Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Stanford Permanently Closes the Stanford Professional Publishing Course

Every summer for the past 32 years book, magazine and digital publishers, marketers, advertising and circulation executives, editors, designers, writers and people in search of their next career have gathered on the campus of Stanford University in Palo Alto California to attend the Stanford Professional Publishing Course (SPPC).

Mr. Michael Keller, after discussions, meetings with students, major publishing executives, and after reading the report of his “Surveyor”, has decided to “permanently close” the SPPC.

The SPPC was a week-long intensive course. It was the only one of its kind, where mid-career professionals from the U.S. and around the globe (40% of all attendees were from abroad) encountered the newest technologies, the smartest thinking and a community of their peers taught by a world-class faculty.

The need for a course that meets this need exists today more than any other time when both book and magazine publishing is in seismic transition. Members of the SPPC faculty are now working with universities who are currently deeply involved in publisher education and have an interest in offering an enriched Stanford-type program.

Michael Keller, on behalf of Stanford, has generously offered to assist in a transition by making available information that would be helpful. I will be keeping you up to date with our progress.

Martin Levin