Week 4: Sabine Feldmann, Vice President & Publisher
You all know about Amy Astley and her position as Editor-in-Chief. But you may not know about her equally essential (and just as fabulous!) counterpart here on the 10th floor. Sabine Feldmann is our VP & Publisher, and is the business mastermind to Amy’s creative genius.

She works extraordinarily hard running the Sales and Marketing teams here, orchestrating all things business and procuring the revenue to make your favorite magazine possible. I was lucky enough to be able to squeeze into her schedule for an interview (no kidding, she is busy!) and to hear her take on TEEN VOGUE.

You came to TEEN VOGUE about a year ago, what changes have you seen, or brought about, in the magazine since then?
I would say the biggest change I’ve brought about is looking at TEEN VOGUE as a brand, and not simply a magazine. I always say the magazine is the soul of the brand, the heartbeat if you will, and without it we couldn’t exist. But it’s also much more than that.

The second big thing that we’ve been talking about is to think of TEEN VOGUE as much broader than just "teen." We think of "teen" not as a noun, but as a mood or a mindset. We’ve been making a real push for people to understand that "teen" doesn’t just mean 13 to 19. Rather, it’s that mindset of youthfulness and fun.

There was also a change in the advertising tagline. There’s always a line you use as a brand showing how you define yourself, and when this brand was first founded we said "Fashion Starts Here." Obviously, we’re part of the VOGUE franchise so it’s understood that fashion is a huge passion point for our audience. But it goes beyond that, so we’re now saying "Influence Starts Here."

It’s influence you can really tap into for our readers. But again they’re more than just readers—I call them brand fans, because they’re such an involved and influential audience. I’m sure you’ve seen our bedding line? It’s more than just the magazine. I spend a lot of my time on all the ancillary revenue streams and products that go way beyond the advertising pages in the magazine.

I came here as the Associate Publisher and was promoted 2 months later to the VP & Publisher. Then Condé Nast made the change that publishers are not just acting as traditional publishers, but as brand managers. And late last year they assigned us the digital responsibilities. Now as publishers we officially oversee the magazine, the website, digital apps, and all of our ancillary revenue streams. So lots of changes!

How often do you communicate with the editorial team and what are those meetings like?
I communicate with edit basically daily. Amy and I have one standard meeting a week where we catch up on all different things, questions we may have, collaborations we may be doing, different things that are going on. I update her on certain business things that I feel she should know about.

Then we also have a licensing meeting every week where we discuss the TEEN VOGUE bedding line, new ventures in terms of alternate revenue streams. So those are the regular meetings, and then there could be any number of other meetings, for example, when we work on Young Hollywood, or discussing a new event platform we may be launching.

I already spoke with her on the phone once today and live once today! So there’s a lot of interaction because when you’re building a brand the way we are, I think having a really close-knit relationship between the 2 heads is critical to maximizing the potential of a brand. I’m very lucky that I have a partner who couldn’t be anymore amazing because neither one of us could function without the other: she could have an amazing product, but if she doesn’t have the business side to support it, it would die because it wouldn’t make any money; I wouldn’t have anything to sell if I didn’t have her creating this incredible magazine.

If you could go back to your first day working here, what tips, or secrets to success, would you give yourself?
To me I think the greatest secret to success is the people you surround yourself with. I think your staff ultimately makes or breaks you: I couldn’t do my job without my team; it’s my team ultimately makes me look good. So I think to me the biggest form of success is to be a good manager, and to motivate and nurture and inspire a staff to want to do well. Also really important is that you’re really passionate about what you do, I feel really lucky I’ve been passionate about every job I’ve had. A great team, a great brand, and a passion for what you do are absolutely critical.

So you were leading into this, but I was going to comment that you always have such energy about you, I’ve been in the sales meetings and you are always pumped! How do you transfer that and motivate your team?
How do I transfer my energy? I just happen to be really lucky: I have a lot of it. I am a very, very happy person by nature. I’m not even translating anything, it just naturally shines through and I think that’s what people respond to, and I want to set everybody up for success.

