“People from all walks of life come to D.C. with a very specific purpose,” says Arnie Grossblatt, director of the publishing program at George Washington University. “It’s not for the climate. It’s for some kind of mission, whether to work for a government agency or a professional association, or one of the scholarly institutions.”
According to a recent article in Publishers Weekly “D.C. Metro Spotlight: In the Nation's Capital, Even the Books Are Mission Driven,” for those learning the publishing trade, "all roads lead back to Arnie Grossblatt and GW's publishing program."
The article discusses the multi-faceted nature of the D.C. area publishing world, with the common thread being a strong focus on mission-driven publishing, a reflection of the area’s activities. The article explores specifics of publishing for institutions, trade publishing, associations and think tanks and recognizes current and former GW faculty lead presses across the region, while alumni can be found at nearly every publisher in the city.
Grossblatt’s mission is to ensure that students have fulfilling careers, and that means convincing them that a life in publishing can mean many different things.
“People come to the program thinking that they want to do editorial work, and if the program is successful, they realize there are other things,” Grossblatt says. “We try to train people for management positions and give them skills that will transfer across areas.”
“With people moving from scholarly publishing to association publishing to trade,” Grossblatt says, the cross-talk, the communication, and the mission-focus all come back to a simple fact. “There’s a community here.”
