Interview: PB Talks To Teen Vogue Editor

How cool would it be to come up with the ideas for hit televisions shows, publish glamorous handbooks, all the while managing a major magazine publication? This is just a day in the life of Teen Vogue managing editor, Meghan Sutherland. In an interview with Planet Blacksburg, she answered a few questions about her position and gave some invaluable advice along the way.

Q: You are the managing editor at Teen Vogue, is this the position that you have always dreamed of?

Sutherland: That’s a funny question. No, of course I have always wanted to be a magazine editor. I have always loved magazines, and they have definitely always been a big part of my life. In high school, I had boxes and piles of them sitting in my bedroom in Seattle, where I grew up. At that time, however, I didn’t even realize what a magazine editor actually did.

Q: How did your college experience prepare you for your current position? What was your major?

Sutherland: I studied journalism and wrote a lot in college; I was a writer. I was in the journalism program at Boston University, which concentrated on broadcast and print journalism. Within the print journalism concentration, there were different focuses on newspapers and magazines. However, I definitely did not concentrate on magazines. I really didn’t even think about them. Boston is an old school town with a lot of culture, which was really important to me. Going to school in Boston, I was exposed to a bigger city on the East Coast and was surrounded by smart, ambitious people who were doing exciting things.

Q: Is there anything you would change that would have better prepared you for the positions that you have held?

Sutherland: No. However, it is important to always be around people that inspire you. A lot of times, people get carried away about picking what you have to do. I think you should pick something, and if it doesn’t work out, that’s fine. But at least have a sense of direction. By picking something and getting involved, you will learn a lot.

Q: Where/how did you begin your career in magazines?

Sutherland: I began my career at Paper Magazine as an assistant to the editor-in-chief. Paper Magazine is an independent magazine that started 25 years ago in New York, and is still in New York today. It concentrates on fashion, music, culture, art, and nightlife. I worked there for four years, writing and editing, and got promoted through the ranks. At the same time, I was freelance writing on the side for various magazines and newspapers.

Q: Can you tell me about your position transition from Nylon to Teen Vogue?

Sutherland: At Nylon, I was the features editor for the entertainment section and also worked on the covers. Nylon is a small independent magazine with a small circulation, and I had already been in a situation like that. I wanted to see how magazines were made from a larger, more macro-level in terms of having a lot of resources. I wanted to work with a large art department, a large editorial staff, and large market team and a great production team to put the magazine together. Additionally, I always wanted to work for Conde Nast. Obviously, the position at Teen Vogue was a very different job. I started out by taking over for someone who was having a baby. As an assigning editor, now I do not write, which is very different. Most writers don’t usually go into a managing editing position. I love writing, however I let the other kids do that.

Q: The motto of Teen Vogue is “fashion starts here.” How important is a fashion background to work at a magazine like Teen Vogue?

Sutherland: A fashion background is pretty important. I wasn’t a fashion editor or anything like that prior to this position; a managing editor doesn’t represent that. It is most important to have general knowledge and most importantly, interest in the magazine. There are other people who are responsible for the fashion aspects. However, the essence of Teen Vogue is fashion and style.

Q: As the managing editor at a major publication, what do you do on a day-to-day basis? What do your responsibilities include?

Sutherland: I run the magazine along with the Editor-in-Chief Amy Astley. I am responsible for the creative and business aspects. I am in charge of the budget and online elements. I speak to the publisher. I am involved with television shows, the recently published Teen Vogue Handbook, and other projects. Like I said before, I do not write and I am not involved with fashion. I do not work with the fashion or market teams, they are the people who work with the stylists to get the look on the page. My job is to make it possible to have the best people doing this. I wouldn’t say that the different departments report into me. However, this is different with each magazine, depending on their structure, how it works and how big it is. Unlike other magazines, Teen Vogue doesn’t have an executive editor or a deputy editor. I speak to everyone on the staff all the time. These people include the assistants, interns, mid-level editors, senior editors, the publishing team, and most importantly, the editor-in-chief, Amy – who I speak to a thousand times a day. I really am involved with a lot of different things, which is why the managing editor position is so weird. The most important of these is the combination of the creative and business facets and keeping up with our market and the Teen Vogue readers.

Q: Do you do the same thing everyday? Did this hold true in your previous positions?

Sutherland: I am in the office a lot. I don’t go see collections, however occasionally I will go to a fashion show, which the market editors would do. I am not the one flying to Milan, Rome or wherever the shows and cover stories are. I do different things everyday, which is the great thing about journalism. I can’t even imagine doing the same thing everyday. What job do you do the same thing everyday? Everything I do depends on the project at hand. With magazines and newspapers, you take it day by day. Or in my case, living five months ahead of time.

Q: How does your workday change on deadline days?

Sutherland: We have a great production team, the proof masters, so my workday doesn’t get affected too much on deadline days. Teen Vogue is always in the good position of shooting everything way in advance. Fashion stories are shot a couple of months before the issue comes out. We are not crashing stories about breaking news; we are not staying up until midnight and writing about news in Pakistan.

Q: We keep hearing that print media is going away, what does your marketing analysis and forecast tell you?

Sutherland: Magazines will always be with us. Clearly, magazines are much easier to produce now with all the different advances. However, there won’t be as many and we will definitely lose others. Many magazines are closing like they should have, because they were not very good. The strong will survive. It is vital to recognize the need to be more than just magazines. You need to find strength online and find other ways to connect with your readers.

Q: How is Teen Vogue preparing for this changing marketplace?

Sutherland: I would definitely say we are not preparing; we are automatically very present online. Additionally, we have developed Teen Vogue Fashion University, which is a weekend seminar for students, in New York, with designers and other people in fashion industry. This project is about educating readers about the business of fashion. People don’t realize that fashion is not just about being a model or becoming the next Marc Jacobs. We also have meet and greets and pop-up shops at malls, where readers can come in and see picks from the editors for different trends. We wrote the Teen Vogue Handbook and there is a lot of stuff online. There is a constant factory of ideas, and I am very involved with these creative ideas. I am also very involved in branding and the way brand is represented, which is very important.

Q: Every month you reach out to hundreds of thousands of readers, what advice do you have for students looking to pursue this field?

Sutherland: Read the Teen Vogue Handbook! It was created to answer questions. After five years, Amy wanted to give readers a handbook to lift the veil and tell people what an editor does, what a stylist does, and how you can become a hair stylist. On a more sentimental note, learn and study. Be humble, pay attention, and learn the crafts. It can go too fast, so soak it all in.