I believe in motivating my staff, and coming from a good place, having people be really happy at where they are because that’s when you perform at your best. And I think as a leader, you set the bar, and you set the example. So how can I expect my staff to be motivated and happy if I’m not motivated and happy if I’m not happy and motivated myself?

Of course, that’s a good point and a great mindset. So, how did you get your start in magazines, and how did you get to where you are now?
So I got my start in magazines sort of by coincidence. I’m a huge sports fan, which is why when you said you go to school in Boston... I hope you don’t like the Red Sox...

Rest assured, I’m from Chicago, not a Red Sox person.

Chicago I can deal with. I’m a big Yankees fan. So I’m a sports fan and I actually didn’t grow up in this country, I grew up in Germany. So I grew up a big soccer fan, and I wanted to be in sports marketing. My very first job was in the Women’s Sports Marketing department at the New York Times Magazine. Which at the time was run by a man named Chuck Townsend... who now runs Condé Nast, so isn’t that funny?

I took that internship while I was still in school at NYU. And Family Circle owns a professional women’s tennis tournament called the Family Circle Magazine Cup. So I ended up working on that. They chartered planes; invited all these clients to Hilton Head Island; and we put them up in villas; set up these big hospitality tents; fed them breakfast, lunch, and dinner; they got tennis tickets... So I got to be part of the organizing committee for all of that, and I flew down and I had to be up at 4:00 in the morning, stuff gift bags, make sure everything was set up, and I just had the best time!

Then I went to business school, and after that I was in a sports marketing job that didn’t end up being for me, and when I left I got a call from the Family Circle saying they were looking for someone to manage the VIP operations for the Cup. They needed someone for six months freelance and did I know anyone? And I said, "I will do it!" I worked on the cup again, and interacted a lot with the Chief Operating Officer. He was looking to hire an MBA to be an internal consultant for the company and he asked if I’d take a full time job after my freelance. I worked for him and he gave me an office located within the corporate sales department, so that’s how I ended up in Sales.

From there I went to Fitness magazine and got promoted, then I went to Cosmo, spent 5 years at Cosmopolitan. From there I went to Child magazine for a very short stint, then to Shape where I spent almost 6 years, and then I came here!

What challenges do you face in a management position?
The biggest challenge we face all the time is there’s so much pressure in terms of bringing in the revenue. The economy is still in a very fickle state, and advertisers have a lot of choices in where to put their reduced budgets, so those are the challenges: how do we get clients to choose to advertise in TEEN VOGUE over everybody else? And it goes back to the same thing I’ve been talking about: that’s why you need a really good, motivated team who are incredible sales people who are out there making the sales calls to make sure we get those advertisers.

What advice would you give to girls who would like to make their way up to a management position in a magazine?
Do exactly what you did: intern, intern, intern! You know, make yourself known, get involved and attend events, do your research, do your due diligence, but ultimately get your foot in the door. And a lot of things you do as an intern aren’t really glorious, but I’m sure you would agree you’re learning so much just from this experience.

That is the single best thing I would tell young girls is if you want to make it big, no job is too small, even the littlest things because often people don’t realize how much it’s appreciated. This may sound silly, but do you know how much I appreciate it when my assistant or an intern runs and gets me my Starbucks coffee everyday? And also I would say, like you’re doing right now, have a smile on your face, be friendly, be accommodating.

But the best possible thing is to get your foot in the door and intern. Like your internship, which I’m sure will lead to any number of opportunities.

We have now been advised by 2 of my interview subjects that the most important thing is to "intern, intern, intern!" Clearly, working your hardest to get an internship in the industry is an important edge when you face so much competition. But as you can tell, it still takes a lot of work and talent to get to where Sabine has in senior management. It’s less sought after than editorial positions, as Sabine pointed out, but still a position many dream of. So if you’re a natural leader with an affinity for business, develop and perfect your skills and this may be a great goal to work toward!

Week 5:Jane Keltner de Valle, Senior Fashion News Director
Week 4: Sabine Feldmann, Vice President & Publisher
Week 3: Victoria Lewis, Assistant to the Editor-in-Chief
Week 2: Paula Fortgang, Director of International Fashion
Week 1: Alison Schajer, Executive Director, Event Marketing