Mr. Magazine

“Magazines are a pretty unique medium. I’m not saying they’re better or worse than anything else that we do or any other way that people consume stories, but reading a magazine is an experience that it’s very hard to replicate. I think we saw that when magazines started rolling out tablet editions and that the reception was different than I think the industry thought it was going to be. Now the industry has adapted and made it better and it’s working, but it’s pretty hard to replicate the experience of sitting down with a magazine.” Ryan D’Agostino

“Do I think that I could ever sell it without a print component? Absolutely, but I don’t see that happening in any near future picture. I think the brand has such a great heritage and if anything we’ve double-downed on that heritage over the past couple of years, which is what’s giving us this resonance in the marketplace that I think will help us build and sustain momentum for the foreseeable future.” Cameron Connors

Popular Mechanics magazine began in 1902 and has witnessed many changes in the technological world over those 114 years, right along with its own transformation. Today the magazine retains that initial DNA, the foundation of a time when people valued building skills and loved making things themselves, but has a new voice and vibrancy that comes from a magazine team, headed by editor-in-chief, Ryan D’Agostino, and publisher, Cameron Connors, which honors the magazine’s heritage, but also believes in growth and fun at any age.

I spoke with both Ryan and Cameron recently and we talked about the changing roles of editors and publishers in today’s digital age and how infusing the longevity that Popular Mechanics enjoys, with an IV filled with fresh ideas and new voices was the goal and the fruition of both Ryan and Cameron’s past few years with the brand. The success of what they’ve done with the magazine as far as rejuvenated content and a rebirth of ad interest is apparent. Bringing back the magazine’s original thinking that people can do and make anything, with the right tools and knowledge, yet putting a zest and energy into that foundation, has been something that the two men have done favorably.

Both men bring a vibrancy and excitement to the brand that cannot be denied and is contagious when it comes to sharing that natural engagement they have with the audience. It was a fun and informative discussion that I know you will enjoy.

So, grab your latest Popular Mechanics issue and take some time to read the Mr. Magazine™ interview with Ryan and Cameron.

But first, the sound-bites:

On the changing role of a publisher in today’s magazine and magazine media marketplace (Cameron Connors): That’s a great question. I think having the digital experience is definitely one thing that’s setting today’s publishers apart and understanding how to fully represent a brand, particularly in today’s market where brands are becoming more and more fragmented with various access points across the social media platforms that we all use. I think the publisher’s role has increased to the point where you have to become a master of all of those platforms too, understanding at any given time how your brand is being represented on those platforms.

On whether he feels his role has changed now and is more involved than ever before (Cameron Connors): Absolutely. I mean, it is an always on role. We’re always thinking of new and inventive ways to extend the brand to attract a new advertiser. The days of old where you sit down and are able to ink a full schedule with just a lunch conversation are kind of over. There is so much, in terms of media, everything has changed.

On the definition of an editor today (Ryan D’Agostino): It’s also quite different than it was in years past, generations past, and even just a few years ago. An editor today is overseeing an entire brand. It’s weird to use that term, because what we typically think of ourselves as doing is telling stories and editing great stories, and that’s still a part of it. It’s a huge part of what any good editor-in-chief is doing now. That part has not changed.

On whether Ryan believes the name Popular Mechanics hinders people from knowing exactly what the magazine is about (Ryan D’Agostino): I don’t think it hinders at all. I love the name of the magazine; it feels like it could have been created in 1902, which it was, or it feels like it could have been launched in Brooklyn last week. I love the name Popular Mechanics; in fact, my first day on the job here two years ago, I assembled the staff, they didn’t know me, I just gathered them around and my first official act here was I told them that I wanted to outlaw the phrase “Pop Mech.” (Laughs) There was this habit of calling it Pop Mech and even in the magazine regularly and abundantly, on the folio was Pop Mech and Pop Mech was everywhere and I just thought I don’t know what that means.

On whether publisher, Cameron Connors asked himself why he was taking a job at Popular Mechanics when he first accepted the offer (Cameron Connors): Actually, it was quite the opposite. I was thrilled when I was given this opportunity because what I saw was a brand with so much unrealized potential. You asked Ryan if the name of the brand was a hindrance at all; I think we actually use the name to our advantage and fully change the conversation around the brand based precisely on what Ryan has been able to do: refreshing the voice, refreshing the environment, bringing on vibrant, new writers that have great and amazing ideas that give everybody, the media community, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, a whole new take on what Popular Mechanics means to people in this day and age.

On whether Cameron feels making the magazine more of a men’s general interest magazine would broaden the scope of its audience, rather than make it even more of a niche magazine (Cameron Connors): Yes I do. And that’s by design on the editorial side. And from an advertising standpoint, that very approach is helping us break into new categories of advertising that we, I don’t think based on my records, have ever seen before. You mentioned survival; we were at the outdoor retailer show demonstrating and we were fresh on the scene there and when people saw what we were doing they were instantly intrigued. And as a result we’ve seen great momentum in that particular category coming out of that show.

On the biggest challenge Cameron has had to face (Cameron Connors): The biggest challenge that I think we’ve faced since I got here was that the brand was not necessarily known for creative thinking from an advertising standpoint. The first thing I noticed was there was some glimpses of it here and there, but we needed a consistent approach, proactively flooding the market with great ideas, great partnerships, great new thinking and great new editorial franchises. So, that presented a challenge in the beginning when we were just starting to get into this transition, the whole rebuilding the plane in the air analogy.

On the biggest challenge Ryan as editor has had to face (Ryan D’Agostino): My biggest frustration has been this line of thinking out in the world about print. People will say, print, what, you still have a magazine? We’re really interested in digital, but print? And this is where I think Hearst has been really smart in promoting the idea that, if you look at any of our print magazines as the hub or the mother ship, even if it’s less of a revenue source, without it all of these other things don’t exist. That’s something that we believe strongly in here at Hearst.

On whether Ryan believes editors-in-chief would be better served with the title curators-in-chief (Ryan D’Agostino): No, I don’t think so. I believe curator is an overused term. I think everyone on my staff is very much a creator, every month and every day and every minute. In any medium they work, an artist has more tools than ever before that we can use. And maybe that’s a better Popular Mechanics analogy: more tools. You can create anything you want really with the stories that we tell.

On whether Cameron thinks as publisher he could ever sell the Popular Mechanics brand without a print component (Cameron Connors): Do I think that I could ever sell it without a print component? Absolutely, but I don’t see that happening in any near future picture. I think the brand has such a great heritage and if anything we’ve double-downed on that heritage over the past couple of years, which is what’s giving us this resonance in the marketplace that I think will help us build and sustain momentum for the foreseeable future.

On whether as editor Ryan can envision a day without a print edition for the magazine (Ryan D’Agostino): I don’t. From a business standpoint I don’t see why that would be a good idea; it’s not something that we talk about here.

On what Ryan thinks the role of print is in today’s digital age (Ryan D’Agostino): The digital age? Does that imply that it’s digital at the expense of everything else? I don’t think it does. Anytime that you get some sort of technological disruption, throughout history there’s the assumption that everything before it is going to fade away, but historically that hasn’t happened.

On why Ryan thinks it took the industry five or six years to realize that we could have both print and digital and audiences for both (Ryan D’Agostino): I think it’s because we were going after the tablet market; I don’t think anyone took their foot off the gas in creating print. On the print side it’s not like our budgets were slashed and put toward the tablet edition; I think it was just an exciting thing and I think that we’re an industry of creative minds, so when something like a tablet comes along, it stoked our minds into thinking how were we going to use it. We’re nothing without experimentation.

On what someone would find Ryan doing if they showed up unexpectedly one evening at his home, reading a magazine; reading his iPad; watching TV or playing with his children (Ryan D’Agostino): Some mix of all of those. You’ll find me helping my kids with their homework. You’ll find me showing them on my iPad things that we’re working on in the magazine, because I have two boys, they’re 6 and 9, so much of our content is fascinating to them. Maybe a drone story that I’m working on or an F16 story for the December issue; just all kinds of cools stuff and they become my little focus group sometimes when I come home from work and show them what I’m working on. And that’s fun.

On what someone would find Cameron doing if they showed up unexpectedly one evening at his home (Cameron Connors): You would probably catch me cooking. That’s my own personal version of DIY in the home, and maybe a bourbon too, depending on how the day went. I have two children of my own, 6 and 4, and something we like to do that was inspired by the magazine is giving our kids an understanding for the heritage of things.

