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'Bye,
Jim
Some
simple truths become plain after you spend nearly three
decades working. One is that you may respect a boss,
but may not like him or her personally.
Or
vice versa. It is a rare instance when you both truly
respect and really like the individual. That's why I
am so sad to see James A. Bacon, our publisher and editor-in-chief,
leave. After 16 years at Virginia Business, first as
editor, then publisher, Jim is stepping down to start
up his own Web page that he plans to fill with columns
and analytical pieces about Virginia's politics, economics
and business.
Jim has one of the most engaging and active minds I've
ever encountered. It bubbles constantly with ideas and
opinions. I don't always agree with Jim, but his thinking
is so provocative that you want to hang around and spar
with him. At the same time, he's a truly kind person
who thinks of doing things for others that are really
unexpected.
When
I applied for the editor's job here a little more than
two years ago, Jim and I got into a frenzy of preliminary
e-mail discussions about how to improve Virginia Business.
It was clear that the magazine that Jim had helped start
was his passion. I also discovered a few other coincidences.
We are almost exactly the same age; our fathers had
both been career Navy officers, and we attended rival
high schools in the Washington, D.C., area where my
alma mater always soundly whipped his at football and
still does.
Jim's
single-minded mission was restoring Virginia Business
to its early days of editorial quality, making it a
"must read" publication across the state.
We went about redesigning the magazine with the help
of graphics artist Elizabeth Coffey. Drawing upon skills
I honed during 15 years at BusinessWeek, we edited stories
more heavily and demanded that they be punchier, more
timely and forward looking.
This
was no easy task since the news industry was about to
plunge into the worst recession since World War II.
But we did score some successes. Last year, we won first
place among the nation's regional business publications
for the best local story on a national topic. By watching
costs closely, we managed to squeeze out a small profit
last year while improving quality. The icing on the
cake: a recent readership survey of more than 1,000
CEOs by Media General. It shows that readers are spending
more time with the magazine. And 68 percent of those
surveyed considered us a "must read," up nearly
10 points from 1999. Not bad, considering that a 70
percent score would be about as far as we can expect
to go.
For
those of you interested in keeping up with Jim and his
new venture, you can reach him at jabacon@attbi.com.
When launched, it'll be called "Bacon's Rebellion"
after his old column that many of you remember well
- the one with him holding that ridiculous hand grenade.
Meanwhile, we are looking for a new publisher whom I
am sure will continue in Jim's spirit. But he or she
will never be Bacon.
Note: With this issue, we are canceling our quarterly
"Click" section on electronic commerce. We
are substituting a broader "Technology in Virginia"
theme. This section, also quarterly, will include the
same Internet issues, but will also report on a wider
variety of science and technology matters throughout
the Old Dominion.
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