Magazine
Medill’s alumni lead the magazine industry. They have:
- Launched print and digital magazines.
- Become editors-in-chief at big circulation glossies, prestigious niche publications, and innovative digital media.
- Won multiple awards for feature writing.
- Created podcasts.
- Built complex video features.
- Established successful freelance careers.
Our Magazine students learn how to apply magazine thinking—story ideation, reporting, feature writing and editing, and more—to topics ranging from politics to sports to finance to celebrities to food and fitness, and to do so in any storytelling medium. The time to be a part of this specialization has never been better as our new exclusive program connects you with the industry in New York City and alumni working in media via our New York Magazine Mentors Experience.
About the Magazine specialization
Medill magazine students have a variety of interests. Whether they have the drive for reporting and writing nonfiction features, the passion for editing fashion websites or the ingenuity for inventing new media platforms, all put good storytelling at the center of their work.
The Magazine specialization explores the nuances of reporting, writing, building and editing cohesive long-form narrative pieces as well as magazine-styled short-form features and profiles. It emphasizes learning how the media industry works, how to use magazine devices to tell stories across different media, and how to connect to the magazine industry whether you want to work in Chicago, New York City or other parts of the country. We place particular emphasis on connecting you with industry leaders in New York through dedicated mentorship and innovative co-curricular opportunities.
Why magazine journalism?
Readers remember the stories that bring a unique character to life or vividly drop them into a new world. This happens through deep reporting and eloquent writing. The Magazine specialization teaches students the building blocks of telling a great story:
- Immersion reporting that makes readers feel they’re walking in a subject’s shoes.
- Framing and packaging that gets stories into formats that make people click, watch, listen and read in digital and print publications, social media and more.
We will give you two cities for the price of one by using Chicago as laboratory for good storytelling and by our unique mentoring program that connects you to employers and alumni in the heart of New York City’s publishing community.
What will I learn?
In this specialization, you’ll learn the ins and outs of print and digital magazine publishing, from pitch development to writing to production. You’ll take a deep dive into newsworthy topics, investing time into learning about controversies, places, characters and issues. Your writing explores multiple storytelling platforms and multiple article styles, including the personality profile, features, explainers, how-to service pieces, personal essays, and culture reviews. You’ll learn about each style and begin developing your own writing voice.
In addition, you’ll learn how to produce a multimedia piece that incorporates video, audio, photography and graphic elements. Our Chicago campus offers the latest cameras and equipment.
Our experienced faculty, who have written for and served as editors for top-tier magazines, will work closely with you and help you publish your work on Medill Reports – a good way to get clips that showcase in-depth, professional-quality reporting and writing. They will also help you learn how to pitch your ideas to local and national publications.
How will Medill help me launch my magazine career?
The network of Medill alumni who work in magazines or use their magazine background is vast. Students in the Magazine specialization will connect with them, both on our campus in Chicago and in New York City. In particular, as part of the specialization, our mentoring network of magazine alumni will help students learn how to develop career mentors and how to understand the rich and diverse paths magazine training prepares them to pursue.
Watch an overview of the Magazine specialization below:
Our Faculty
Karen Springen
Springen spent 24 years at Newsweek as a correspondent and she reported on stories about a wide range of topics. Over the years, she has published pieces in Publishers Weekly, Reader’s Digest, Elle, Marie Claire and more.
Patti Wolter
Wolter spent 22 years working as an editor or freelance writer in the investigative and women’s health spaces, including working in senior level jobs at Mother Jones magazine and Self magazine. At Medill, she specializes in magazine editing, narrative structure and health and science writing.
Charles Whitaker
Charles Whitaker is dean and professor at Medill. Whitaker was one of the rotating directors of Medill’s graduate Magazine Publishing Project, an enterprise in which teams of students developed a new magazine or worked in collaboration with an existing publishing company to reinvigorate the editorial and business approach of an existing magazine.
Douglas Foster
Foster is a former newspaper reporter, magazine editor, television correspondent and documentary producer who now teaches feature writing. Before joining Medill, he was editor of a national magazine for five years.
Chris Benson
Benson is a journalist, lawyer and former Johnson Publishing Company vice president. He co-authored a book with Emmett Till's mother about the teenager's life and brutal lynching and the changes that followed.
Mei-Ling Hopgood
Hopgood is a freelance journalist and writer who has written for various publications, ranging from the National Geographic Traveler and Marie Claire to the Miami Herald and the Boston Globe.
Alex Kotlowitz
Kotlowitz is the author of four books, including the national bestseller "There Are No Children Here." A former staff writer for The Wall Street Journal, his work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine and This American Life.
Steven Thrasher
Thrasher has worked as writer-at-large at the Guardian, staff writer at the Village Voice, and facilitator for the NPR StoryCorps project. His articles are regularly published in the New York Times, BuzzFeed News, Esquire, the Nation, the Atlantic, the Guardian, and the Daily Beast. He’s also a former researcher for Saturday Night Live’s “Weekend Update.”
Peter Slevin
Slevin spent a decade on The Washington Post’s national staff and is currently a contributing writer for The New Yorker, focusing on national politics. He teaches classes on politics and the media; the U.S. role in world affairs; and reporting strategies on current events, from the 2020 presidential campaign to the intersection of policing and race in Chicago.
Your Medill Experience
Curriculum
Choose from courses in freelancing, business-to-business media, news graphics and design, narrative structure and magazine editing. We also offer an innovation project that allows you to develop and launch a new magazine or work with an existing company to create a new product or re-imagine an existing publication.
Learn about the curriculum
Chicago
Chicago is a writer’s city, where opportunities for magazine-style writing abound. Prominent top-tier magazines were developed and published in Chicago, including Ebony and Jet. Our downtown Chicago space features sweeping views of Lake Michigan and the latest technology—the perfect setting for you to learn the craft of magazine writing and improve your techniques.
Learn about Medill's Chicago campus
New York
You’ll visit New York multiple times to meet with magazine alumni and build your industry connections.
Medill Explores
Immerse yourself in a magazine journalism project by participating in Medill Explores. Led by faculty and staff, Medill Explores features week-long experiences that can take you to national or international locations.
Learn about Medill Explores
Medill Fridays
Broaden your learning beyond the classroom during Medill Fridays, where magazine writers and freelancers provide honest insight into their careers and about the future of the industry.
Learn about Medill Fridays
Career Services
Our Career Services team can connect you with alumni and industry partners working for top-tier magazines as well as companies outside the media world that are embracing long-form storytelling as a way to connect with customers. Knowing how to create and curate meaningful content can open doors at prominent organizations.
Learn about Career ServicesOur Alumni
Erica Duecy (MSJ03)
Chief Content Officer
Clara Jeffery (MSJ93)
Editor-in-Chief
Katherine LaGrave (MSJ11)
Deputy Editor of Features
Evan Smith (MSJ88)
CEO and Co-Founder
Laura Schocker (BSJ08, MSJ09)
Editor-in-Chief
Gillian B. White (MSJ13)
Senior Vice President of Revenue & Programming