On anything Ryan would like to add (Ryan D’Agostino): Of course, I’d want to emphasize some things on a slightly more detailed level of what we’re doing in the magazine, just some of the changes. Well, not so much changes. When I first got the job my first thought was what am I going to change? How am I going to make this my own? And that’s all well and good, I’ve done plenty of that, but then there’s also the second reaction which is, wait a minute, this thing has been around since 1902, I better not screw it up. What should I not touch? A lot of magazines have come and gone since 1902, so what has kept Popular Mechanics around?

On anything Cameron would like to add (Cameron Connors): Armed with all of the ammunition that Ryan just described, we’ve seen the conversation around the brand just completely change, particularly over the last six months. We find ourselves in a position now where we are driving conversations that we’ve never had before with advertisers and ad categories.

On what motivates Ryan to get out of bed in the morning (Ryan D’Agostino): With me usually behind on everything, I can’t wait to get to the office to catch up on everything so that I don’t have people asking me for things that I should have had done three days ago. (Laughs) But seriously, we have so much going on that I do get here very early in the morning. I get up very early and I come in very early. And I always have a couple of hours when I get here to catch up on stuff when it’s kind of quiet and I can put my music on loud if I want to and it’s that time when I, before the exciting onslaught of every day begins, can look at what we’re doing for the next few months or the next year or even just the next issue, and remind myself of what we’re doing and why we’re doing it.

On what motivates Cameron to get out of bed in the morning (Cameron Connors): Truly, it’s my colleagues. I think we’ve built an incredible team here at Popular Mechanics and across the men’s group. And I honestly can’t wait to get in every day to work with Ryan and his team, our marketing team, my management, to continue to further the mission of this brand.

On what keeps Ryan up at night (Ryan D’Agostino): For me it’s that there might be something that happened on the planet that we didn’t know about. (Laughs) We try to cover everything and I guess I should include outer space too because that’s part of our purview. We want to engage the audience and make them want to sit down and spend some time with us every month and that’s going to be by giving access and insight and having something to say about everything that’s happening around us.

On what keeps Cameron up at night (Cameron Connors): The only time I find myself up at night is if I feel like a wasted a single minute of the day. Everything from professional to personal is precious and you have to maximize it.

And now the lightly edited transcript of the Mr. Magazine™ interview with Ryan D’Agostino, Editor-In-Chief and Cameron Connors, Publisher, Popular Mechanics magazine.

Samir Husni: Cameron, you’ve worked on just the digital side of the brand and now you’re back working with both print and digital. You’re in charge of all of the revenue for Popular Mechanics; how would you describe the changing role of a publisher in today’s magazine and magazine media marketplace?

Cameron Connors: That’s a great question. I think having the digital experience is definitely one thing that’s setting today’s publishers apart and understanding how to fully represent a brand, particularly in today’s market where brands are becoming more and more fragmented with various access points across the social media platforms that we all use. I think the publisher’s role has increased to the point where you have to become a master of all of those platforms too, understanding at any given time how your brand is being represented on those platforms.

And on top of that, you have to be able to translate all of that to an advertiser and help them to understand the value of those touchpoints for your brand and for them across those platforms. So, it’s become a bigger job.

Samir Husni: Is it much easier now than your previous role or is it more involved, as though you have to be on it 24/7? Hearst has the tagline: from months to moments. Do you feel your job has changed from days to moments?

Cameron Connors: Absolutely. I mean, it is an always on role. We’re always thinking of new and inventive ways to extend the brand to attract a new advertiser. The days of old where you sit down and are able to ink a full schedule with just a lunch conversation are kind of over. There is so much, in terms of media, everything has changed. You have to be always on, whether you’re talking print, digital, social content, just you name it. There is so much in the way of disruption that you have to keep tabs on it all of the time.

Samir Husni: Ryan, to borrow a title from one of your departments that you edit over at Esquire, “The Meaning of Life;” what’s the meaning of an editor today?

Ryan D’Agostino: It’s also quite different than it was in years past, generations past, and even just a few years ago. An editor today is overseeing an entire brand. It’s weird to use that term, because what we typically think of ourselves as doing is telling stories and editing great stories, and that’s still a part of it. It’s a huge part of what any good editor-in-chief is doing now. That part has not changed.

What has changed, and I’ll just speak for myself as an editor, is being attached at the hip with Cameron, speaking to him as many times during the day and going on as many trips with him during the year as I can to get the message out there and help however I can to do what we’re doing.

It’s looking at our Instagram feeds and posting to it regularly, which I do because I live a great many parts of the Popular Mechanics life myself; I’m in an old house with an old barn that I’m trying to restore. I’m about an hour north of New York City and I drive my car and I own an old pick-up truck that I try to keep running. I have little kids and I’m teaching them how to do woodworking, and so I’ve become a part of our social media strategy simply because I’m having these experiences. I work closely with our digital team every day to help think about what they’re doing, tell them about what we’re doing and try to brainstorm together about how to translate all of it where it makes sense.

So, the whole parts of being an editor, which are assembling a talented group of people to work with, to think about what stories we’re going to tell from month to month; that’s all still there. And to make the magazine entertaining and fun to read; lively and funny when it needs to be; insightful with every page and that it has beautiful photography. Writing a great headline; all of that hasn’t changed, there’s just more to it than that today.

Cameron Connors, Olivia Munn, Jason Segel, Ryan D’Agostino, photo by Eric Heimbold.

Ryan D’Agostino: I don’t think it hinders at all. I love the name of the magazine; it feels like it could have been created in 1902, which it was, or it feels like it could have been launched in Brooklyn last week.

I love the name Popular Mechanics; in fact, my first day on the job here two years ago, I assembled the staff, they didn’t know me, I just gathered them around and my first official act here was I told them that I wanted to outlaw the phrase “Pop Mech.” (Laughs) There was this habit of calling it Pop Mech and even in the magazine regularly and abundantly, on the folio was Pop Mech and Pop Mech was everywhere and I just thought I don’t know what that means. It’s an ugly-sounding noise and it just eviscerates our name and we should be reminding people what we’re about at every turn.

What we’re about, and the way that we’ve defined Mechanics for 2016 and beyond are the Mechanics of life; the Mechanics of your every day. And how everything around you works, whether that’s the new SpaceX‎ rocket that you’re reading about in the paper or the airplane you’re flying in or the assisted-driver car that you’re driving or the cocktail you’re drinking or the movie you’re watching. So, we define Mechanics very broadly.

Sure, when I tell people I was at Esquire and now I’m at Popular Mechanics; they’ll ask Popular Mechanics? Depending on their level of magazine interest and literacy they might think it’s about fixing cars or they might have a deeper understanding of what it really is, but I explain like this: we tell the story of the world around us and how it works.

And that’s something that the magazine has done for over 100 years, but it’s something that we’re redefining today. So, when we put Olivia Munn on the cover of the magazine last year and when we entered the world of the Academy Awards as a sponsor of the Scientific & Technical Oscars; who would have thought in 1902 or anytime in our history that editor and the publisher of Popular Mechanics would be on the Red Carpet at the Academy Awards event with a couple of movie stars? But somehow it felt right. It didn’t feel out-of-place and my hope is that every month in the magazine it won’t feel strange at all to be reading about Olivia Munn, military technology, how to build a deck, how to make a drink; all of those things between the same covers every month and under the same name, Popular Mechanics, so they’ll all make sense the way we’re defining it.

Samir Husni: And Cameron, did you have a similar experience? When you accepted the job, did you ask yourself what am I doing? Why am I taking this job at Popular Mechanics?

Cameron Connors: Actually, it was quite the opposite. I was thrilled when I was given this opportunity because what I saw was a brand with so much unrealized potential. You asked Ryan if the name of the brand was a hindrance at all; I think we actually use the name to our advantage and fully change the conversation around the brand based precisely on what Ryan has been able to do: refreshing the voice, refreshing the environment, bringing on vibrant, new writers that have great and amazing ideas that give everybody, the media community, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, a whole new take on what Popular Mechanics means to people in this day and age. So, I found it very exciting and as I said, it’s totally changed the conversation around the brand across the board.

Ryan D’Agostino: It takes some work to tell people exactly what you’re asking about and what we’re talking about. And I think what you’re getting at is, OK, Esquire, where I came from, has a defined identity; it’s fairly rooted in popular culture and people understand that it’s a men’s magazine. Popular Mechanics over the years has been a niche publication for people with specific interests. We’re trying to bring it out of the niche market and make it a magazine for everybody, because I really think that the things that the magazine is about have become popular now. Everybody is making something and building things with their hands and are interested in heritage manufacturing in the United States and how things work. Every parent wants their kids to learn about how things work and engineering, and so it’s very much entered the mainstream.

