David Zinczenko is going back to school.
But unlike most of his publishing peers who angle for gigs at Ivy League schools once they make it big, he’s returning to the small liberal arts school in Bethlehem, Pa., where he got his start editing the student newspaper.
Moravian College will open the Zinczenko New Media Center this fall to the first dozen students. Zinczenko’s Galvanized, the media consultancy he started after leaving Rodale in 2012, will work with students on digital-media projects.
“It’s a way of making liberal arts education practical, producing and getting published while still in college,” said Moravian President Bryon Grigsby, who hatched the idea with Zinczenko over the past year.
Zinczenko graduated from Moravian in 1991, a year after Grigsby.
A former residential house on campus is being remodeled into offices and will serve as the initial home for the Zinczenko center.
But there are plans to build a new state-of-the-art media center with an estimated $1 million price tag that will include a writing center, an Apple Genius Lab, green-screen areas and a newsroom.
Zinczenko said he would also offer up some of the work to Bonnier Corp., which owns a string of special-interest publications and where his brother Eric is a top executive.
The former editor-in-chief of Men’s Health and bestselling author of the “Eat This, Not That” diet books rose through the ranks during a 15-year career at nearby Rodale before running afoul of the powers-that-be in 2012.
Chairwoman Maria Rodale said publicly that she and Zinczenko “mutually decided” not to renew his contract, but sources said she felt he was spending too much time on TV appearances and a restaurant he co-owned in New York City.
The momentary setback turned into a catalyst. Zinczenko launched his own media and branding firm, Galvanized Media, and became consulting editorial director of American Media Inc.’s Men’s Fitness magazine— rival to his old title.
He also struck a deal last year to take over the rights to the“Eat This, Not That” book franchise, which he left behind when he was forced out of Rodale. He’s launched a new quarterly magazine with Meredith Corp. based on the series. He’s also consulting on Shape, which Meredith just bought from AMI.