“Editor and Publisher” is, apparently, on its death-bed. And that makes me very sad. Because, in a sense, “Editor and Publisher” gave me everything I have…
I was sitting in my high-rise apartment in Hartford, CT. It was a gray, miserable late-winter day, shortly after a record-snowfall had tied the city up for days. And it was shortly after my brother in Philadelphia and I had vowed to get jobs in Florida (which he did within a week or two). As I looked out at the downtown skyline, I thumbed absent-mindedly through the latest edition of “Editor and Publisher.”
Suddenly I came upon a half-page ad…for The National Enquirer. (Yes, I know what you’re thinking.) They were looking for an Editor. The salary was outrageous to a young kid recently out of college – $52,000. And then I saw it. Right below the salary, was the address, “Lantana, FLORIDA.”
I quickly got out my atlas, and saw that Lantana was only about fifty miles north of Miami, where my brother was about to move.
I knew, of course, about the Enquirer’s reputation for sensationalism. But I figured, what the hell; for that salary and that location, I’ll send them a resume.
I did. And then I totally forgot about it. So, when they called a couple of weeks later, it took me a minute to even remember the ad. They wanted to fly me down for an interview.
A week later, I sat in a plane on the runway of Bradley International Airport, in the pre-dawn blackness, and watched the icy sleet pelt my window. A few hours later I walked out of the terminal at Palm Beach International Airport…and into 76 degrees and the bluest sky I’d ever seen.
At the end of the day, the folks at the Enquirer told me they wanted to fly me back here again in a few days, for a two-week getting-to-know-each-other period. And they would pay me at the rate of the advertised Editor’s position – $1,000 a week. In addition, they’d take care of all my costs – transportation, food, lodging, etc.
I thought about it for perhaps .0000001 of a second, and then said sure.
When I came back the following week, they were very nice. But, by my very first morning of the two weeks, I had a feeling that the Enquirer and I were not made for each other…$52,000 or not. So, at lunchtime, I stopped in unannounced at the Palm Beach Post, and asked to see the Managing Editor. A month later I was in Florida (for a salary of $12,000).
That was thirty years ago. And that ad in “Editor and Publisher” ended up being responsible for everything I now hold dear in life. My two precious daughters. My first marriage, to their mother. My new wife. My career in journalism and then public relations. Friends who are family. The opportunity to do my 6 a.m. run outside, instead of on a treadmill…every day of the year. (And no more icy sleet when I get in a plane to go somewhere!)
It’s funny how the entire course of a life can turn around in one moment. And, in my case, all because of “Editor and Publisher.”