But that’s why Cameron and I are so constantly out there talking to whoever will listen and telling them what we’re doing so they can understand and they won’t continue to hear the name Popular Mechanics and think of it as a great, classic American magazine, which it is, but they don’t really understand the excitement that we’re feeling about it right now.

Samir Husni: Cameron, do you feel making Popular Mechanics more of a men’s general interest magazine will broaden the magazine’s audience? For example, last month the cover was survival, but there are three or four special interest magazines that have nothing in them but survival. The cover before, let’s say, was about building a home and there are many DIY magazines and home building magazines out there. So, do you feel that going against the trend widens the horizon of the magazine, rather than making it even more specialized?

Cameron Connors: Yes I do. And that’s by design on the editorial side. And from an advertising standpoint, that very approach is helping us break into new categories of advertising that we, I don’t think based on my records, have ever seen before. You mentioned survival; we were at the outdoor retailer show demonstrating and we were fresh on the scene there and when people saw what we were doing they were instantly intrigued. And as a result we’ve seen great momentum in that particular category coming out of that show.

Another proud moment for us was in the entertainment space, which really hasn’t been a core, endemic category for us, was last year when we partnered with Fox on the launch of “The Martian.” We did a collector’s cover that was all Martian-branded and then Ryan had the good fortune of interviewing Ridley Scott, so it all tied together very nicely. We did a Martian week on the website during the launch and it also helped that “The Martian” was a huge hit, but it was also one of those moments for us as a brand that was so smooth, none of it was forced, it all made perfect sense.

To go back to your original question, what all of this is doing is helping us branch out into new categories of advertising, which is exciting for me and it’s exciting for the entire staff to see as we chart new territory.

Samir Husni: Cameron, before someone reading this interview thinks that both of your journeys during the last few years has all been smooth sailing; what has been the biggest challenge that you’ve had to face and how did you overcome it?

Cameron Connors: The biggest challenge that I think we’ve faced since I got here was that the brand was not necessarily known for creative thinking from an advertising standpoint. The first thing I noticed was there was some glimpses of it here and there, but we needed a consistent approach, proactively flooding the market with great ideas, great partnerships, great new thinking and great new editorial franchises. So, that presented a challenge in the beginning when we were just starting to get into this transition, the whole rebuilding the plane in the air analogy.

We were able to overcome that by simply not letting our foot off the gas and getting out there proactively with great ideas like what we did with “The Martian.” That’s been the biggest challenge, but also the biggest win for me since I’ve been here.

Samir Husni: And Ryan, from the editorial side, what has been your biggest challenge and how did you overcome it?

Ryan D’Agostino: My biggest frustration has been this line of thinking out in the world about print. People will say, print, what, you still have a magazine? We’re really interested in digital, but print? And this is where I think Hearst has been really smart in promoting the idea that, if you look at any of our print magazines as the hub or the mother ship, even if it’s less of a revenue source, without it all of these other things don’t exist. That’s something that we believe strongly in here at Hearst.

So, without those stories being written by people and being reported by people and being photographed by people and being designed by people; without Popular Mechanics magazine; what is popularmechanics.com; is there an Instagram feed or any of the other things that extend from the brand? It’s just a really smart way to look at things. We can be interested in and worried about taking advantage of all of these things and concerned that we need to be doing that; we can look at every single platform and use them all to tell stories and bring in revenue and draw in readers and participants in Popular Mechanics or whichever brand it is, but to not freak out and say that the world is over and we need to build a new one.

Hearst right now is marked by very rational thinking in this way and it makes our job much easier. When you think about it we need all of these things. When we report a story, I love trying to figure out how many different ways we can tell it. What’s the Twitter version of it and what’s the 5,000 word version of it? And everything in between. And if not every platform applies to every story, fine. Let’s think that way and communicate that, rather than freaking out and saying that we can’t do what we do anymore and we have to reinvent it. This is actually an incredibly exciting time because there’s just more Popular Mechanics out there.

I think about the editors from 1902, or the 1920s or the 1930s; they would have loved to have had a website and a Twitter feed and a Facebook page and Instagram and all of those things, because you can never fit what you want to fit in the magazine. And all of these new storytelling devices we have now; they would have been so jealous, so I just try to make sure we’re taking advantage of all of those things.

Samir Husni: Do you feel that you’re more of a curator now than a creator? Should we start calling editors curators-in-chief?

Ryan D’Agostino: No, I don’t think so. I believe curator is an overused term. I think everyone on my staff is very much a creator, every month and every day and every minute. In any medium they work, an artist has more tools than ever before that we can use. And maybe that’s a better Popular Mechanics analogy: more tools. You can create anything you want really with the stories that we tell.

I don’t think we’re just arranging information and trying to figure out how to pump it out, because don’t forget, without the reporting and the ideas; I mean, that’s what I tell my editors all of the time that I rely on them for the most. It’s not can they edit a good story or write a good headline, that’s important and goes without saying, but it’s ideas. We have nothing without ideas. And that goes for every platform, every medium, every website director, editor at this company. You have to have ideas about how to do things differently, in an original way and that’s what’s going to get people excited out there in the world. So, we are relentless creators.

Samir Husni: Cameron, as you are working with a team of creators, do you think that you could ever sell the brand of Popular Mechanics without a print component?

Cameron Connors: Do I think that I could ever sell it without a print component? Absolutely, but I don’t see that happening in any near future picture. I think the brand has such a great heritage and if anything we’ve double-downed on that heritage over the past couple of years, which is what’s giving us this resonance in the marketplace that I think will help us build and sustain momentum for the foreseeable future.

Samir Husni: And Ryan, can you envision Popular Mechanics without a print edition?

Ryan D’Agostino: I don’t. From a business standpoint I don’t see why that would be a good idea; it’s not something that we talk about here.

Samir Husni: Ryan, in today’s marketplace what’s the role of print in this digital age?

Ryan D’Agostino: The digital age? Does that imply that it’s digital at the expense of everything else? I don’t think it does. Anytime that you get some sort of technological disruption, throughout history there’s the assumption that everything before it is going to fade away, but historically that hasn’t happened.

Magazines are a pretty unique medium. I’m not saying they’re better or worse than anything else that we do or any other way that people consume stories, but reading a magazine is an experience that it’s very hard to replicate. I think we saw that when magazines started rolling out tablet editions and that the reception was different than I think the industry thought it was going to be. Now the industry has adapted and made it better and it’s working, but it’s pretty hard to replicate the experience of sitting down with a magazine.

The way I look at is the role of print hasn’t changed because the consuming public out there is showing that they don’t ‘not’ want to read magazines, there are times in their lives when they want to do it. I’m just excited that the digital age, if that’s what we’re living in because there’s digital technology now and digital ways of communicating, that the digital age is an opportunity, but I don’t think we should panic and look at it as one opportunity at the expense of another.

Samir Husni: Why did it take the industry five or six years to discover that it doesn’t have to be print or digital, it can be both? Rather than thinking digital was replacing print; why didn’t we see that they were two different experiences and that we could have both?

Ryan D’Agostino: I think it’s because we were going after the tablet market; I don’t think anyone took their foot off the gas in creating print. On the print side it’s not like our budgets were slashed and put toward the tablet edition; I think it was just an exciting thing and I think that we’re an industry of creative minds, so when something like a tablet comes along, it stoked our minds into thinking how were we going to use it. We’re nothing without experimentation.

And that’s why magazines and magazine brands remain so lively. Snapchat; how are we going to use that? Who knows how it’s going to work, but there are amazing and exciting things being done there. I don’t think there should be a lot of regret about going headfirst into tablets and trying to make that work because it seemed like a natural thing. And now we’re adapting.

Cameron Connors: I would also add that I think when digital came along and disrupted everybody’s lives, it gave a lot of different forms of media a wake-up call to sort of spawn that period of experimentation. During that process things became more fragmented, social was on the rise, mobile took affect; a lot of these things began to add up and everyone thought everything else was falling apart, which was absolutely not the case. When it came down to it this was still a brand. Whether it was a magazine or a website, we weren’t just a thing. The brand meant something to people.

And that’s our point when we’re out talking about the brand and making sure we drive home why it’s valuable to people and people buy it.

Samir Husni: To move into some questions about both of you personally; Ryan, if I showed up unexpectedly at your house one evening, what would I find you doing? Reading a magazine with a glass of wine; reading your iPad, watching TV, or playing with your children?

