Susan Kenny has more than 30 years of experience expanding audiences, increasing earned revenue, and building individual and institutional support for independent publishers and nonprofit organizations. She began her career as a promotion assistant at the prestigious New York Review of Books; within two years of her start date, she was running the department. Since then, Susan has held senior marketing, fundraising, and program development positions with a wide range of periodical publishers and nonprofit organizations including:

Index on Censorship (UK), where, as director of marketing & circulation, she designed and successfully implemented a five-year plan to increase international paid circulation by 250%.  

The National Council for Research on Women, where, as marketing director and managing editor, she created the organization’s first strategic marketing plan, reversed a long decline in periodical circulation, overhauled the operations of the marketing department, and significantly lowered periodical and marketing materials production costs.

Council of Literary Magazines & Presses, where, as program director, Susan ran the National Endowment for the Arts-funded Literary Journal Institute. This program provided direct operational, marketing and development training and counsel to more than 250 independent literary journals, funded the development of a low-cost circulation database for distribution to members, and created an online retail site for literary magazines. She also served as CLMP’s interim executive director.

Over the years, Susan has led workshops and clinics on topics ranging from strategic marketing planning, crafting individual donor campaigns, marketing copy writing, and “guerilla marketing.”

Susan holds a BA in English from Ohio Wesleyan University. She served as second chair of Putnam History Museum for five years (chairing the membership and development committees) and has also served on the board of directors for the Haldane School Foundation, the Alchemy Theater Company, and the US Advisory Committee for Index on Censorship.