Tag: PPA Scotland

Featured event: Magfest

One of the first events I attended after starting the MSc Publishing course was Magfest, a self described ‘international magazine festival and conference’ that is held in September every year. Organised by PPA Scotland (the Professional Publishers Association Scotland), the event is attended by magazine publishers and enthusiasts, featuring a range of international speakers.

Having just started my course, this was an excellent opportunity to meet other publishing professionals while hearing from some excellent speakers. Continue reading “Featured event: Magfest”

Arusa wins Postgraduate Publisher of the Year!

arusa-qureshi-2Arusa Qureshi has won Postgraduate Publisher of the Year at the recent Scottish Magazine Awards.

Run by the Professional Publishers Association (PPA), the Scottish Magazine Awards is the premier celebration of the talent within Scotland’s vibrant magazine media sector.

PPA Scotland Business Manager, Nikki Simpson, said: “This Award recognises the close ties developed with Edinburgh Napier University, the first UK university to achieve PPA accreditation for a Publishing course.”

The judges said they “expect great things from Arusa and can’t wait to see where the magazine world leads her – and where she leads it!”

Arusa received a Carnegie Cameron Bursary in 2015–16 to complete our MSc Magazine Publishing at Edinburgh Napier University.

Arusa graduated in October 2016 and is already working at The List magazine in Edinburgh.

We are also proud of the other three 2016 Publishing graduates who were shortlisted for the Award: Scott Park (working at Shout Magazine, DC Thomson), Fiona Goodbody (working at Sustrans) and Caoilfhionn Maguire (now working at House of Coco Magazine, and freelance travel writer).

All winners here: http://www.ppa.co.uk/events/scottishmagazineawards2016/winners/

On winning the award Arusa said: “I was thrilled and incredibly grateful to have won the Postgraduate of the Year Award. Being shortlisted alongside such talented people in the industry was a real honour and for that, I owe great thanks to PPA Scotland, the judges and my tutors. I hope that I’ll be able to contribute positively to the magazine publishing industry in the future.”
    – Arusa Qureshi, Postgraduate Publisher of the Year, 2016

Huge congratulations, Arusa!

Heather Shearer

Screen Shot 2016-02-01 at 12.04.02Hi! My name is Heather and I’m currently an MSc Magazine Publishing student at Edinburgh Napier University. I completed my undergraduate degree in Politics and International Relations at the University of Aberdeen. After graduating, I went on a 6-month trip, (which casually turned into a 28-month trip), trekking through the Himalayas, exploring South East Asia, and then on to gallivanting around Australia.

Eventually, the lure of Scotland, haggis and Irn Bru was too much, and I returned to the UK to complete an internship at The Sunday Times Magazine. This inspired my decision to apply for the MSc and enter the world of magazines.

Thus far in my masters course, I have been drawn into the commercial side of magazine publishing, with a focus on advertising and marketing. I’m currently the Head of Sales and Advertising for our student project, Buzz magazine, and I’m also interning with PPA Scotland. However, I’ve also been enjoying the chance to dabble in writing and design.

Outwith University, I occupy my time exploring the coffee shops of Edinburgh, having dinner parties with my lovely flatmates and making vegetarian curries. Also, I think music festivals are the best places in the world.

You can find me on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Julia Margaret Crawford

I am an MSc Publishing student at Edinburgh Napier University. After spending a year after my MA (Hons) Philosophy reading books and looking for a purpose, discovering this degree seemed like a calling!11952832_10153232048518074_7972856989458771272_o

Since embarking on the course, I’ve found myself to be much more enthusiastic about magazines and design than I had ever considered myself to be – these were not interests that I nurtured during my undergrad. Taking on the role of Production Manager for Buzz magazine was therefore a real step out of my comfort zone and I love it.

Outside of university hours, I am trying to get myself along to as many magazine and publishing related events as possible, recently including the Delayed Gratification Infographics Workshop organised by the Professional Publishers Association (PPA). The rest of my time I tend to use practising yoga, reading books, listening to Radio 4 and sleeping.

Let’s chat! Here’s a link to my Twitter.

Award-winning Year

Happy 2016 everyone!

It’s a new trimester as well as a New Year for us and a good time to reflect on all the various achievements of 2015.

