All That's Fit to Print | Learning Media Management

Do you have trouble deciding whether to read the business section or the arts section of the Times first? If you enjoy thinking about strategy and marketing as well as the creation and production of media, you may be an ideal candidate for Fordham's MBA in Communications and Media Management. The concentration, one of the first of its kind, is designed for students pursuing management careers in broadcasting, public relations, publishing or new media.

Stephen Warley, a current Fordham student who has CBS and CNBC production experience under his belt, says he chose to enroll because "Fordham is the only MBA program in the country with an explicit emphasis on media." No matter where you want to go in the field, this program — which blends a large, impressive faculty with small, focused classes — can help you get there. Everette Dennis, Fordham’s area chair for communications and media management, describes it as "a boutique program in a large business school."

Its location in New York doesn't hurt, either. "With an eye on the dynamic, ever-changing nature of the media business," says Steven Justman, an adjunct professor at Fordham and vice president of communication firm International Management Group, "Fordham offers a proper mix of the theoretical and practical and is housed in the center of the media capital of the world, which provides access to the expert practitioners that are living and breathing this business every day."

First Movers

The program began in the 1980s as an effort to train executives and managers for the print, broadcasting and PR industries, but has been reshaped in recent years to be more broadly oriented. "I think the strength of our program is, first, the breadth of our course offering," Dennis remarks. The concentration's courses encompass publishing, electronic and digital media, and even music and motion pictures.

The media industry, notes Dennis, "has changed more in the past five to seven years than it did in the previous fifty." Accordingly, aspects of the program not only cover the basics, but also hone in on emerging areas of expertise. One such area is Communications for Management, which focuses on knowledge management, public relations, and communications consulting, with courses in crisis management and corporate communications.

Other program innovations include the summer launch of a new MS in media management. "It's not quite as demanding in terms of total time span," explains Dennis, "and it's aimed at people in the creative or content side who know that to move up they need an advanced education. As a creative person, they want less of the mathematics and quantitative models, but you don't move into a top editorship or a top producer's job these days without some understanding of marketing and management."

Dennis explains that the concentration typically attracts two kinds of students. "It's designed on the one hand to prepare media people for leadership roles," he says. But the program appeals to other types of professionals, too: "It also prepares other business executives and managers in fields like financial services who need to know about the media industries."

Warley, whose experience is on the creative side, is taking advantage of the program to master finance. Traditionally, the creative and business sides of media firms do not communicate very much."There is a very large gap between these two groups," he notes. "Ideally, I want to be able to develop media businesses to ensure a focus on creativity while being fiscally responsible -- a tough balance in media."

Theory and Practice

Also setting Fordham's program apart from others is the university's close ties to industry -- ties that open doors to internships, site visits, and class speakers. "We are sitting in the Lincoln Center area; we're closely involved with people from AOL Time Warner, ABC, Bloomberg, Random House, you name it. There's someone coming and going all the time," Dennis says.

Many of the students at Fordham are themselves employed at various media companies. "The advantage for students is that they can interact with someone else who is on the job today, problem-solving," Dennis says. "So they get a precise operational picture as well as the big macro picture from people who've studied this forever."

Best of all, Fordham's unique portfolio approach to the MBA allows students to tailor the program to their needs. "Students in our program get the full range of general MBA courses -- finance, marketing, economics, etc. -- so they have that background," Dennis explains, "but if they want to they can focus on one area, like international business, electronic business, or entrepreneurship."

All of these elements unite to create an inspiring environment with unlimited potential. "What I like most about the Fordham program," says Warley, "is the community of media professionals here that I probably wouldn't find at any other MBA program."

To learn more about Fordham's MBA in Communications and Media Management, contact Everette Dennis at dennis@fordham.edu.

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