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Helping girls achieve their best
Diane Morgenthaler ’76 publishes American Girl, the largest magazine dedicated exclusively to girls ages 7 to 12.
By Rebecca Rhodin
Math skills can sell a magazine, says Diane Morgenthaler ’76,
a mathematics graduate who has built a successful career in
publishing.
“A lot of the problem-solving and approaching unknown issues are
the same,” says Morgenthaler of her job as publisher of American Girl, the nation’s seventh-largest children’s magazine, with more than 650,000 subscribers. “You’re taking what you know and building to a result, devising a game plan.”
Not to belittle words, phrases, and story ideas in the making of a magazine, she nevertheless views publishing from a different perspective—that of profits, circulation, and advertising.
Describing herself as “in awe of editors,” Morgenthaler says, “Anytime you have a fabulous editorial product, it makes life a lot easier. It helps you come up with a way to market it.”
At popular American Girl, which receives 13,000 letters from girls after each of its six issues a year, she is selling a wholesome advertising-free
antidote to the boy-crazed, Britney Spears realm of magazine culture.
“We provide a forum for girls to express themselves, before they get into challenging times,” she says. “It’s a safe place—their space—allowing them to be who they are. They decide how long they want to be there.”
Morgenthaler has also held executive positions in management and circulation at Time Inc., Rolling Stone, USA Today, and other national publications.
How does a math major wind up in publishing? For Morgenthaler, it took
a lot of thought about what interested her, along with advice from a professor, who suggested she go to business school. After earning her M.B.A.
in finance at the University of Rochester, she weighed working for various manufacturers, but “nothing felt right.”
On the other hand, she was struck by the enthusiasm of the people she met when she applied at Fairchild Publications in New York, publisher of Women’s Wear Daily and many other trade newspapers, which was seeking a financial staff member.
“The CFO said, ‘If we don’t like the product today, we can change it
tomorrow.’ That was energizing for me, and that’s where I landed,” Morgenthaler says.
Each of her successive jobs has enlisted overlapping skills and required new ones. At Time, Inc., “the Mercedes-Benz of marketing,” she learned about test marketing and magazine redesign. At Sports Illustrated, she worked closely with the editor to launch retail promotions.
“Things were the same, but different,” says Morgenthaler. “Each publication operates the business internally in a somewhat different way. I built an expertise in the marketing and advertising side of publishing.”
Particularly satisfying, she says, is the collaborative environment of a
newspaper or magazine, where a diverse range of people including editorial employees, artists, and advertising staff work together to put out the issue.
“Everyone you talk to comes to the table with a different background,” she says. “It always makes me nervous when I’m in a room and everyone’s in agreement.”
Although New York was a great place to gain a solid foothold in publishing, Morgenthaler grew tired of her daily commute and moved west. She now
resides in Madison, Wis., home of American Girl and an intellectual center cited as one of the most pleasant places to live in the nation.
Her house, which she shares with her dog, Apollo, is in a National Historic Registry neighborhood located in an oak forest just 20 minutes from anywhere she might want to go.
Morgenthaler enjoys biking, theater, and gardening and hopes to learn kayaking to traverse some of Wisconsin’s many lakes. She belongs to two book clubs and is involved in Habitat for Humanity.
Although there isn’t a typical day at American Girl, she says, she regularly consults with editors, devises marketing campaigns, and oversees sales and the company’s relationship with vendors.
“I’m also part of a group in corporate strategic planning,” says Morgenthaler. She is often in touch with American Girl’s parent company, the toy maker Mattel.
As for the future, she plans “to look for the wave and jump on it.”
“Never say never,” she says. “My brother and his family did an overseas
assignment in the Netherlands. You just have to be open to things.”
Self-sufficient and unafraid, she could be a model for the readers of American Girl.
Photo caption – Baltimore native Diane Morgenthaler ’76 says American Girl offers an alternative to teen magazines for younger girls.