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.
- FNM is a partnership between Heart and Food Network. It began being developed four years ago and launched three years ago. The magazine hit the market during the worst moment in the economy, but it survived.
- When the magazine was in development, the staff created a prototype that they tested through focus groups. Maile says they loved getting feedback and would go back and change what the groups didn’t like or connect with.
- These focus groups particularly helped FNM find its voice among the spectrum of food magazines. Maile found that the groups wanted everything – 30 minute meals and more extravagant meals.
- As a result of the focus groups, Maile said the magazine was completely redone. For instance, the publication was originally titled Spoon. They decided to instead just use the Food Network name because it was already such an established brand and had a large following.
Q: How is FNM using new technologies, such as iPads and social media?
A: Maile says that digital media is tricky for the magazine because it would not only represent the print arm of the company, but it would also represent the TV brand. As for the iPad, Maile says when people are looking at magazines on the iPad, they want it to be like how they’ve always read the magazine; therefore, FNM isn’t going to have to do a lot more on the iPad version of the magazine to keep people interested.
Q: What do you do as editor in chief on a day-to-day basis?
A: Maile says her duties change every day and hour to hour. She still edits and looks at layouts because she loves it, but her job largely consists of representing and working with the brand.
Q: What do you look for in interns?
A: There are two interns at a time at FNM. Maile says she loves people with newspaper experience and people who are fully responsible for what they’re putting out there. Other deciding factors are where someone went to school, the interview and the edit test. Edit tests are really important, Maile says, and the best test usually determines who gets the job or internship.
Q: What is your favorite thing about the magazine?
A: Maile says she likes that the magazine started with a built-in fan base (the circulation is 1.5 million). These people feel personally connected to the magazine, she says, and she often gets letters from fans. Maile appreciates the feedback the fans give her.
Q: What is the size and structure of the magazine?
A: Maile says the staff is pretty small, 22 people, for what they’re putting out there. The staff is divided into a recipe/food team and a lifestyle team. The lifestyle team covers food news and trends and FOB articles. The magazine doesn’t freelance out a lot of content, Maile says, because the voice of the magazine is so distinct and can be easier to get for people who work in-house.
Q: What advice do you have for looking for internships?
A: Maile says it’s really important that your resume and cover letter are sent as PDFs rather than Word documents; this will help to avoid problems with visuals. Maile prefers straight, simple resumes as opposed to designed ones. She says designed resumes can be a bit much. Whatever you do, your resume should not be longer than a page, and there shouldn’t be an objective at the top. She says the jobs will speak for themselves, so keep it simple.
When you’re applying for a job or internship, make sure you know the product and have ideas of what you like and don’t like about it. If you can’t find the publication, you can always call the magazine’s office and ask where you can find one. After an interview, send a thank you note to the person who interviewed you. Maile loves getting thank you letters, but she prefers them in email form.
Q: Any last advice?
A: Maile says to be happy doing what you’re doing. She also says to believe in print because the need for the print skillset will never change.
Thanks so much to Maile for speaking with us, and thanks to everyone who came out this week!
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