Ryan D’Agostino: Some mix of all of those. You’ll find me helping my kids with their homework. You’ll find me showing them on my iPad things that we’re working on in the magazine, because I have two boys, they’re 6 and 9, so much of our content is fascinating to them. Maybe a drone story that I’m working on or an F16 story for the December issue; just all kinds of cools stuff and they become my little focus group sometimes when I come home from work and show them what I’m working on. And that’s fun.

In terms of media consumption, on any given night it’s probably not wine, it’s bourbon. We subscribe to a lot of magazines at the house, and there are a couple of hours at night where I can either read a book, which takes me about four months to actually read sometimes because I’m just exhausted and I’ll read five pages and I’m falling asleep, but I try, or I can read a magazine. My wife and I have a show that we watch and streaming either Netflix or watching other movies. I’m going to the Oscars this weekend, so I’m trying to catch up on the Oscar-nominated movies. I might also be in the barn; it’s pretty typical.

Samir Husni: And Cameron, what would you be doing?

Cameron Connors: You would probably catch me cooking. That’s my own personal version of DIY in the home, and maybe a bourbon too, depending on how the day went. I have two children of my own, 6 and 4, and something we like to do that was inspired by the magazine is giving our kids an understanding for the heritage of things. Most recently we bought a throwback record player and started a record collection, so you might find me showing them a little about that, which has been a lot of fun.

Samir Husni: Is there anything else either of you would like to add?

Ryan D’Agostino: Of course, I’d want to emphasize some things on a slightly more detailed level of what we’re doing in the magazine, just some of the changes. Well, not so much changes. When I first got the job my first thought was what am I going to change? How am I going to make this my own?

And that’s all well and good, I’ve done plenty of that, but then there’s also the second reaction which is, wait a minute, this thing has been around since 1902, I better not screw it up. What should I not touch? A lot of magazines have come and gone since 1902, so what has kept Popular Mechanics around?

Then you start looking at what that thread of longevity is, if there is one over the last 114 years, and what I found in reading all of those back issues up until today, there is this sense of wonder about the world and curiosity, and those are the qualities of Popular Mechanics that have marked the reader since day one. It was the magazine that was going to help them understand stuff. The original tagline was written so that you could understand it, which I like the spirit of that and I get it, and that’s what people want. They want complex things presented in a way that they can understand and relate to and can have fun talking about.

So, we’ve done things such as instead of hiring only science writers or technological writers, working with writers like Joshua Ferris, the acclaimed novelist; Buzz Bissinger, the author of “Friday Night Lights” who is writing about motorcycles for us; Gary Dell’Abate, who you may know better as “Baba Booey” from Howard Stern. I met him at a party and it turns out that he’s a gadget freak who is really into technology and is very knowledgeable about it and will be writing about technology for us.

So, what you end up with is a magazine that’s about the same things that it’s always been about, but with a broadened definition of that, and writing that is truly engaging and fun. I’m trying to make this a magazine for writers because I think that will attract a bigger audience and continue this momentum that we have now. We’ve gotten a couple of national magazine award nominations, which is a testament to my staff and the creativity of their ideas. We’re having so much fun here right now; it feels like a startup, but with 100 years of history.

Samir Husni: And Cameron, would you like to add anything?

Cameron Connors: Armed with all of the ammunition that Ryan just described, we’ve seen the conversation around the brand just completely change, particularly over the last six months. We find ourselves in a position now where we are driving conversations that we’ve never had before with advertisers and ad categories. To see us in a spot where we can now begin driving, not only revenue for our own brand, but across the Hearst men’s group and across the Hearst portfolio, is incredibly exciting. I think the sky is truly the limit.

Samir Husni: Ryan, what motivates you to get out of bed in the morning?

Ryan D’Agostino: With me usually behind on everything, I can’t wait to get to the office to catch up on everything so that I don’t have people asking me for things that I should have had done three days ago. (Laughs)

But seriously, we have so much going on that I do get here very early in the morning. I get up very early and I come in very early. And I always have a couple of hours when I get here to catch up on stuff when it’s kind of quiet and I can put my music on loud if I want to and it’s that time when I, before the exciting onslaught of every day begins, can look at what we’re doing for the next few months or the next year or even just the next issue, and remind myself of what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. I look through back issues; I look at other magazines around us and I get ideas from my editors that they send me every two weeks. And I try to think of ways to constantly reinvent what we’re doing. I took my whole staff to see “Spotlight” the other week; it was like 12:30 in the afternoon. And only one of them had seen it. I just thought, the movie is about hardworking journalists who are trying to do something important to them and that’s something we can all relate to.

The simple answer to your question is to keep doing what I was doing yesterday.

Samir Husni: And Cameron, what motivates you to get out of bed in the morning?

Cameron Connors: Truly, it’s my colleagues. I think we’ve built an incredible team here at Popular Mechanics and across the men’s group. And I honestly can’t wait to get in every day to work with Ryan and his team, our marketing team, my management, to continue to further the mission of this brand. So, it’s all that and then checking my numbers and sales, of course. (Laughs)

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

Ryan D’Agostino: For me it’s that there might be something that happened on the planet that we didn’t know about. (Laughs) We try to cover everything and I guess I should include outer space too because that’s part of our purview. We want to engage the audience and make them want to sit down and spend some time with us every month and that’s going to be by giving access and insight and having something to say about everything that’s happening around us.

And when we choose to define the magazine the way that we have, which is basically there is nothing that we have to cover and there’s nothing that we can’t cover. And that’s how I look at it. When you define it that way, it’s wonderful and totally daunting because we might miss something. That’s the challenge.

And what it means to be a man now is different and men are re-embracing skills that their grandfathers had that may be slipping away with each generation, knowing how to fix stuff and build stuff. I think there was a time when guys didn’t do that for a few years and I think we all look to our dads and our grandfathers. I’m 40, so I look to my dad and my grandfathers and there’s stuff that they can do with their eyes closed that I don’t know how to do. Fixing the lamp in the kitchen, changing the oil in the car; I can change the oil, but a lot of guys can’t and they might not want to admit it or it’s a little emasculating and I think that’s why we’re seeing this return to being a sort of Renaissance person, someone who knows a little about everything and a lot about some things and is highly skilled and curious and interesting to talk to. And I don’t think that person is a lot different than someone reading Popular Mechanics in 1908 or today.

Samir Husni: And Cameron, what keeps you up at night?

Cameron Connors: The only time I find myself up at night is if I feel like I wasted a single minute of the day. Everything from professional to personal is precious and you have to maximize it. If I feel like I didn’t see something coming or if someone has an issue with an ad deal, those are the things that keep me up at night.

Samir Husni: Thank you both.

“Our readers still like hard copy. I think print is important for this kind of content to sort of snuggle up with, while you’re feeding your baby even, and just be able to read and be stimulated intellectually with a magazine on your lap.” Marcelle Soviero

Brain, Child: The Magazine for Thinking Mothers was founded in 2000 and is an award-winning literary magazine dedicated to motherhood. Unfortunately, four years ago the magazine was about to shut down its operation when an essayist and writer happened to send in a submission to the magazine. When she was told that no submissions were being accepted due to the publication’s closure, she did what she felt she had to do when she heard the news: she bought it.

That writer was Marcelle Soviero, who bought Brain, Child in 2012 and immediately launched Brain, Teen to complement a magazine that she had believed in since its inception in 2000. As a mother of five children, Marcelle had grown her children up with the magazine and had always been one of its biggest fans.

Now as the owner, and editor-in-chief, she has expanded the magazine’s social media footprint extensively and has moved the print edition of Brain, Child into the digital realms, while maintaining Brain, Teen and the brand’s annual anthology, in print.

I spoke with Marcelle recently and we talked about her passion for the brand and the decision to take Brain, Child digital-only and her hope that someday the magazine will once again be offered in print as Brain, Teen and her yearly special issues are. And we talked about the brand’s mission: to bring the voices of women of different backgrounds and circumstances together on the page, the website and in the online community. Through essays, fiction and feature stories, Marcelle chooses the best writers she can find to connect mothers with many diverse perspectives on dealing with motherhood in the 21st century.

Marcelle is a woman who believes in print and the need for it in today’s digital age, but also understands the positivity and reach that digital can bring to a brand when the two components are working together for a complementary common goal. And with a literary magazine like Brain, Child, the need for print and digital is strong.

So, I hope that you enjoy the Mr. Magazine™ interview with Brain, Child’s own mother of invention, Marcelle Soviero.

