{"id":499,"date":"2013-09-26T19:25:38","date_gmt":"2013-09-26T19:25:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/ebuckhor\/?page_id=499"},"modified":"2013-09-26T19:25:38","modified_gmt":"2013-09-26T19:25:38","slug":"allyn-magrino-89","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-fall2013\/profiles-2\/allyn-magrino-89\/","title":{"rendered":"Allyn Magrino ’89"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Rhea Hirshman<\/em>
\n\"magrino\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Allyn Magrino has always loved to read. \u201cI was at the library all the time when I was a kid,\u201d she says. \u201cMy mother is an English professor, and my father was a lawyer. They were both huge readers, and wherever we lived was filled top to bottom with books.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, as president and chief operating officer of Susan Magrino Agency (SMA), a New York-based public relations firm that she runs with her older sister, Magrino is still reading voraciously\u2014not only for pleasure, but to keep up with current trends in the wide variety of fields with which the agency\u2019s more than three dozen clients are engaged.<\/p>\n

Although Magrino showed an aptitude for public relations when working as a student tour guide for the College, PR was not her original career orientation; she had thought about becoming an attorney. Fresh out of Trinity in 1989 and having fallen in love with Paris during a junior semester abroad, Magrino set off for the city with no job and no place to live. \u201cI thought that maybe I should be making concrete plans,\u201d she says. \u201cBut when my adviser Professor Kenneth Lloyd Jones said that this was probably the only time in my life that I would be able just to pick myself up and go where I wanted to, I bought a one-way ticket and went.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a few months as an administrative assistant in an American law firm, Magrino decided against a law career. She returned home, landed an entry-level position in Donald Trump\u2019s organization\u2014and found herself working for a boss who was the attorney handling press calls during Trump\u2019s high profile divorce. \u201cThat experience,\u201d she says, \u201cgave me a front-row seat into the world of public relations.\u201d<\/p>\n

When that boss went to work for publishing magnate Robert Maxwell, Magrino went with her. Her next job, as an account executive for a public relations firm, had her leading journalists on trips to the French West Indies to promote the tourist trade in the area. Then, in 1992, Magrino\u2019s older sister Susan, who had worked for several years as a book publicist, proposed that they join forces to start their own public relations business.<\/p>\n

One of SMA\u2019s first clients was Martha Stewart Living; as a book publicist, Susan Magrino had handled Stewart\u2019s book publicity during the 1980s, and Stewart engaged the new PR firm\u2019s services early on. \u201cThere were just the two of us at the beginning,\u201d Magrino says, \u201cand we figured it out along the way. That\u2019s what I tell students when I come back to campus\u2014hustle, work hard, and don\u2019t be intimidated.\u201d The sisters\u2019 efforts paid off; SMA now employs 40 people and, in addition to Martha Stewart and Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, the firm\u2019s client list includes some of the country\u2019s and the world\u2019s best-known brands in beauty and fashion, home furnishings, food and spirits, hotels and travel, and publishing and media.<\/p>\n

What makes a great brand, Magrino explains, is authenticity. \u201cOur firm\u2019s expertise is in getting the right messages to the right audiences,\u201d she says, \u201cbut a brand is not a bunch of marketing people sitting around a table; the people behind it have to know what they want and have a vision of how to serve a defined need.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adding, \u201cI could never promote anything I didn\u2019t believe in,\u201d Magrino notes that she remains deeply connected to Trinity, currently serving on both the Board of Fellows and the Women\u2019s Leadership Council. \u201cI was educated in a way that taught me how to get to the essence of a problem,\u201d she says, a skill she uses every day in her work. As one way of giving back, Magrino acts as a resource for current students, helping them\u00a0make connections to other alumnae\/i and explore the wide landscape of career options for which their liberal arts education is preparing them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Rhea Hirshman Allyn Magrino has always loved to read. \u201cI was at the library all the time when I was a kid,\u201d she says. \u201cMy mother is an English professor, and my father was a lawyer. They were both … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"parent":780,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-fall2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/499"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-fall2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-fall2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-fall2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-fall2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-fall2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/499\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-fall2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-fall2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}