Version 2The main highlights are the successes of our students, and we congratulate again all those who graduated in October. We greatly enjoy hearing about all your new jobs and wish you every happiness in your new careers.

In addition, we were pleased to see a number of students win awards last year! In case you didn’t catch the news first time around, here is a summary:

Danielle Watt
Winner of the University Medal for MSc Publishing
This award goes to the student who achieves the highest academic standard on the programme, with consideration of their overall performance on MSc Publishing.

Stewart McIver
Winner of the University Medal for MSc Publishing
This award goes to the student who achieves the highest academic standard on the programme, with consideration of their overall performance on MSc Magazine Publishing.

Susan Kemp
Winner of the Wiley Blackwell Award
Sponsored by Wiley Blackwell, this prestigious award is in recognition of the graduate of MSc Publishing who has excelled across all modules, not only academically but personally and professionally, and whose drive and determination are highly commended by the entire programme team.

Congratulations all!

Of course, we were also delighted to have so many students and alumni honoured at the recent national PPA Scotland Awards.
Rhiannon Tate won the PPA Scotland Magazine Postgraduate of the Year Award. Due to the close ties developed between PPA Scotland and Edinburgh Napier University, it is an exclusive and competitive award judged by PPA and Publishing programme staff.

Details of the other award-winners and nominees were in the last post: read here.

We congratulate all our students on all their achievements – in their careers and lives – and wish this year’s cohort every success for 2016!

Graduate named Postgraduate of the Year!

IMAG1207At the Magazine industry awards last week, no less than 7 Publishing alumni were shortlisted for national awards.

IMAG1201Recent MSc Publishing graduate Rhiannon Tate scooped the 2015 Award for Magazine Publishing Postgraduate of the Year.

IMAG1202Competing against the very best publishing professionals working in the industry, Publishing students and alumni were nominated in 3 out of 7 individual award categories.

IMAG1203Four of our students – Rachel Cree, Eileen Malone, Seonaid Rafferty and Rhiannon Tate – were nominated in the Publishing Postgraduate of the Year Award.

IMAG1214It was won by Rhiannon Tate, who has just graduated from MSc Publishing.

In the few short months since graduating with her Postgraduate Publishing degree, Rhiannon and a fellow publishing graduate have established an exciting new magazine business.

Out of the six professionals shortlisted for Backstage Star, two were our alumni. It was won by Jade Regulski (MSc Publishing) who is now working at The List magazine.

Emma Wilson (alumni of MSc Publishing) won the only Highly Commended award of the night for her work on the National Trust for Scotland magazine.

Christina McPherson (MSc Magazine Publishing) was shortlisted for Business & Professional Magazine Feature Writer. Christina is a previous winner of the Postgraduate of the Year Award and is now in full-time employment, working at an award winning magazine company here in Edinburgh.

These national Awards are made by the PPA (the Professional Publishers Association), who are the leading trade body for magazine industry in the UK.

We are incredibly proud of each of our students; all are winners in our eyes!

http://staff.napier.ac.uk/News/Pages/NewsDetails.aspx?NewsID=1841

Making Money Online

PPA_MMO_IMAG0150On Thursday we were proud to host PPA Scotland’s
Digital Monetisation seminar. In a packed afternoon, we heard how publishers can make money online.

There was a fantastic line-up of speakers:

  • Eileen McGinley and Laura Brown (pictured), from DC Thomson’s Shout magazine – Connecting video to your print brand and the power of vlogging
  • Gavin Dutch, Kotikan – Extending your brand through mobile apps, with case studies and ideas to put you in the consumers’ shoes
  • Grant Whiteside, Ambergreen – Will programmatic advertising work for you? Grant discussed the opportunities and challenges publishers can face
  • Peter Houston, Flipping Pages Media – A holistic approach to digital publishing, using digital revenues as part of our legacy publishing models

For all the buzz from the day, check out our Twitter feed: https://twitter.com/EdNapierPublish

Afterwards, many speakers and industry professionals examined our digital provision, including the apps, ebooks and online content that we are creating – some of which is still under a partial embrago!

Save the date: all our current projects will be revealed at our annual Publishing Degree Show – on the evening of 21 May (exact time tbc).