But first the sound-bites:

On what made her buy Brain, Child: The Magazine for Thinking Mothers: I was a reader and a writer when my children were young. And I have five children, so I sort of grew them up with the magazine, if you will. I went to submit my writing to them one day and it said that they were ceasing publication. So, I immediately called them up and told them that I wanted to buy it and asked what the picture looked like, because I still believed in the magazine.

On whether her decision to buy was based on business or passion: It was definitely a decision of passion. And then when it became real; when I called the owners and they told me that they hadn’t even thought of selling it; I started to do the numbers and thought that it really made sense and that I could make it work because I was so passionate about it.

On whether people told her she was crazy to invest in print in a digital age: Many people said that to me in jest, but in truth as well. And it has been hard; it’s not easy to keep it up, but we’re healthy and have a good readership. I certainly brought the magazine into the digital age; we have digital products and our social media footprint has gone up to 190,000 on Facebook. When I bought it we were at 8,000, so we’ve certainly developed a wider audience using digital tools and having digital products.

On how she would describe the magazine to someone who had never seen it before: Brain, Child is the magazine for thinking mothers; it’s the largest, oldest literary magazine for mothers. And we’re distributed worldwide. And I also own and edit it.

On what she’s offering mothers that they can’t get anyplace else: We’re offering personal stories and narratives that are edited; we actually edit our pieces. These aren’t just long pieces slapped up on the Internet; we have a rigorous editing, fact-checking, proofreading system that’s expensive, but I will keep it in place because I believe in it.

On whether she changed anything about the magazine after she bought it or kept it the same: No, we did a whole redesign of the magazine after the first issue. We went in and sort of updated everything with a professional designer and we’ve had good feedback with that. In fact, what was most interesting was when I first took it over and it was announced by the previous owner that they weren’t going out of business that I was buying it instead; I received fan mail from around the world, literally, as though I were their knight in shining armor, thanking me for saving the magazine.

On launching Brain, Teen simultaneously with taking over the magazine: Yes, I bought the magazine in August, 2012 and we began planning, and I think the issue actually came out in 2013, the special Brain, Teen issue. It was my immediate plan. It was the business idea that I thought of immediately to sort of bring the business up to speed.

On how large her team is: They are all consultants to the company, freelance, and I have a managing editor. Otherwise, certainly our writers are from all around the world. We get about 1,000 to 2,000 submissions each month for the magazine, both online and digital.

On which she finds more exciting as a writer, seeing her byline in print or online: I would say initially it was print that I found more exciting, but now, as I tell my authors, because we publish a lot more online than we do in print, the readership is so much greater online. It’s not even comparable; our circulation is relatively small, and as I said, I’ve already told you the numbers on our community pages and other digital outlets. So, in terms of actually having the writing out there, it’s become much more important to have the online byline, but my passion is to have my byline in print, I’d say.

On why she thinks print is still important in this digital age: Our readers still like hard copy. I think print is important for this kind of content to sort of snuggle up with, while you’re feeding your baby even, and just be able to read and be stimulated intellectually with a magazine on your lap.

On any challenges she’s had to face during her four-year journey with the magazine: There have been many challenges and hurdles in just supporting a print magazine with the numbers being nearly impossible. And if we didn’t have the online component, I don’t think that I could do it. Just supporting the print and production and design process and doing it well, as I said, with the best writers; the best design team and things like that, has been a real challenge to make it work.

On whether her magazine is print + digital free and whether she feels they complement each other: No, our magazine Brain, Child is only digital, it’s only online. And our print product, the special issue for parents of teens and our annual Greatest Hits, are print. So, they’re pretty separate in terms of the content and the production process. But they do complement each other, but we never offered print + digital free. Never.

On what motivates her to get out of bed in the morning: The possibility of finding a new writer, the next best piece that I’m going to read and share with the world, with the mothers and the excitement of working with great writers. For someone who is a writer and a mother, I can’t think of anything better.

On whether she thinks Brain, Child will ever come back to print: Yes, absolutely. Some people will call me crazy for that, but we sort of had to get the revenue pieces in check. And as I said, Brain, Teen is a print product and our annual special issue is a print product, so we haven’t abandoned print.

On anything else that she’d like to add: Buying Brain, Child was the best thing that I ever did, outside of marrying my husband. (Laughs) I do want to be clear that Brain, Child is not print anymore, it’s just Brain, Teen that’s print.

On what keeps her up at night: Competition; that there’s more people publishing narrative than ever before. I think when Brain, Child started we were certainly the one and only person writing about motherhood, but now there are plenty of blogs and sites for women. I don’t feel we have the competition, but I worry about it.

And now the lightly edited transcript of the Mr. Magazine™ interview with Marcelle Soviero, Owner, Editor-In-Chief, Brain, Child: The Magazine for Thinking Mothers.

Samir Husni: Tell me about Brain, Child: The Magazine for Thinking Mothers; what made you buy the company?

Marcelle Soviero: I was a reader and a writer when my children were young. And I have five children, so I sort of grew them up with the magazine, if you will. I went to submit my writing to them one day, I’m an essayist and I have a few books, and it said that they were ceasing publication. So, I immediately called them up and told them that I wanted to buy it and asked what the picture looked like, because I still believed in the magazine.

I had had a career in magazine publishing and online publishing when I bought it, and I had just left a job where I was commuting to Chicago in a very high-powered corporate position, so it was like all of the stars came together and I bought the magazine within three weeks. I went down to Virginia and cut thousands of back issues and brought them up to Connecticut where I live, and I just started producing the magazine and keeping it going, so we only missed one issue when I bought it.

Samir Husni: Was it a business decision or a decision of passion that caused you to buy the magazine?

Marcelle Soviero: It was definitely a decision of passion. And then when it became real; when I called the owners and they told me that they hadn’t even thought of selling it; I started to do the numbers and thought that it really made sense and that I could make it work because I was so passionate about it. And the readership of the magazine was equally as passionate about it as I was, they had grown their kids up with it too, so it was a little bit of both, but definitely first passion and just a gut feeling that it was the right time to do it.

Samir Husni: And four years ago, did anyone say to you that you were crazy to invest in a print product for children; haven’t you heard that we live in a digital age?

Marcelle Soviero: Many people said that to me in jest, but in truth as well. And it has been hard; it’s not easy to keep it up, but we’re healthy and have a good readership. I certainly brought the magazine into the digital age; we have digital products and our social media footprint has gone up to 190,000 on Facebook. When I bought it we were at 8,000, so we’ve certainly developed a wider audience using digital tools and having digital products. No question about that. I sort of took advantage of that, while still producing the print magazine.

Samir Husni: If you met someone on the street and introduced yourself to them by telling them you were the owner, editor and publisher of Brain, Child magazine; the first question they might ask you is “what’s that?”

Marcelle Soviero: And my answer would be Brain, Child is the magazine for thinking mothers; it’s the largest, oldest literary magazine for mothers. And we’re distributed worldwide. And I also own and edit it.

Samir Husni: Tell me a little bit more about the content; what are you offering mothers today that they can’t find any other place?

Marcelle Soviero: We’re offering personal stories and narratives that are edited; we actually edit our pieces. These aren’t just long pieces slapped up on the Internet; we have a rigorous editing, fact-checking, proofreading system that’s expensive, but I will keep it in place because I believe in it.

So we offer personal stories and connection for women, one story at a time, for mothers in our community, to our pages and our digital products. It’s essays, fiction, poetry, debates and book reviews.

Samir Husni: Since you assumed ownership of the magazine, what has been the feedback that you’ve received? Could the legacy readership tell there was a new ownership with the magazine or have you kept the flow and pace, in terms of the content, the way it was before you bought it?

Marcelle Soviero: No, we did a whole redesign of the magazine after the first issue. We went in and sort of updated everything with a professional designer and we’ve had good feedback with that. In fact, what was most interesting was when I first took it over and it was announced by the previous owner that they weren’t going out of business that I was buying it instead; I received fan mail from around the world, literally, as though I were their knight in shining armor, thanking me for saving the magazine. There was just a ridiculous amount of passion and feedback, so that was the first step that fired my own passion to continue to do it.

I would say the connection with the readers is very good. The biggest thing we’ve done in more recent years is as I aged out of the magazine, because Brain, Child is for mothers who have children 0-12, is I introduced a special issue for parents of teens called, Brain, Teen. Basically I kept for mothers like me who grew up with it and now have teenagers; I kept the product line going so that we could really meet that need. And that has been our more successful product out of the two now in the last four years.

