Résumé

Profile

Building upon a wide-ranging media career, Cyndi Stivers recently launched a residency program at the New York headquarters of TED, a nonprofit media and conference business devoted to “ideas worth spreading.” She also curates special events for TED, and often serves as a board member, adviser, business strategist, and startup coach. In 2017, she was named one of Forty Women to Watch Over 40.

Stivers began her career in hot-type newspapers, and has since shepherded media startups and reinvigorated venerable brands on nearly every platform, including magazines, television, radio, and online (where her experience extends back to the early days of the consumer internet, when she launched Premiere magazine on CompuServe).

From 1995 to 2005, while in charge of North American operations for London-based Time Out Group Ltd., she led the creation of Time Out magazines, guidebooks, and websites for New York and Chicago. From 2008 to 2011, as managing editor of EW.com, she doubled the site’s audience and garnered wide industry recognition. The EW Must List mobile app, timed to the launch of the Apple iPad, won a 2010 Advertising Age Media Vanguard Award.

For six years, Stivers taught a digital-magazine workshop at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. While on the board of the Magazine Publishers of America (MPA) and the American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME), she drafted the industry’s first internet-publishing guidelines.

Stivers graduated from Barnard College (while working full-time as a reporter at the New York Post). Since 2005, she has served as a Barnard Trustee, chairing the committee on governance and nominations. In 2013, she received the college’s Woman of Achievement Award.

Experience

Director, TED Residency, an incubator for breakthrough ideas, housed at TED HQ in NYC. Two dozen people from a variety of disciplines spend 14 weeks working on individual projects and developing TED Talks, supported by the brilliant, diverse TED community and staff. Also a Special events curator for TED.

Digital- and media-strategy consultant / board member / adviser. This currently includes coaching several startup entrepreneurs. Clients have included Acumen, Yahoo!, Medpage Today/Everyday Health, Time Inc., National Geographic, Weider History Group, digital newsstand Magzter, and Etsy.

1/14 to 6/15 • Senior vice president, Tina Brown Live Media. Managed company’s transition from its roots at The Daily Beast to The New York Times Co. Supervised reboot of Women in the World as a digital channel on nytimes.com, along with more than a dozen live-journalism events, including the three-day Women in the World Summit at Lincoln Center.

1/09 to 5/14 • Adjunct professor, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Taught a digital-magazine workshop and advised on master’s theses. Programmed the spring 2011 Delacorte Lectures on Magazine Journalism.

6/13 to 1/14 • Editor-in-chief, AOL.com. Recruited to strengthen the site’s journalistic standing. Tenure curtailed due to AOL’s ongoing executive reshuffling and business-strategy changes.

11/11 to 5/13 • Editor-in-chief, Columbia Journalism Review. Led update of the 50-year-old print magazine and its website. Won a 2013 MIN Best of the Web award.

1/11 to 4/11 • Development editor, Time Inc. Style & Entertainment Group, working on mobile apps (for Entertainment Weekly and Essence), content strategy, and digital-skills training.

6/08 to 1/11 • Managing editor, EW.com, the website of Entertainment Weekly. During my stint, the site doubled its audience and received more than a half dozen industry awards. EW.com also won Time Inc.’s Luce Award (the in-house Oscars) for Website of the Year in 2011.

12/07 to 5/08 • Media consultant. Worked on development of Time Inc.’s PeoplePets.com and acquisition of Celebrity Baby Blog for People.com. Advised Waterfront Media on extension of the Everyday Health brand.

11/06 to 11/07 • CEO, Blue Egg, an e-media company devoted to eco-friendly living. Launched two websites and a video-rich mini-site chronicling the Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon.

5/05 to 11/06 • Executive vice president, office of the president, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. Supervised the 11/05 launch of Martha Stewart’s 24-hour channel on Sirius Satellite Radio (now SiriusXM). Set up a framework for international development and explored other new business, working closely with CEO Susan Lyne.

