Junior Debuts NYC Mag

With over 3,000 listings in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences course catalogue, where did Tiana E. Matthews ’08 learn the business of magazine publishing?

The Internet.

“I just went onto Google and said ‘Okay, how do I do it?’” Matthews says. “Anything is possible if you take the initiative and do it. You just take what you can and move with it.”

She would know. At 20 years old, and with no previous business experience, Matthews is starting her own publication, NEU Magazine, set for release in New York this coming February.

The magazine aims to root out and expose the undiscovered talents lurking around every corner of New York City, or, as Matthews says, to “increase the visual acuity of the city.”

Already Matthews has a staff of 20 to 30 people—most based in New York and most at least three to four years older than she is—scouting artists, musicians, and designers.

But although Matthews says she has faced some difficulties so far in assembling a staff and putting together a structure for the magazine, she says that her age has not been the cause of those frustrations. The aspiring media mogul says she knows how to command respect both from her peers at school and her new peers in the business world.

“I don’t think it’s a problem,” Matthews says. “I know what I’m doing.”

She pauses, then corrects herself: “Well, I don’t. I just know what I want.”

What she wants includes a core staff made up of people Matthews’ own age rather than seasoned industry professionals. Matthews says she recognizes the risks of starting any publication, and especially with such a novice group, but neither she nor her top editors has time to think about the possibility of failure.

The group had their first photo shoot, complete with professional models and photographers, at New York’s landmark Chelsea Hotel in mid-October, and is planning another in early December for its premier issue, set to come out in New York in early February.

Still three months removed from that publication date, Matthews and company have already assembled about three-quarters of the content for the first issue and are preparing for their second.

The idea for the magazine surfaced nearly two years ago, when Matthews was a summer intern in public relations at Bravo Television, working primarily on “Project Runway,” a reality competition show for fashion designers.

Having grown up an hour and a half outside New York, Matthews had already cultivated a deep love of the city’s nooks and crannies, and saw the potential in bringing the “Project Runway” approach to another medium.

Her first step was to gather capable friends who would be willing to go out on a limb to get the magazine started. Jenny A. Skelton ’08 came on as business manager, having worked with Matthews on the Harvard yearbook, and has become what Matthews calls her “number two” on the magazine.

Both of them say they had some experience with the business world—Matthews from her parents, both of whom own corporations, and Skelton as yearbook business manager—but neither of them was prepared for the amount of work NEU Magazine would take.

Another lucky Internet search revealed the Massachusetts Small Business Development Center Network, through which retired professionals advise start-ups like NEU Magazine as well as established businesses seeking to grow.

They also sought advice from people currently working in the publishing industry.

“You ask questions as you go, you pretend you’re dumb, and then you take the information and run with it,” Matthews says. “You learn a lot how to weasel information out of people, because no one wants to help you with your career because that means you’re competition.”

“When we’re just starting out, we’re just like everyone else,” Skelton says of trying to attract advertisers. “We have to make our own brand, almost. Just getting sponsors was quite an undertaking. It’s a lot of phone-calling and getting hung up on.”

Despite these initial difficulties, as well as some upheaval in personnel, preparations for the magazine’s launch are now proceeding at a steady clip. As the hub of the operation, Matthews is in constant contact with her staff via cell phone and text messages. Class-time is no exception.

Matthews’ roommate Samere A. Reid ’08 and friend Katharine A. Woodman-Maynard ’08 have expressed amazement at Matthews’ drive, as has the magazine’s editorial manager, Tony Rotunno, a sophomore at Boston University.

“The process really matures you,” Rotunno says. “Sometimes you don’t think you have a real job. We don’t have an office; we’re all working from our own locations. But we’re on the phone with our people in New York two or three times a day. This is just as legit as if we were going into an office for a nine-to-five.”

The group’s focus is on the January launch party for now, but Matthews, whom Rotunno calls a “Jane of all trades,” is still keeping the future in mind, saying she hopes to parlay the magazine’s success into a career producing films.

Regardless of the future, Matthews and her team are eager to get their work out to the people. As she recently proclaimed to her staff, “I will go and throw this magazine off the Empire State Building if I have to.”