Catching up with: JUNE SARGENT

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, May 1, 2003 by Geoff Van Dyke

Byline: Geoff Van Dyke

WHEN WE LAST HEARD FROM SARGENT... She was the senior vice president for consumer marketing and strategy for Standard Media International, which she left in October 2001. Before that, Sargent was the vice president of consumer marketing for Red Herring Communications.

Today, Sargent is the CEO/general manager, North America, for DJR International, a business development and marketing firm she helped found in 2001. While working at Red Herring (RIP), she was charged with heading up international business and quickly became interested "in working with companies outside of the U.S. and in bringing products into the U.S. and vice versa." DJR works with clients as "a business partner," devising strategic marketing plans for clients and then implementing those plans across a variety of media. "This is my first foray into being a vendor, if you will," says Sargent. "I've always been the client, and I really wanted to round out my experience - and I wanted to own my own business." DJR's clients run the gamut, from consumer products to catalogs, but Sargent hasn't left magazine publishing behind completely; among her clients are Curtco Robb Media and Alternative Medicine. She has also tried her hand at academia, guest lecturing at UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism and the Stanford Professional Publishing program. With one foot still firmly planted in the magazine world, might she ever come back full-time? "I guess it's always a possibility," says Sargent. "I mean, if a great position came along, it'd be foolish not to look at it."