Colonial Times editors learn about magazines, comics, TV in visit to Hearst Corporation

By Colonial Times team coverage

NEW YORK – The Colonial Times editors went to the Hearst Corporation today to learn about magazines, comic strips, broadcasting, magazines and the First Amendment.

First, the editors heard about King Features Syndicate from Frank Caruso, vice president of creative and cartoonist. We went into the art studio and talked about cartooning and then we went into an office and all drew Popeye.

“When drawing a comic strip, you should draw the first part as only the line,” said Mr. Caruso. “Then you should paint it. It looks much cleaner that way.”

Also at Hearst, the Good Housekeeping Research Institute evaluates more than 1,000 consumer products a year, according to a sign in the research lab.

Sharon Franke, director of kitchen appliances at the research institute, said she enjoys her job because “I love to cook and get to know what the best appliances are.”

They test all kinds of things at the Good Housekeeping Research Institute. “We made the exact same smoothie in every blender to test which smoothie was the best and which was the frothiest,” Ms. Franke said. “When testing winter coats, they turn the temperature below freezing” in a special room used for the coat tests.

The editors next visited the design and beauty closets at Seventeen magazine, where all the latest fashions are collected for photo shoots. It looked liked people are going to be wearing very different shoes next year.

While the editors visited Seventeen, Executive Managing Editor Sally Abbey said, “I love being able to put out magazines that make girls happy every month.”

Olivia Tarcov, the studio assistant in the TV studio, explained how the green screen works. The weatherman on TV is not pointing to anything when he’s standing in front of the green screen, she said. It’s just green and the weather map is added in the control room. The weatherman looks at a small TV monitor to see what the viewers are seeing at home.

Hearst Television executive Barb Maushard spoke to the editors about producing TV news. “My first job was to put the words in the machine that would appear on the screen.” She’s done many things since then.

The last stop was to hear from Kristi Findikyan. She is a Colonial parent and was our gracious host for the entire afternoon at Hearst. She is also senior counsel at the company and works on First Amendment cases.

The First Amendment gives us the freedom to publish newspapers and write what we believe in, Ms. Findikyan said.

The First Amendment “means being able to publish important information to the public without restraint.”

Contributing to this story were Carly McNamara, Annika Jawanda, Charlotte Howard, Anna Shampanier-Bowen, Phoebe Rothschild, Julia Rosenberg, Ella Deyoung, Callie Leff, Emilia Privat and Charlie Pedorella.

This story also appears on the Colonial Times website.