5/95 to 5/05 • President and editorial director, Time Out New York. Oversaw all aspects of the weekly magazine, website, and guidebooks after serving as founding editor-in-chief. Raised capital for and led launches of Time Out Chicago and of print/online hybrid Time Out New York Kids. Received four National Magazine Award nominations (two for General Excellence). Won GLAAD Media Award for Best Overall Magazine Coverage in 2000; named one of five Editors to Watch by Columbia Journalism Review that same year.

Formative Years

• Deputy editor, Premiere, under editor Susan Lyne. Launched the title on CompuServe (4/91 to 5/95)
• Writer and host of FLIX, a weekly movie-preview show on cable channel VH1 (10/92 to 3/93)
• Senior writer/European correspondent, Premiere, based in Brussels (10/89 to 4/91)
• Contributing editor, Condé Nast Traveler. Wrote Word of Mouth column through 12/93 (1/89 to 5/10)
• Editor-at-large, Self, under editor Anthea Disney (1/89 to 12/89)
• Entertainment editor, US, from the time of Jann Wenner’s purchase (5/85 to 1/89)
• Staff writer, Vanity Fair, under editor Tina Brown (2/84 to 5/85)
• Entertainment editor and columnist, Clay Felker’s East Side Express (10/83 to 2/84)
• Entertainment reporter, LIFE, under managing editor Dick Stolley (3/82 to 10/83)
• Media columnist, Soho News (11/81 to 3/82)
• Reporter, New York Daily News Manhattan section, under editor Clay Felker (8/80 to 8/81)
• Stringer, The New York Times; wrote for news, education, and New Jersey desks (9/76 to 5/77)
• Copyperson, then general-assignment reporter, then Page Six editor, New York Post (5/76 to 8/80)
• Summer general-assignment reporter, Ridgewood (NJ) News (5/75 to 9/75).

Plus…

Guest speaker and moderator

• Interviewer (2017) and moderator (2015) at the TED Conference (attendee since 1995)
• Navigator of Out Leadership’s OutNEXT 2017 Global LGBT+ Emerging Leaders Summit
• Hosted the Moth storytelling performances at Barnard College 2010–15
• Moderator and panelist at Internet Week NY, DLD, the Athena Film Festival, Social Media Week, 140 Characters Conference, the Interactive Media Conference, DIY Days, the Columbia Publishing Course, New York University’s Summer Publishing Course, the Stanford University Professional Publishing Course, and MPA/ASME seminars and conferences.

Mentor

• Springboard Enterprises Media Council (2014–present)
• Time Inc. Emerging Professional Mentoring Program (2010–11)
• Asian American Journalists Association Executive Leadership Program (2004–05)

Boards

• Board of Trustees, Barnard College (2005–present; co-chair, Committee on Governance)
• HYPOTHEkids (2016–present)
• KAVI/Kings Against Violence Initiative (2016–present)
• Report for America (adviser; 2017–present)
• Litterati (adviser; 2017–present)
• Ocean Collectiv (adviser; 2017–present)
• ASME (Editorial Council, 2008–present; board member 1996–2004; president 2001–02)
• Board of Advisors, Center for Publishing, NYU (2006–11)
• Adviser, iCurrent (2008–10)
• School of Visual Arts Foundation (2004–11)
• IFP, the Independent Filmmaker Project (2006–09)
• Consumer Reports WebWatch Advisory Board (2001–08)
• Advisory Board, ArtCenter College of Design conference, Pasadena, CA (2002–08)
• Mediabistro (2004–07)
• MPA (1998–2005; co-chair, diversity 2004–05)
• Alumnae Association of Barnard College (communications chair 1997–2000; reunion chair 2001–04)

Awards

• Forty Women to Watch Over 40 (2017)
• Alumnae Association of Barnard College Woman of Achievement (2013)
• Council of Independent Colleges and Universities New York State Alumni Hall of Fame (2005)
• Police Athletic League Woman of the Year (2004)

Education

B.A., Barnard College, cum laude, honors in English. Three scholarships, including Society of the Daughters of Holland Dames, for descendants of the early Dutch settlers of New York.

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