The Pubcast - Interviews With Online Publishing Professionals

Bobby O'Neil interviews Andy Swift, entertainment director at Hollywood Life, about the move from print to digital in journalism, how to build a personal portfolio, and how to collaborate with fan blogs and feed the Internet's frenzy for celebrity news. This interview was recorded on April 10, 2013.

Katelyn Eelman interviews Amira Silver-Swartz, an order fulfillment representative at Hachette Book Group. As e-books and audiobooks proliferate the industry, the skills necessary to distribute and track these products and provide customer service has changed. Silver-Swartz discusses how to navigate this transition. This interview was recorded on April 12, 2013.

Rose Pleuler interviews Anna Pollock-Nelson, senior digital production coordinator for MIT Press about the publishing company's digital initiatives group. Pollock-Nelson ensures electronic vendors receive not only different e-book formats, but also the unique metadata necessary for a book to be properly catalogued, marketed, and sold. She is also involved in the composition of the e-book files as well, especially image-intensive or complex layouts. She discusses with Pleuler the pace of the e-book business, what qualifies as a well-designed website, and her involvement in the art and design work of the poetry journal site Interrupture. This interview was recorded on April 18, 2013.

Allison Racicot interviews Jeff Ullrich, the co-founder and CEO of Earwolf Media, which creates and produces original audio comedy content. Publisher of dozens of podcasts, Ullrich discusses the unique nature of podcasting, the qualities that make a good show, and how new sponsors are found. "Talk radio is disposable," says Ullrich; "With our podcasts, we try to create more evergreen content." This interview was recorded on March 26, 2013.

Hillary Kody interviews Patrick Mehr, co-founder of Plunkett Lake Press, publisher of literary non-fiction, including biographies, memoirs, essays and first-hand accounts of historical events. The move from traditional to electronic publishing offers an opportunity to re-examine the rights and royalties processes, which Mehr as Plunkett's rights, digitization, and marketing manager navigates with both original works and the conversion and redistribution of print books for Amazon, Apple, Kobo, and Nook platforms. This interview was recorded on April 8, 2013.

Rachel Goodman interviews Ian Lamont, founder of i30media and publisher of the In 30 Minutes technology guides. Lamont has held a variety of roles in his decades in the publishing industry, from scriptwriter for Taiwan's China Television Company to senior editor for Computerworld.com to CEO of mobile startup Invantory. In this interview, he reflects on lessons learned and how they have informed the principles he has adapted for the "lean media" publishing model he has brought to his line of e-books, as well as what has worked and not worked in marketing his latest ventures on Amazon.com. This interview was recorded on March 28, 2013.

Nisreen Galloway interviews Tim Riley — Emerson College professor, NPR critic, and creator of the Riley Rock Index, a site he built in Dreamweaver instead of one of the more popular content management systems like WordPress or Movable Type. In this episode, he ponders how publishing tools are being redesigned from the ground up and how more content developers need to learn from Google as an advertising platform and Huffington Post as a publishing platform. This interview was recorded on April 10, 2013.

In this week's episode of the Pubcast, Michaela Weglinski interviews Alex Pearlman, digital product manager for Boston.com at the Boston Globe. Historically a print publication, the Globe is leading the way with responsive design, user engagement, and a variety of media, including the alt-rock online streaming radio station, RadioBDC. In this interview, Pearlman reflects on the evolving importance of bloggers, the role readers play in consuming the news, and the future of print news. This interview was recorded on April 4, 2013.

Welcome to the debut episode of The Pubcast, featuring interviews with online publishing professionals. This week, Devan Norman interviews Lisa Olson, freelance magazine writer and wedding blogger for Something Pretty, about how to blog about such a visual topic, how social media can help, and copyright issues involved in acquiring media for her site. This interview was recorded on April 18, 2013.