Publishing Scotland « Publishing by Degrees

PPA Scottish Magazine Awards 2011

24/01/2012 by rfharrison Leave a comment

The 2011 PPA Scottish Magazine Awards had a special significance for MSc Publishing students this year. Five of us were invited to the annual lavish, red-carpet event where the cream of the Magazine Publishing industry gathered to celebrate the best in the industry.

Magazine Publishing Postgraduate of the Year was Pamela Jane Morris (pictured), graduate of MSc Publishing. This is an exclusive award, open to students who have graduated from MSc Publishing. The event was a great opportunity to get advice on working in the publishing industry. Lecturers advised that it is necessary to be noticed and to make the most of opportunities. Nominees for the Magazine Publishing award recommended applying for internships as soon as possible and taking advantage of any potential placements. Marion Sinclair (Chief Executive of Publishing Scotland) also recommended speaking up and making suggestions when on placements. (Students on MSc Publishing undertake a placement as part of their publishing studies.)

The Scottish Magazine Awards reward excellence in magazine publishing. It was interesting to see the range of magazine publishing in Scotland, trade titles, business to business and charity titles. Two of the most successful publishers of the night were DC Thomson and The Big Issue, both winning several prizes. The overall winner of the evening was Animal Planet, published by DC Thomson.

All in all, it was a truly rewarding evening!

Filed under Events, MSc Publishing News Tagged with Award, Magazine, PPA, Publishing Scotland

My Fair London

03/05/2011 by emmasothern Leave a comment

After the stress of live projects and work placements MSc. Publishing students decided to blow off some steam, London style. True, we were heading to southern pastures for the London Book Fair but we also saw it as a chance to spend some time together before parting ways for the summer. And we weren’t disappointed.

Around 15 students went down to the fair, 11 of which stayed in the ever-reliable Travel Lodge. We got the train down on Monday morning and, after a brief confusion over which Travel Lodge we were actually staying in, a few of us decided to visit the fair before the next day’s activities. Monday evening at Earls Court was certainly a lot calmer than the following day. We managed to get our bearings and our badges without being too overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the building and picked up our trusty guide of seminars for the next two days.

The CEO keynote debate on Tuesday morning was entitled “Digital Revolution or Digital Evolution?” Attendees were treated to the thoughts of bigwigs such as John Makinson, CEO of Penguin and Brian Murray, CEO of HarperCollins. The consensus appeared to be that the changes in the publishing chain have been a hybrid of revolutionary and evolutionary factors.

The focus for the LBF was on Russia and of course, on digital publishing. It seems that one cannot mention publishing nowadays without the D word coming up and the number of stalls dedicated to digital devices, along with the emphasis on “going digital” in almost every talk, was testament to this fact.

Although we did go to several talks and tried our networking skills at the Publishing Scotland stand (the handing out of cards aided to some extent by whiskey and wine!), our main activity was simply taking it all in. The fair was a great opportunity to witness the theory we have learned being put into practice and to prepare ourselves for the day when it will be our turn to man the colourful stands.

Of course, the trip wasn’t all work and no play…we had a great time doing the touristy thing in London and really enjoyed our time out in the evenings…perhaps a little bit too much in some cases! We were reluctant to leave our beloved Travel Lodge on Wednesday afternoon and it seemed that the trip passed all too quickly. All in all, it was a brilliant and informative experience – I’m looking forward to next year already!

Arriving at Earls Court – © Emma Sothern

Filed under Events, MSc Publishing News Tagged with book fair, Edinburgh Napier University, HarperCollins, London Book Fair, MSc Publishing, Napier, Penguin, Postgraduate Publishing, Publishing Scotland, study Publishing Scotland

A couple of Spring 2011 highlights

09/04/2011 by swadsworth Leave a comment

The Spring trimester is a busy one for Edinburgh Napier Publishing students, but also offers some fun opportunities.

On 21 February 2011, several students from Edinburgh Napier attended Publishing Scotland’s annual conference.

This year’s theme was “Publish Locally, Sell Globally”.

It was a wonderful opportunity for us to meet professionals in the Scottish publishing industry.

We heard speeches from Anne MacColl, CEO of Scottish Development International, on how to market the Scottish publishing industry to the world market. Anne suggested that Scottish publishers need to embrace new digital content and publish in foreign languages to increase their international market. Read more of this post

Filed under Events Tagged with Publishing Edinburgh Napier University, Publishing Scotland, study Publishing Scotland, world book day

Publishing Scotland Conference 2010

25/02/2010 by frontlist Leave a comment

MSc Publishing staff with friends Jim MacNeilage (Copyright Licencing Agency) and Kathy Crawford (PPA Scotland) at yesterday’s sold-out Publishing Scotland’s annual conference at the Scottish Storytelling Centre in Edinburgh.

Fiona Hyslop, Minister for Culture and External Affairs, Scottish Government, delivered the keynote speech. The day-long programme included topical issues affecting the industry today, as well as areas that may impact on publishing in the coming years.

As part of SCOB, Edinburgh Napier University, we were pleased to sponsor the lunch and, as you can see below, the drinks event afterwards was equally enjoyable! As a network member of Publishing Scotland, we are closely engaged with Scotland’s foremost trade association, representing over 80 publishing companies.

It was good to catch up with friends, industry contacts and alumni – our students have a fantastic rate of employment in Scottish publishing, even during this time of recession! In fact, three out of the last four jobs advertised by Edinburgh University Press have been secured by our Publishing students!

A large part of this is due to the Placement module (trimester 2). So as well as catching up with all the major issues affecting the industry, we were also glad to hear glowing reports from our host companies – and, of course, to use the opportunity and our contacts to arrange placements for our current students!

Thanks to Marion (CE of Publishing Scotland and formerly a lecturer on our Publishing programme) and all the team for a really informative and enjoyable day!