Columbia Publishing Course (CPC) Brings Students and Industry Leaders Together

4 C olumbia U niversity RECORD September 26, 2003 Columbia Publishing Course (CPC) Brings Students and Industry Leaders Together review. In June, the rigorous six- job in the company. Mentors BY CAROLINE LADHANI week schedule of classes, semi- work closely with each group to nars and workshops begin. From provide advice and guidance and his summer, 100 lucky dawn till dusk, students work to facilitate discussion. The individuals in pursuit of together at the Journalism Build- hands-on workshop avails stu- Ta magazine or book ing. Lunch meetings at Lerner dents the experience of trying out publishing career enhanced their are regular, and on-campus hous- new concepts in a laboratory skills at the Columbia Publishing ing in nearby Furnald Hall is environment. Course (CPC), held at the Gradu- strongly encouraged. Some sem- “The magic is in seeing how ate School of Journalism. CPC is inars run late into the evening. things work,” said Hess. “Stu- an intensive six-week program of dents get to see all the pieces in classes, seminars and workshops. the process. That can be helpful The curriculum covers all facets in terms of selecting a career of both book and magazine pub- path.” lishing. Students study with an During the magazine work- all-star faculty of top publishing shop, students develop a com- leaders including Penguin plete proposal for a fictitious Press’s Ann Godoff, Bantam magazine. In addition to Dell’s Irwyn Applebaum, researching underserved audi- Esquire’s David Granger and for- ences, creating an editorial mis- mer New Yorker and Talk maga- sion statement, assessing possi- zine’s Tina Brown. ble competitors and identifying “I think of it as publishing boot potential advertisers, they also camp,” said CPC Director Lindy set budgets, develop promotion Hess. “It would probably take a strategies and propose circula- year elsewhere to learn all these tion, not to mention determining Following her presentation, Zadie Smith signs a copy of her book students learn, and it’s not likely the content and editorial voice. White Teeth. they would meet the range of top The group finishes with a five- industry leaders. CPC is a rare year business plan. Following are some well-known CPC alumni (an asterisk denotes opportunity to gain the practical “People have to work with those who have also taught in the program): knowledge, experience and con- each other,” said CPC student fidence one needs to succeed in Tina Brown David Wadler. He was named Dominique Browning, House and Garden most any area of publishing.” publisher of a faux magazine Alison Callahan, HarperCollins and Perennial* The program begins in spring, A hallmark of the program is Pinko, a political satire publica- Ellen Faran, MIT Press* weeks before students actually CPC’s week-long book and tion his workshop group invent- Jay Fielden, Vogue* set foot on College Walk. Stu- magazine workshops. Students ed. “There is a lot of interdepen- Gary Fisketjon, Alfred A. Knopf dents receive several mandatory divide into small groups and dence.” David Granger, Esquire* assignments through the mail, form faux publishing houses. These same students complete Jay Mandel, William Morris Agency* which they send back for faculty Each person tackles a different a similar workshop for book pub- Victor Navasky, The Nation* lishing, in which each group Jordan Pavlin, Alfred A. Knopf* develops six titles for publica- Patricia Strachan, Little, Brown and Company tion, from recruiting authors to Wendy Strothman, The Strothman Agency, formerly of Houghton book jacket design. Using com- Mifflin puter models, they develop Dorothy Wickenden, The New Yorker* financial projections for each Molly Stern, Viking-Penguin.* title and the company itself. In addition, they create subsidiary The Columbia Publishing Course was founded in 1947 as the Rad- rights plans for each book and cliffe Publishing Course in Cambridge. In 2000, the program moved hold a mock rights auction in to Columbia to avail the New York City publishing scene. class. During the final week, students study the finer points of success is a publishing career fair ences tours and chats with compa- new media and its effects on the organized by Hess and held at the ny leaders. print publishing world. Career Time-Life building. The final event is a cocktail guidance sessions also follow. Students also take field trips to party where CPC students mingle Job placement is not guaranteed, HarperCollins, Condé Nast, with faculty and members of the Jann Wenner, editor-in-chief of Rolling Stone, shares experiences but rates for CPC have been typ- RollingStone, and other publish- active alumni network, from with students during a field trip to his facility. ically high. A testament to that ing venues for behind-the-sci- across the spectrum of publishing. Center for Environmental Research and Conservation Discover Clues to Ecosystem elephants did not descend from makes their conservation a high City science and education insti- environmental leaders to BY COLIN MORRIS these ancient prototypes. priority and gives biologists tutions: Columbia, the American address the challenges of con- Rather, they are genetically dis- important clues about how to Museum of Natural History, The serving the Earth's biological cientists involved in tinct from other Asian elephants manage them. New York Botanical Garden, diversity. global efforts to preserve and may have parted ways with CERC is a member of the Wildlife Conservation Society For more information on Sthreatened natural habi- their closest Asian cousins University’s Earth Institute, is a and Wildlife Trust–which CERC, visit their Website at tats may soon elevate the fate of 300,00 years ago. consortium of five New York trains the next generation of www.cerc.columbia.edu the Borneo Elephant to a higher In the 1950s, Borneo ele- priority. New evidence, uncov- phants had been classified as a ered by a research team under separate subspecies of Asian ele- the direction of Don Melnick of phants based on anatomical dif- the Center for Environmental ferences, such as smaller skull Research and Conservation at size and tusk variations. This Columbia (CERC), suggests classification was later changed, that, contrary to prevailing partly because of the popular assumptions, this elephant is not view that these animals had a recent arrival to Borneo. descended from imported Until now, scientists could not domesticated elephants. Until be sure where the Borneo ele- now, there was no solid evidence phants originated, as they had to to refute this belief and no rea- rely on scant fossil evidence to son to prioritize the conservation support their theories. Some of Borneo elephants. thought the elephant had Their new status, as revealed descended from ancient proto- by this study, has profound types of the Pleistocene era or implications for the fate of Bor- from modern relatives intro- neo’s largest mammals. Wild duced just 300-500 years ago. Asian elephant populations are Applying DNA analysis and disappearing as expanding dating techniques to investigate human development disrupts the elephants’ evolutionary his- their migration routes, depletes tory, researchers from the United their food sources, and destroys PHOTO BY MELVIN GUMAL/WCS States, India, and Malaysia, led their habitat. Recognizing these CERC researchers have concluded that Borneo Elephants are an indigenous species, changing by Melnick, found that Borneo elephants as native to Borneo perceptions on the regions’ ecosystem..

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