Suzanne Napper, Business Director at the Washington, D.C.-based Wilson Quarterly, joined the magazine's staff 18 years ago. The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars launched the quarterly in 1976 as a nonpartisan, non-ideological publication "surveying the world of ideas," as its tagline says. Based like the Wilson Center in the Ronald Reagan Building, The Wilson Quarterly has a circulation of 70,000.  Previously, Napper held positions with the Wilson Center and with the Smithsonian Budget Office.

Here, Napper discusses turning a profit, advocates the release of an Iranian scholar, channels Woodrow Wilson, and gives tips for summer vacation.

Q. You said at the recent IMAG Conference in Minneapolis that The Wilson Quarterly has probably never made a profit. Do you have some ideas in the works that could change that?

A. Ideas are not the problem…I have plenty of ideas. What I don’t have is money and humans to do the work. Our staff of six is busy putting out a text-intensive publication. We're currently working on ways to monetize digital content and repackage content on given subjects, auxiliary products, perhaps lecture series, etc. But “investment” money is hard to work with when you are the official Presidential memorial to Woodrow Wilson. The Wilson Quarterly is run with private money, but the organization gets about half its funds from the government, so there are lots of restrictions, reporting requirements, and other stipulations. that most venture capitalists do not enjoy. The Wilson Center has a separate department for radio and TV production that receives money from the government, but perhaps we can leverage some of these resources to make money without getting in trouble with our Uncle Sam.

Q. Is there any synergy between the Center's conferences and coverage by your magazine and/or website—e.g., the remarks by Center Director Lee Hamilton in May ‘07 and subsequent developments surrounding Iran's imprisonment of Ms. Haleh Esfandiari, the Iranian scholar and Director of the Center's Middle East Program, as a spy?

A. Lee Hamilton is a very busy man.  We joke about him being on the “federal-commission-a-day diet” with the Los Almos inquiry, the 9/11 Commission, and the Iraq Working Group, and now working diligently to get Haleh released.

Haleh’s situation is very troubling and very timely. Our Editor, Steve Lagerfeld, is writing a page on the situation that we hope will be happily concluded by July when our next issue is off press.

The idea that Haleh is a spy is ridiculous: She's a 67-year-old scholar who hosts academic panel discussions with all points of view represented. She is a grandmother who was visiting her 93 year-old-mother. She's tiny—I could pick her up with one arm, and I am not that muscular—and she is in need of medical care. As with most very timely issues, our magazine has to be careful with the timing—as we are a quarterly. We have to be careful that we have a unique voice with well-researched information and thoughtful discourse that will stand up to a little time and water under the bridge.

We would love for all our IMAG folks to run a little something or write a letter to “His Excellency” in Iran for Haleh’s sake, to let them know we are watching. The Wilson Quarterly is not a “house organ” of the Wilson Center but we do utilize prominent scholars who are or have been in residence. And condolences to Andrew Bacevich, a writer for The WQ who lost his son in Iraq.

Q. What would Woodrow Wilson, a history professor turned President, most like about your magazine, website and the Center bearing his name?

A. We all really like to use lots of words and debate issues ‘til we can’t remember our own names. Seriously, he would so enjoy the fact that we take the time to study an issue on its own merit, with civility, with balance, and with an eye on the past and the future. That we have the means to disseminate the discussion on the web, in person, in print, and on TV should get a Wilsonian thumbs-up. That we try to bridge the distance between specialists, the government and civilians might bring a smile to his face.

Q. As a summer vacation idea, what would you recommend as the single best museum or attraction to get the best sense of Woodrow Wilson, the man and the President?

A. The Wilson Center, of course! Perhaps I will get a raise for the plug! We have a film on the man set up near the section of the Berlin Wall in the Reagan Building. His speeches are in stone in the lobby, and a museum display is in the works with items on loan from our friends at the Smithsonian (across the street). And, of course, speakers, panels and debate—with most open to the public—going on upstairs. Across town is the Wilson House.