Lecture: Vanessa Bush
Vanessa Bush. Photo courtesy of Vanessa Bush.
© 2007 Crawford Morgan.
Vanessa Bush, executive editor of Essence magazine, did not come to NYU’s journalism department to chat.
As soon as an audience member removed the podium that initially dominated the middle of the atrium and replaced it with a comfortable chair, Bush was at ease and ready to discuss the role of advertising in magazine publishing.
“I deal with [ad sales] literally on a daily or hourly basis,” she said. As an executive editor, she works to balance the concerns of the magazine’s editors and advertisers. Bush maintains what she believes to be the best brand possible by monitoring which ads are running in a given issue, and how advertising can be incorporated into the magazine.
“It’s not just a magazine; it’s a brand,” she said. “It’s understanding who the reader is and being passionate about magazines.” She added that “the brand is how you communicate your message to the world; it makes [the magazine] buzz-worthy.” In today’s magazine industry, editors-in-chief have become more like brand managers, Bush said.
Bush explained that it is no longer just the advertising team that has to woo advertisers. Instead, most advertisers are looking to be “wowed with a big idea,” and the more options a magazine can offer an advertiser, the more likely it will be to get that advertisement. For example, Essence offers advertisers space on their website and the opportunity to help sponsor the magazine’s annual music festival, which has been running for 12 years—in addition to the regular print magazine’s advertising real estate.
Although advertisers and editors are now on similar wavelengths, Bush said relationships between the two are still bumpy at times. Often, advertisers request that the editors place their ads in specific sections or even on certain pages of the publication, and sometimes, their questions about the details of the editorial calendar go beyond even the editors’ knowledge and planning. Such demands can be frustrating for editors, Bush said: “All these other layers, and you’re thinking, ‘Why can’t I just think about the story?’”
Sometimes conflicts of interest arise when editors plan to run a story that involves an advertiser. Bush shared one such situation with students. The story in question was a wrongful death case involving the U.S. Army. Essence wanted to run an article in their February 2006 issue about Private First Class LaVena Johnson, who the Army said had shot and killed herself. But Johnson’’s family was convinced that she had been brutally beaten, and intended to bring a wrongful death case against the Army. Because the Army is one of Essence’s biggest advertisers, the magazine had to consider whether running the article was worth the risk of losing the Army’s valuable advertising dollars.
In the end, they struck a compromise: the Army agreed to continue advertising in Essence and simply pulled their ads from that month’s issue. But it was a close call, Bush said, adding that “advertisers will walk away in a heartbeat.”
After describing the intricacies of the relationship between advertiser and editor, Bush opened the floor for questions. One student asked if Essence takes part in a practice that has become common in the magazine industry: listing the magazine’s biggest ad accounts and promoting those advertisers’ products in their stories.
Bush bristled at this suggestion, emphasizing that Essence stands behind every item it recommends to readers. “Believe me, one of the things that Essence is known for is its integrity,” she said. “Our readers trust us…we wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize that relationship.”
As personable and calm as Bush may seem, she is a fierce guardian of the Essence brand. Her advice to editors in her situation: “Try to be vague and not promise too much.”