“News and Shoes” – NYWICI Panel at Time Inc. HQ

NYWICI's "News and Shoes" Panel

New York Women In Communications (NYWICI) held their annual meeting at Time Inc. on May 24^th where incoming President Meredith Long, Sr VP/GM –News, Luxury and Style, moderated a panel called “News and Shoes.” The panel featured two Time Inc. executives; Laura Brown, the new Editor-in-Chief at InStyle and Nancy Gibbs, the first woman Editor-in-Chief at Time.

Gibbs, a 2016 Matrix Award recipient, told a fascinating story where she was recently invited to the White House to meet with President Trump.  She said that the President spent almost 20 minutes discussing the size of his inaugural crowds, insisting that the crowd was the largest ever, even bringing in photographic evidence to prove his point. By contrast, she has met with other Presidents in the past who spent the time discussing new policy or issues they were interested in.

Nancy Gibbs (right) discusses her meeting with Trump

Brown, a native Australian, had just returned from a trip to Sydney to cover her homeland’s fashion week.  She also divulged that her fellow Aussie and friend, Nicole Kidman, will be on July’s cover.  She gushed that Kidman is enjoying her career resurgence as she turns 50 with several prominent films and her hit HBO series, “Big Little Lies.”

Brown also discussed the editorial path InStyle has taken under her direction.  Whereas she referred to their previous philosophy as “Cashmere and Malibu,” the magazine is now tackling more serious issues with a political bent.  She points to a recent profile of ACLU members or discussing activism with their celebrity cover stars as examples.

Brown discussed the impact of social media and her Instagram, saying that it’s essentially “a magazine of your life." She and Gibbs also talked about how female journalists are more likely to be harassed on social media than male journalists.

Gibbs discussed the current political climate and the proliferation of “fake news.” She feels a strong responsibility to bring facts to light but also run stories that male editors may ignore such as the implications of subjects such as artificial intelligence, depression and anxiety in teenagers, and immunotherapy.

She also spoke about the despair that many Americans feel about the political system and how Trump won the election.  There is a desire of many to “blow up the system” and they see him as the person to do that.  This feeling is not going to disappear, no matter who is in the White House. 

The panel concluded with a picture of Trump’s recent visit to the Vatican and Gibbs said she would’ve loved to be a fly on the wall in that room.  Having met both Pope Francis and the President, she described them as their own distinct “weather systems.”

Andrea Goldstein is a digital marketing
professional with a passion for pop culture.
@nydigitalmarket on Twitter

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