Publication Management During Uncertainty

by Kate Mazade

As quickly as news changes, so does the news industry. One day, we're hustling and bustling on the campaign trail or at a major sporting event, and the next, we're Zooming our coworkers and tracking down epidemiologists from our couch. 

The architecture industry, however, doesn't move quite this fast. Projects stem from a proactive business model: they start with a plan and end, years later, with a building. The media industry reacts and ends — hours or days or sometimes minutes later — with a story. This constant speed requires journalists to be nimble, and their editors to be more so. 

In other words, media leaders must be able to think on their feet and adapt to whatever changes may come. And they come often and in full force. 

“The thing that really hit me by 2008 recession was that change was the new normal,” says Laurie Sprague, former managing editor of Architectural Digest. “Nothing ever stayed the same. You think you have it all under control and you've got a great system. And then all of a sudden, there's a new edict from corporate or publishing, and it just throws everything upside down, and you've got to start over again.” 

A self-proclaimed “utility infielder,” Sprague has held management positions at AD, Glamour, and Galerie, and now serves as a freelance brand ambassador. Her new job involves finding creative solutions for publications weathering the instability of economic shifts, personnel changes, and corporate restructuring. 

“If you don't have an appetite for change, I think the media is a really tough business to be in these days,” Sprague says, predicting that change will only increase in the future. She sees the publication as a whole, looking at the bigger picture of what it needs to function. 

“Whether you're an executive editor or an art director or an editor-in-chief or a managing editor, you need to know budgets a little bit, to understand money,” Sprague says. “Because at the end of it, as fun as it all is, it's all about money. It's really being able to manage budgets and resources.”

All publications need to balance their editorial and advertising content. While those halves can be adversarial at times, the publication needs both to be successful. That means leaders must look at both sides when creating a publication, as reminded by Wanda Lau, the editor who oversees business, tech and op-ed articles at ARCHITECT, as well as host of The Architect Podcast Network.

“Leaders on the editorial side of publishing, at least, are not expected to close the business deal — that is, to sell the product or win the project,” Lau says. “But you do have to support those critical aspects of your publication while maintaining the integrity of your editorial content.” 

But a publication's success isn't solely dependent on the editorial and sales sides working together. It also depends on the staff working together — even through virtual meetings and long email chains. The manager's approach to teamwork goes a long way in generating a collaborative atmosphere with both in- and out-of-office contributors. 

“Leadership is about supporting and elevating your team members, and cultivating a work environment in which people can freely pitch ideas and contribute to conversations,” Lau says. “Ultimately, it is the writer, not me, who gets the byline. A good leader is happy to stand offstage and let their stars shine.”

Compared with architecture firms that are accustomed to operating in teams, publications have to put a little more effort into working collaboratively, actively listening to everyone involved. “Writers and reporters don't really work in teams,” says Jack Morley, managing editor of The Architect's Newspaper. “They're individual workers. It can be a challenge to coordinate and get everybody to work together sometimes, so it is really important to listen to what everybody wants to do, needs to do, how everybody else works before you try to tell them what to do.”

Morley worked up to his leadership role, from staff writer to web editor to managing editor. But others start as leaders, creating a publication and growing it from a passion to an idea to a full project. Autonomy comes with its own set of leadership challenges, says Julia Gamolina, founder and editorial director of Madame Architect. 

“When you're working for somebody, you're looking to them to make the big decisions, and you're looking to them to learn,” Gamolina says. “Trust that you know what's best for the project. Sometimes what's best for it is stepping back and listening to others. It's not always going to mean that you have all the answers, but trust yourself to know that you'll make the right decision, no matter what comes at you.”

Whether that change is a new project or new staff, an economic crash or a global pandemic; we all must adapt. The architecture and media businesses will change in their own ways, as will every other industry. We don’t know what’s coming next; and the further we move into our careers, the less we may be able to define them. We have to be flexible, taking on whatever roles get the job done. 

But that’s okay, Sprague says. “Just have your sneakers on and be ready. You just don't know what's coming around the corner.”