Welcome to Technology for Publishing’s roundup of news highlighting women’s roles, contributions, and achievements in the evolving media business. This latest installment covers Elle‘s “Women Who Rule Silicon Valley” issue, a new content channel focused on issues that matter to women, how Rebecca Wesson Darwin grew Garden & Gun magazine through hard times, Vox.com VP Melissa Bell on merging editorial and tech, and more.
- Tops in tech While Silicon Valley has been under heavy fire lately for not doing enough to address long-standing gender inequalities, Elle‘s July issue celebrates powerful women making their mark in leadership roles across the tech industry—from star software engineers to billionaire founders of startup companies. In its cover feature, “Women Who Rule Silicon Valley,” 10 women were honored as the year’s most influential women in technology (pictured), many of whom were nominated by last year’s honorees, according to 7×7. At a dinner to recognize their achievements, Elle EIC Robbie Myers said, “The truth is that, at Elle, we’re interested in two things: One is women who are making the culture, and the other is how women accrue power and how they use it once they have it.”
- Tune in Vice and sponsor Unilever recently announced plans to launch Broadly, a new content channel geared toward women’s issues. According to Business Insider, targeted content will appear across Vice properties as well as on YouTube, Snapchat, and television. Vice Creative Director Eddy Moretti said Shannon Kelley, Broadly’s publisher, and about 30 other women at Vice saw a void and got the ball rolling. “There is nothing like this out there,” Kelley said. “There is no video-driven content platform for women that speaks about the issues that matter to us.”
- Weathering the storm Publishing veteran Rebecca Wesson Darwin, president and CEO of The Allée Group, recently spoke with Fast Company about the hurdles she had to clear to get her company’s Garden & Gun Southern lifestyle magazine off the ground back in 2007—and to grow it into a national publication through both the recession that followed and ongoing shifts in the media landscape. Darwin, who previously worked at GQ and Fortune and was the first female publisher of the New Yorker, recalls the title got off to a good start with a circulation of 150,000 at launch—something pretty much unheard of for a regional magazine. And though the economy spiraled downward after that, Darwin and her editorial team managed to increase readership, something she attributes to a solid foundation of quality content and “loyal followers.” Today, Garden & Gun has more than 1.2 million readers and industry accolades including ASME awards under its belt. Not only that, it ranks second in the online category, after National Geographic. For some valuable lessons Darwin’s learned along the way, check out the full interview on Fast Company’s site.
- Next-generation talent For Melissa Bell, Vox Media’s new vice president of growth and analytics, it doesn’t get any better than a recent hack week session in downtown Philly, where she moves around the stations of 90 or so employees working on the Next Big Innovation. Bell, co-founder of Vox.com, started out as a journalist but moved over to the technology side while working at The Washington Post, which provided her with a skill set that’s highly sought after in today’s digital world—and that’s behind her leading role at Vox, according to a recent Digiday “explainer.” One example of her unique ability to combine editorial and tech is “card stacks,” a feature she developed to help readers easily get caught up on stories. Such innovations, the report said, are behind Vox.com’s rapid growth: Since launching in 2014, it has seen more than 12 million multiplatform unique visitors. “It’s one of the things that always attracted me about Vox Media,” Bell said. “You don’t have to pick sides.”
- Hiring news roundup Hearst appointed Jana Gale executive creative director for its Men’s Group marketing unit, Melissa Block is stepping down as the longtime host of NPR’s All Things Considered to serve as an NPR special correspondent, Farrah Storr will leave her post as editor of Women’s Health to take on the role of editor at Cosmopolitan, current Cosmopolitan Editor in Chief Louise Court was named director of editorial strategy and content for Hearst Magazines U.K., Jessica Davies was appointed Digiday’s U.K. editor, Hearst Business Media named Denielle deWynter vice president of finance, The New York Times appointed Kaylee King-Balentine director of its native advertising unit T Brand Studio International in London, and Linda Douglass is departing Atlantic Media to head global communications at Bloomberg Media Group.
Let us know in the comments if there are any other recent stories or career moves you’d like us to include in our next Women in Media roundup.
Photo: Drew Altizer/7×7
Technology for Publishing’s Women in Media blog highlights the news and achievements of female leaders and role models in the publishing and media industry. Look for our in-depth profiles and interviews of top women to watch. Is there someone you’d like to nominate for an upcoming Q&A? Drop us a note!
Posted by: Monica Sambataro
