from grad school, she attended the NYU Summer Publishing Institute. This program gave her important contacts in the industry. Because she grew up in a small town, she had never met anyone influential in the industry before that summer.
• Through this program, Lauren met an editor at Harper’s Bazaar. There was an opening for assistant to the managing editor at the magazine, so Lauren got her start in that position. She eventually moved up to managing editor.
• Lauren wanted to move to health writing, so she did some freelance work. She ultimately became the fitness editor at American Health for Women.
• After working at American Health for Women, Lauren became the senior health editor of Mademoiselle magazine. She stayed there for a little over a year before becoming the articles editor and deputy editor at Self.
• At Self, Lauren climbed her way up to the position of executive editor. She left in January to become the editor in chief of Every Day with Rachael Ray. Lauren says she has a “fabulous, fantastic career.”

CAFME Recap for March 21: Food Network Magazine Editor in Chief Maile Carpenter

This week, we had a very special guest speaker talk to CAFME. UNC alum Maile Carpenter, the editor in chief of Food Network Magazine, Skyped with us about the magazine and her duties as EIC.

Miss the meeting? Need a recap? Keep reading to see what she said!

Meet Maile

• Maile graduated from UNC and got her start in newspapers. She worked for the Wilmington Star-News and had a job offer from The News & Observer, but she decided to instead work for a small magazine within Time, Inc.
• Maile ended up leaving that magazine and moving to San Francisco. In San Francisco, she worked for Time Out San Francisco.
• Maile eventually moved back to New York City to help launch Every Day with Rachael Ray.
• After working at Every Day with Rachael Ray, Maile got a job as the editor in chief at Food Network Magazine.
• Maile says she wouldn’t necessarily recommend this career path, but she does appreciate internship and job candidates who have newspaper experience. She also says she believes the best way to start out in the magazine industry is to work for smaller magazines because it makes your resume more interesting.

CAFME Recap for Feb. 22: Cassandra Zink of First for Women

This Wednesday, we spoke with CAFME co-founder and First for Women assistant editor Cassandra Zink. Cassandra is a great resource to UNC students and told us a lot of helpful information regarding the industry, networking and cover letters.

Miss the meeting? Need a refresher? Keep reading to see what she said!

About Cassandra

• Cassandra graduated from UNC in 2008. She co-founded CAFME after becoming interested in magazines and stumbling onto Ed2010.
• As a student, Cassandra worked for The Daily Tar Heel but was not a huge fan of working on a daily paper, so she began to work for Blue & White and Kaleidoscope. She also interned for Carolina Woman magazine, NC State magazine and Conde Nast Portfolio while at UNC. During the summers, she interned for People and. Jane magazine.
• After she graduated, she had no job but interned at People. She says the internship was hard but fun, and even though she was supposed to stay on, the economy crashed and People wasn’t able to hire her.
• After an internship with Self, Cassandra did not have many job prospects. She eventually moved to Washington D.C. and freelanced.
• She eventually got a job with First for Women as an editorial assistant, and she has been there for two and a half years. In September 2011, she was promoted to assistant editor. Her job now includes more editorial duties, including writing the fitness page "Great Shape" and the nutrition page “Sip Away Stress.”
• Cassandra also volunteers for Ed2010. She posts the WhisperJobs and is a co-director of the Ed2010 book club.