Samir Husni: When did you launch Brain, Teen?

Marcelle Soviero: In 2012.

Samir Husni: So at the same time that you were taking over Brain, Child?

Marcelle Soviero: Yes, I bought the magazine in August, 2012 and we began planning, and I think the issue actually came out in 2013, the special Brain, Teen issue. It was my immediate plan. It was the business idea that I thought of immediately to sort of bring the business up to speed.

That was a big change and the design was a big change and certainly we post edited, beautiful blog posts every day as we’ve built up this readership. Our social imprint online has become huge and I sort of tapped into that passion. As I said, we have a very large community on Facebook that’s highly engaged in terms of our numbers, compared to other sites that have a million followers and we have around 200,000. Our engagement can be as much as 100,000, which is half our audience.

Samir Husni: As I hear you talk about the magazine, I can hear the passion and fire in your voice. How do you handle everything as a mother of five kids? How big is your team; is Brain, Child Marcelle and a few others? Or do you have a large team working with you? I know you said that you have a very expensive fact-checking system in place that you don’t want to change.

Marcelle Soviero: Right. They are all consultants to the company, freelance, and I have a managing editor. Otherwise, certainly our writers are from all around the world. We get about 1,000 to 2,000 submissions each month for the magazine, both online and digital.

But I think my passion comes from being a writer and having intellectual stimulation in reading all of the submissions that come in. And I love the editing process, being a writer. It makes my own writing better and I realize that we’re doing something different in working with writers and improving the content to make it perfect to be seen by the public, again as opposed to just throwing stuff up online. I also believe in paying our writers. We pay our writers, not much; we’re a commercial magazine and we’re distributed widely, but we’re also a literary magazine and traditionally they’re not high-paying. And we’re not high-paying, but one of my premises, being a writer, is that I pay my writers.

Samir Husni: Let’s forget for a moment that you’re the owner of the magazine; as a writer do you feel a different reaction when you see your name in print as opposed to seeing your name online? Which excites you more and gives you that thrill of saying, look I’ve published something?

Marcelle Soviero: That’s a great question. I would say initially it was print that I found more exciting, but now, as I tell my authors, because we publish a lot more online than we do in print, the readership is so much greater online. It’s not even comparable; our circulation is relatively small, and as I said, I’ve already told you the numbers on our community pages and other digital outlets. So, in terms of actually having the writing out there, it’s become much more important to have the online byline, but my passion is to have my byline in print, I’d say.

Samir Husni: And why do you think print is still important in this digital age?

Marcelle Soviero: Our readers still like hard copy. I think print is important for this kind of content to sort of snuggle up with, while you’re feeding your baby even, and just be able to read and be stimulated intellectually with a magazine on your lap.

But we have a lot of digital adopters. Our print now is really the special issue for parents of teens and our annual anthology and our magazine is more digital and online now.

Samir Husni: In your four year journey with the magazine, has it always been smooth sailing, or have you had some choppy waters with major challenges along the way?

Marcelle Soviero: There have been many challenges and hurdles in just supporting a print magazine with the numbers being nearly impossible. And if we didn’t have the online component, I don’t think that I could do it. Just supporting the print and production and design process and doing it well, as I said, with the best writers; the best design team and things like that, has been a real challenge to make it work.

Samir Husni: Have you ever considered stopping the print edition and only staying online?

Marcelle Soviero: Brain, Child, actually, the original product, is online now. And our print product is Brain, Teen. And our special issues are print too.

Samir Husni: You said that without online you feel like you could not have survived, but how do you juggle between the need for print and the need for online? Do you view them as complementary to each other or as enemies? Is it print + digital for you or is it print or digital?

Marcelle Soviero: No, our magazine Brain, Child is only digital, it’s only online. And our print product, the special issue for parents of teens and our annual Greatest Hits, are print. So, they’re pretty separate in terms of the content and the production process. But they do complement each other, but we never offered print + digital free. Never. We always did print + and/or pay the same amount for digital.

Samir Husni: So you always charged for digital, there was nothing free? No welfare information society?

Marcelle Soviero: No. The issues were paid for. Obviously, our website is all free content and eventually what’s in print makes it to the website, but it’s much, much later on in the process.

Samir Husni: But the digital editions are paid for?

Marcelle Soviero: Correct.

Samir Husni: What motivates you to get out of bed in the morning and say it’s going to be a great day?

Marcelle Soviero: The possibility of finding a new writer, the next best piece that I’m going to read and share with the world, with the mothers and the excitement of working with great writers. For someone who is a writer and a mother, I can’t think of anything better. So, I’m excited and I always think that I’m going to find the next best piece, the next Pushcart Press Award. And I really love working with all of our writers.

Samir Husni: Do you think Brain, Child will ever come back to print?

Marcelle Soviero: Yes, absolutely. Some people will call me crazy for that, but we sort of had to get the revenue pieces in check. And as I said, Brain, Teen is a print product and our annual special issue is a print product, so we haven’t abandoned print.

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

Marcelle Soviero: Buying Brain, Child was the best thing that I ever did, outside of marrying my husband. (Laughs) I do want to be clear that Brain, Child is not print anymore, it’s just Brain, Teen that’s print.

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

Marcelle Soviero: Competition; that there’s more people publishing narrative than ever before. I think when Brain, Child started we were certainly the one and only person writing about motherhood, but now there are plenty of blogs and sites for women. I don’t feel we have the competition, but I worry about it. I think about somebody who really would start actively treating the process of producing a magazine and an online product like we’ve done, somebody who is larger and has more resources.

Samir Husni: Thank you.

“No, never. I just can’t. I think it’s important for a legacy brand like ours to continue in print. I believe our readers want it very much. What’s happening in digital and on the website is amazing and wonderful, but I think that the print edition will always be core to our brand and core to what we do.” Susan Spencer (on whether she can ever envision Woman’s Day without a print component)

“Yes, I do. I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing right now if I didn’t. I believe the question has almost become moot in the last few years. Readers have shown us time and time again that print magazines are here to stay. I love print magazines and I always have; it’s how I got into the business and I can’t imagine them going away.” Susan Spencer (on whether she believes in the future of print)

As far as legacy brands go, Woman’s Day holds a spot among the women’s service magazines that have texture and substance when it comes to longevity in the industry. The magazine’s content is as relevant today as it was nearly 80 years ago (79 to be exact) and has proven that fact with its total immersion into the wants and needs of its audience and a commitment to excellence in the coverage of many topics of interest, most especially health and food.

As the magazine gears up for its 13th Annual Red Dress Awards to be held February 9 at The Allen Room at Frederick P. Rose Hall at the Lincoln Center in New York, Editor-in-Chief Susan Spencer is passionate about the brand’s diligence to continue to heighten awareness of heart disease throughout the country.

I spoke with Susan recently and we talked about the Red Dress Awards, their past, present and future fusion with Woman’s Day and how readers and the public in general have come to recognize the Awards’ connection with the magazine. And we talked about the magazine itself, where it’s been and where it’s going and about how Susan believes that both print and digital together will be the catalyst that propels the legacy brand forward and keep it relevant and healthy for many, many more years to come, with the foundation and cornerstone core of print still being an integral part of the readership’s involvement with the brand.

Susan is as delightful as the magazine itself and brings an aura of joy, fun and animation to the brand that’s contagious. Zest and relevant information keeps the essence of Woman’s Day always reflective and pertinent to its audience and that’s just the way Susan wants it.

So, without further ado, the Mr. Magazine™ interview with Susan Spencer, Editor-In-Chief, Woman’s Day.

But first, the sound-bites:

On what Woman’s Day means to its readers today, in the 21st century: Woman’s Day today, as it has done for many years, takes the concerns, the things that are truly relevant and important to her right now and really helps her. And I see us as a real helpmate to this woman; to make that complicated, messy life a little bit easier.

On how it feels to edit a magazine that Ellen Levine once edited: It has never felt awkward; I feel like I stand on Ellen’s shoulders and some other wonderful editors before me who I think created something that American women really turn to. And I think Ellen was pivotal and critical in doing that.

On the history of the Red Dress Awards: Again, turning to past editors, my predecessor, Jane Chesnutt, 13 years ago put together a luncheon to bring together some of the players in the heart disease world. I think at that time she felt that it was a disease that wasn’t getting a lot of attention, but it’s so pervasive and so huge in the lives of our women that she felt that it needed to be brought more into the open. And again, I’m standing on her shoulders; I think what I did when I came on four years ago was that I saw that the disease was still the number one killer of women and while a lot of progress has been made, it hasn’t gone far enough. I wanted to put more resources and more thinking and more pages against this disease.

