Editor’s Note… We’ve tweaked the Member Profile – now in its 3rd year – to better reflect the business priorities of SIPA members. You’ll see a more focused and targeted list of questions as we move forward. If you are interested in taking part, please email us here.
Lidia Lubka, publisher/editor, EcoLog, Toronto, Canada
What was your first job out of college and how did you get into this business?
After graduating with a journalism degree, while trying to find a job in publishing in Toronto (more opportunities in the U.S.), I took a position with a social services agency, organizing the agency’s archives for a book. It was sort of a publishing job, I told myself, though the pay was so low that I actually could have qualified for the social services. [Eventually,] I landed an editorial position on two legal publications with Carswell (now Thomson). After a year, I jumped ship to another publishing company, Southam (later Hollinger, now Business Information Group) where I rose from an assistant editor to publisher/editor of legislative publications, which I still am today.
In brief, describe your business/company.
EcoLog is a small group of a B2B publishing company called Business Information Group, which publishes magazines, newsletters and directories, and produces lists, conferences and events. EcoLog publishes three newsletters on environmental and health and safety legislation and news, three monthly legislative services, two magazines (one on solid waste and recycling, the other on hazardous materials management), and produces an environmental risk information service, seminars and conferences. I am responsible for the newsletters and legislative services, and share responsibility for the seminars and conferences.
What’s new in your market?
1) Sponsored articles
2) Videos
3) EcoLog’s legislative monitoring service
What is the most successful thing that your company is doing now?
Producing seminars and conferences on hot legislative issues.
What business issue keeps you up at night?
New product development
What are two or three important concepts or rules that have helped you to succeed?
1) EcoLog’s editorial, marketing and sales working together daily towards the same goals;
2) Editorial, with first-hand knowledge of the products, providing customer service;
3) Paying attention to the details.
What are the key benefits of SIPA membership for you and your team?
1) Access to information, through SIPA conferences, Hotline newsletter, listservs;
2) Sharing of information;
3) Energy/confidence from SIPA members to go ahead, take a chance and try something new and/or different.
Is there a book you recently read or movie you saw that you would recommend?
1) Fiction dealing with journalism: “The Imperfectionists” by Tom Rachman;
2) Anything by Alice Munro;
3) “Northern Light” by Roy MacGregor (it’s about the Canadian painter Tom Thomson).
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Lidia phrased it well when she said
that SIPA provides access to information,
sharing of information and the energy/confidence
from SIPA members to go ahead, take a chance
and try something new and/or different.
This will be on full display at the upcoming
Winter Publishers Conference
March 15, 2012
McGraw Hill Conference Center
New York City
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