Rosebud? The New Tower at the Hearst Building


The Original Six Floors of the Famous Hearst Building. These floors are a historical landmark and the exterior could not be remodeled

When I was a sophmore at BYU, I wanted to work at a magazine. That's why I started to study Communications. (That was the minor that accompanied my French major.) At the time I wanted to write the stories featured in magazines. Little did I know then that the people whe write in magazines are generally freelancers. I guess there is still time for that little dream, but I'm really not pursuing it at this time.

In Public Relations, however, I can kind of live this dream because part of my job is to get my clients into magazines. Case in point: this summer I spent a lot of time getting Rubbermaid products into magazines like O, Family Circle, Woman's Day, Real Simple, and Good Housekeeping. For the most part my job consists of calling up editors and selling them on the highlights of sundry Rubbermaid products. In July, however, we held a press event and invited important editors to look at Rubbermaid's new line of antimicrobial sinkware (i.e. dishdrainers, etc.). It was a fun project finding venues, putting swag bags together, and going to dinner with the spokespeople (Linda Koopersmith, Beverly Hills Organizer and Joan Kohn of HGTV). We had a good turnout at the event and several magazines were interested in putting the products somewhere in their magazines. Good Housekeeping was interested for other reasons: they wanted the products for the brand new test kitchens at the Good Housekeeping Research Institute. You know, the people that hand out the seal of approval? I think it is pretty cool.

After everything was all situated at the Hearst Building, Carolyn Forte, director of the cleaning product/appliances section, invited me and a colleague to tour the new facility. Happily, we set a date for after the holidays. I had never been to the Hearst building before, and I was very excited. It is hard to go to these buildings; the security is generally pretty tight. Someone in my office has said on many occasions that the Conde Nast building (publisher of Vogue) is more secure than Fort Knox. The security in these buildings makes PR work a little difficult because we can't just drop by and present stuff to editors. We will usually have to make appointments, have our names on guest lists, and carry seven different types of ID... Thus, an invitation to the Hearst Building is quite a big affair. (FYI, Hearst also publishes Esquire, O, Southern Living, etc.)

The Hearst building was recently renovated, and it has many neat, state of the art features like their fancy elevators. Instead of the typical elevator setup with the up/down buttons in the corridor and the button panel on the inside, each floor has a kiosk where you punch in the floor you want and it tells you which elevator to take. This is very fast and efficient, and way cool. Although out of habit, I felt like I needed to push a button inside the elevator.

After my coworker Shennell and I were wisked up to the Test Kitchens, our hostess Carolyn gave us a tour of the facility. They test pretty much everything up there. But most specifically, they test everything they advertise in their magazines (except perhaps for prescription drugs.) But if a specific cleaning product claims something special about their product, they make sure that the company is not lying. I think it is pretty neat.

Our Rubbermaid products looked very happy in their new environment helping Carolin test dishwashers and dish detergent. I didn't include pictures because they have strict rules about that. You will just have to trust me that they are there and thriving in their new home.

I also made some good contacts in case I ever feel like writing for a magazine. But in the meantime, I will just use this blog as a writing outlet.