On whether the power of the brand and the ink on paper magazine made it easier for the Red Dress Awards to be recognized and connect with readers: Yes, very much so. The amount of space that we devote to this topic, again, all year-round, I think our readers now associate us with the Awards. They don’t see it as simply a marketing cause, they see it as something that we’re really deeply passionate about and I think our readership has come to recognize that.

On how as editor-in-chief she maintains balance with the many diverse topics that the magazine covers: I’m both blessed and cursed to edit a magazine that covers many, many topics. (Laughs) Health and food, by far, are our two most important topics. We do a lot of research and Hearst has been very supportive of that. I’m a real research geek and Hearst has been very supportive of me and my desire to understand our reader. So, health and food are the two biggest topics.

On if she could instantly strike the magazine with a magic wand and turn it into a person, who that person would be, herself or some composite woman: I don’t think she would be me, although I come pretty close. I’m a suburban New Jersey mom like many of my readers. (Laughs) But I think that she’s a lot of women. Again, when you have an audience this big, she can be married or not married. She can be an empty-nester or a young mom. She can have kids or not have kids. So, I think that she’s a lot of different people.

On whether the Bible verse that remains today, even after all of the changes to the magazine, is part of its DNA and will never leave: I would say that it’s definitely part of the DNA that will never leave Woman’s Day. We have it there and we have no intention of taking it away. What’s important about the magazine is that we’re not a Christian magazine; we embrace many, many different viewpoints in the magazine and always have. But the Bible verse is intrinsic to who we are and what we are.

On the biggest stumbling block that she’s had to face: For me personally, I think my biggest stumbling block happened about four years ago when I started at this magazine and my publisher at the time told me that in a week I had to make a speech in front of about 500 people. (Laughs) That was a big stumbling block for someone who had never done any public speaking.

On the most pleasant moment so far that she’s had working at Woman’s Day: There have been so many pleasant moments that I can’t even begin to list them. I think getting this job in the first place was such a wonderful experience and I’m really deeply grateful for the opportunity that David Carey gave me four years ago. There have been some moments that have been sort of mindboggling. Last year standing next to Elvis Costello on the red carpet at the Red Dress Awards; I don’t think I’ve ever put up a Facebook post that’s gotten more likes than that one did. (Laughs) It was pretty amazing.

On what has kept Woman’s Day vibrant throughout the years: I think that we work really hard to stay relevant to our readers. When I mentioned research before, that’s definitely part of what we do. Women’s service magazines can tilt into evergreen territory very quickly and I think that we really work hard to make sure that doesn’t happen with Woman’s Day. We make sure that we’re relevant to the moment; our health coverage; in telling women what to cook for dinner; just the things that we put into the magazine, we’re reflecting their lives back at them and really trying to understand where they are.

On whether she can ever envision a day when there is no print component to Woman’s Day and it’s digital only: No, never. I just can’t. I think it’s important for a legacy brand like ours to continue in print. I believe our readers want it very much.

On whether she believes in the future of print: Yes, I do. I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing right now if I didn’t. I believe the question has almost become moot in the last few years. Readers have shown us time and time again that print magazines are here to stay.

On how she got into the magazine business: A long time ago I graduated from college and moved to New York City and got a job at Redbook magazine. My first job was with Hearst and I have just been passionate about magazines my whole life and was a big consumer of Seventeen and Time magazine and Cricket magazine. I was able to get started and find a job and stay in this industry for almost 28 years now.

On what motivates her to get out of bed every morning: What I love about running a magazine is when I’m sitting in a meeting with my staff and suddenly we click on an idea and then all of us are firing up on all cylinders and this idea is being batted around and we’re figuring out how we’re going to do it and how it’s going to be pertinent and relevant and those are the moments that I live for, as I’m sure most editors do.

On what someone would find her doing if they showed up at her house one evening unexpectedly: As I said before, I’m a suburban New Jersey mom; I have two daughters, one of whom is at home and the other is in college. In the evenings, you might not even catch me at home. I might be driving my kid around or I do a ton of volunteering; I might be making dinner or trying to get my husband to do it. (Laughs again) Like my readers, I have a big, messy complicated life and I think if you were to come over in the evening you would catch a glimpse of that.

On anything else she’d like to add: I thank you for this opportunity. I think that Woman’s Day is a really special brand and I think that we speak to a mass market audience, but I think that we connect with her in a very special way.

On what keeps her up at night: (Laughs) Not much keeps me up at night. I’m usually pretty exhausted by the end of the day, to the point where my 12-year-old actually comes and tucks me in at night. Nothing keeps me from falling asleep.

And now the lightly edited transcript of the Mr. Magazine™ interview with Susan Spencer, Editor-In-Chief, Woman’s Day.

Samir Husni: When you hear the words Woman’s Day, what comes to your mind? Having a magazine that has always been a status quo on the newsstand; everybody has always known it and seen it and every woman has been in touch with the magazine on a regular basis, but what does Woman’s Day mean today?

Susan Spencer: When I think about our reader, she’s the average American woman. I think that’s the simple answer to who she is. But in reality I believe it’s a lot more complicated than that because she’s a lot more complicated and she has this wonderful, big, joyous, messy life and I think that the magazine today is reflecting that. And we’re adjusting her concerns and giving her solutions for all of the things that make her life messy, whether it’s wanting to get dinner on the table or not being sure of what clothes to buy in the store or house concerns, which are huge for our readers.

Woman’s Day today, as it has done for many years, takes the concerns, the things that are truly relevant and important to her right now and really helps her. And I see us as a real helpmate to this woman; to make that complicated, messy life a little bit easier.

Samir Husni: I asked Ellen Levine once how she felt when Woman’s Day came to Hearst; did it feel like a reunion or a homecoming? Do you ever have an awkward feeling that you’re editing a magazine that Ellen Levine once edited?

Susan Spencer: It has never felt awkward; I feel like I stand on Ellen’s shoulders and some other wonderful editors before me who I think created something that American women really turn to. And I think Ellen was pivotal and critical in doing that. So, I definitely stand on their shoulders, but I’m also moving it forward in my own way, with lots and lots of support from Ellen. I feel very grateful to work with her.

Samir Husni: I know you have a big event coming up on February 9, the Red Dress Awards. Can you tell me a little bit about the history of the Red Dress Awards and why it’s such a big event for Woman’s Day?

Susan Spencer: Again, turning to past editors, my predecessor, Jane Chesnutt, 13 years ago put together a luncheon to bring together some of the players in the heart disease world. I think at that time she felt that it was a disease that wasn’t getting a lot of attention, but it’s so pervasive and so huge in the lives of our women that she felt that it needed to be brought more into the open.

And again, I’m standing on her shoulders; I think what I did when I came on four years ago was that I saw that the disease was still the number one killer of women and while a lot of progress has been made, it hasn’t gone far enough. I wanted to put more resources and more thinking and more pages against this disease.

And because it’s so widespread and because our audience is so enormous, we have 16 million women, it touches everybody. Many of the cancers absolutely touch a lot of lives, but heart disease is different; it’s really, really widespread and pervasive in both men and women.

So, I put some more pages and ink against this idea; we started a column called “Live Longer and Stronger,” which is a monthly column, so we don’t just run our heart disease coverage in February, it’s year-round.

Out of that column we grew an editorial franchise called “Live Longer and Stronger.” And basically what we do is we go out and find a group of women, four to five women, every year that are at high risk or have heart disease and we put them on a plan with our nutritionist, Joy Bauer, and help them lose weight and lower their risk factors.

This program sprang out of our desire to bring to our readers what we’re saying in the magazine and really activate it for them. We just finished up with our third group and they’re going to be onstage February 9 at the Red Dress Awards and they bring a lot of heart to the event and a real sense that the event is more than just honoring the doctors and the researchers; it’s also about the women who are being impacted by this disease every day.

Samir Husni: Do you think the power of the brand; the power of the ink on paper magazine, made it easier for the Red Dress Awards to be recognized and known, to actually connect with the audience, with those women?

Susan Spencer: Yes, very much so. The amount of space that we devote to this topic, again, all year-round, I think our readers now associate us with the Awards. They don’t see it as simply a marketing cause, they see it as something that we’re really deeply passionate about and I think our readership has come to recognize that.

And not just heart disease, I have to say. We’ve had a halo effect, where it’s impacted all of our health coverage, which has become increasingly popular in recent years with our readership.

Samir Husni: As an editor-in-chief, how do you balance the health coverage with the food coverage with the everyday life coverage and as you continue to move Woman’s Day forward, what’s the secret recipe? What are the ingredients that you put together to create this magazine called Woman’s Day?

Susan Spencer: I’m both blessed and cursed to edit a magazine that covers many, many topics. (Laughs) Health and food, by far, are our two most important topics. We do a lot of research and Hearst has been very supportive of that. I’m a real research geek and Hearst has been very supportive of me and my desire to understand our reader. So, health and food are the two biggest topics.

As I said in the beginning of our conversation, she has concerns that range from “is this the right mascara” to “what am I going to put on the table for dinner.” So, we try to address those and we have a rich balance of content. I try to put together a magazine every month with the help of an amazing team that reflects back at her with all of these things. So, it’s a little bit of a balance certainly.

Samir Husni: If I gave you a magic wand that could instantly humanize the magazine, turn it miraculously into a person, who would that person be? Would it be you or some composite woman?

Susan Spencer: I don’t think she would be me, although I come pretty close. I’m a suburban New Jersey mom like many of my readers. (Laughs) But I think that she’s a lot of women. Again, when you have an audience this big, she can be married or not married. She can be an empty-nester or a young mom. She can have kids or not have kids. So, I think that she’s a lot of different people.

What we do when we think about her is not think about the details of her life; we think about her in terms of her values and I think that’s what pulls our readers together and that’s why they come to Woman’s Day because we do reflect her values back at her. We think about what’s really important to her. We know that her family is number one; they’re absolutely the most important thing that she values.

She’s also deeply involved with friends and her community. We’ve had a lot of success in the magazine with columns that show readers doing good deeds and helping other people. Her faith is also something that is important to some of our readers and drives them.

So, we think of her in those terms as opposed to what she is or who she is. It’s really more of the shared values that all of these women have.

Samir Husni: If you feel blessed and cursed because of the variety of the content; do you feel even more blessed and cursed for having all of these women rolled into one? (Laughs)

Susan Spencer: (Laughs too) No, I think it’s wonderful.

Samir Husni: One thing I’ve noticed over the years with Woman’s Day, with all of the changes that have taken place, that Bible verse is still there.

Susan Spencer: Yes.

Samir Husni: Is it part of the DNA that will never leave Woman’s Day?

Susan Spencer: I would say that it’s definitely part of the DNA that will never leave Woman’s Day. We have it there and we have no intention of taking it away. What’s important about the magazine is that we’re not a Christian magazine; we embrace many, many different viewpoints in the magazine and always have. But the Bible verse is intrinsic to who we are and what we are.

Samir Husni: It’s a positive lift-up verse then?

Susan Spencer: Certainly. It’s meant to put a little stamp on the table of contents and the magazine to give women a lovely moment that’s important to them.

Samir Husni: You’ve been at Woman’s Day now a little over four years; as you approach your next anniversary with the magazine, what has been the most challenging stumbling block that you’ve had to face and how did you overcome it?

Susan Spencer: For me personally, I think my biggest stumbling block happened about four years ago when I started at this magazine and my publisher at the time told me that in a week I had to make a speech in front of about 500 people. (Laughs) That was a big stumbling block for someone who had never done any public speaking. But with training and lots of support, I got through it.

Samir Husni: And what has been the most pleasant moment; if you can identify THE most pleasant moment so far in your four years?

Susan Spencer: There have been so many pleasant moments that I can’t even begin to list them. I think getting this job in the first place was such a wonderful experience and I’m really deeply grateful for the opportunity that David Carey gave me four years ago.

There have been some moments that have been sort of mindboggling. Last year standing next to Elvis Costello on the red carpet at the Red Dress Awards; I don’t think I’ve ever put up a Facebook post that’s gotten more likes than that one did. (Laughs) It was pretty amazing.

I presented an award two years ago to President Bill Clinton and last year to the head of the FDA, so we’ve really had some wonderful moments just in the context of Red Dress. And some wonderful moments just putting issues together and having stories that really resonate with our readers and with us and that makes every issue we do worth it. So, there have been a lot of wonderful moments.

Samir Husni: When I was in college in the early 80s, Woman’s Day was referred to as one of the seven sisters. Today, we’ve lost some of the seven sisters, they’ve aged and disappeared; some have renewed their energy and are still alive and kicking and doing very well. What’s the secret of Woman’s Day that has kept it vibrant over the years?

Susan Spencer: I think that we work really hard to stay relevant to our readers. When I mentioned research before, that’s definitely part of what we do. Women’s service magazines can tilt into evergreen territory very quickly and I think that we really work hard to make sure that doesn’t happen with Woman’s Day. We make sure that we’re relevant to the moment; our health coverage; in telling women what to cook for dinner; just the things that we put into the magazine, we’re reflecting their lives back at them and really trying to understand where they are.

I’d also like to say about the magazine; we’re not an aspirational magazine, we’re an inspirational magazine. We’re not showing her the life that we think she should have; we’re celebrating the life that she has right now. And I think that goes a long way toward keeping us relevant. I’d like to share a quote with you that I got from a reader; she started following me on Instagram and in the comments she thanked me for the magazine and was really excited about it and she said that it helped her to be “the woman that she really was, rather than the woman marketers said that she was.” And I really like that. It’s very nice.

Samir Husni: As you get all of the social media interaction: the Instagram comments; the likes on Facebook; can you ever envision a day when Woman’s Day has no print component and is digital only?

Susan Spencer: No, never. I just can’t. I think it’s important for a legacy brand like ours to continue in print. I believe our readers want it very much. What’s happening in digital and on the website is amazing and wonderful, but I think that the print edition will always be core to our brand and core to what we do.

Samir Husni: Do you believe in the future of print?

Susan Spencer: Yes, I do. I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing right now if I didn’t. I believe the question has almost become moot in the last few years. Readers have shown us time and time again that print magazines are here to stay. I love print magazines and I always have; it’s how I got into the business and I can’t imagine them going away.

Samir Husni: How did you get into the business?

Susan Spencer: A long time ago I graduated from college and moved to New York City and got a job at Redbook magazine. My first job was with Hearst and I have just been passionate about magazines my whole life and was a big consumer of Seventeen and Time magazine and Cricket magazine. I was able to get started and find a job and stay in this industry for almost 28 years now. I feel very fortunate.

Samir Husni: After 28 years in the industry, what motivates you to get out of bed every morning and still be excited about your job?

Susan Spencer: A couple of things. First of all, I’m a natural problem solver; it’s something that I really enjoy doing and I really love a good challenge. So, that definitely gets me up in the morning, knowing that I have a pile of problems that I have to solve.

What I love about running a magazine is when I’m sitting in a meeting with my staff and suddenly we click on an idea and then all of us are firing up on all cylinders and this idea is being batted around and we’re figuring out how we’re going to do it and how it’s going to be pertinent and relevant and those are the moments that I live for, as I’m sure most editors do. And it’s being in the company of people who are just so creative and know their brand and their audience so well that you can really come up with these amazing ideas and figure out how to execute them.

Samir Husni: If I were to show up unexpectedly to your home one evening, what would I find you doing, reading a magazine; reading your iPad; watching TV, or something else?

Susan Spencer: You’re always invited. (Laughs) As I said before, I’m a suburban New Jersey mom; I have two daughters, one of whom is at home and the other is in college. In the evenings, you might not even catch me at home. I might be driving my kid around or I do a ton of volunteering; I might be making dinner or trying to get my husband to do it. (Laughs again) Like my readers, I have a big, messy complicated life and I think if you were to come over in the evening you would catch a glimpse of that.

Samir Husni: How often do you cook the recipes that you feature in the magazine?

Susan Spencer: A lot, although my food director wants me to cook them more than I do. It’s more a reflection of the time I have to actually cook. It’s one of the secret benefits of being editor-in-chief of Woman’s Day; I can run up to an incredibly accomplished and experienced food director and ask what should I make for dinner? (Laughs) And she has an answer for me.

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

Susan Spencer: I thank you for this opportunity. I think that Woman’s Day is a really special brand and I think that we speak to a mass market audience, but I think that we connect with her in a very special way. I love talking about the magazine and reminding people that we have scale and we have voice and I think it’s a pretty amazing group of women that we speak to, so it’s a real privilege.

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

Susan Spencer: (Laughs) Not much keeps me up at night. I’m usually pretty exhausted by the end of the day, to the point where my 12-year-old actually comes and tucks me in at night. Nothing keeps me from falling asleep.

Samir Husni: Thank you.