I’ve been fortunate in my career that I never had to make a giant leap … I’m more like a Moon-walking Neil Armstrong, taking one small step at a time.
For example, my transition from college to the professional world was easier than almost anyone I know. While many of my classmates from Kansas University moved away from Lawrence to bigger cities, hopeful to find jobs in their chosen fields, I stayed in Lawrence and went from working 20 hours a week as a part-time intern to 40 hours a week as a full-time editor.
Looking back now, it may have been a case of arrested development — I was supposed to be a “professional” yet I was still living with my college roommates, still going to the same college bars. My first adult purchase was a coin-operated arcade game for our apartment. At work, I didn’t even change cubicles, but now I was getting paid for my lunch hour.
That internship-turned-job was as an editor with Golf Course Management magazine, the official publication of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America. I worked for that magazine for 12 years until the fine folks at North Coast Media (NCM) called. In yet another smooth transition, I kept working in the same industry — the green industry — but now as the editor-in-chief of Golfdom, sister publication of Landscape Management (LM). I’ve been EIC of Golfdom for eight years now (and happily still counting.)
NCM did not ask me to relocate my family to Cleveland. Today, instead of driving to work, I make a short walk to my downstairs home office. The steps can get even smaller, apparently.
Over these years with NCM, I’ve been admiring LM — and not from afar. I was thrilled when a photo I took of the team at Ryan Lawn & Tree in Overland Park, Kan., was the cover of the April 2014 issue. I’ve always been quick to travel for the company, happy to represent for LM at GIE+EXPO or at meetings around the country with the many advertisers we see in both LM and Golfdom.
A few months ago, Marisa Palmieri, who did an outstanding job guiding LM for the past several years, told us she was ready to leave behind the rigmarole of full-time work in favor of spending more time with her family (thankfully she remains with the magazine in a part-time role, as special projects editor.) Read her last editor’s note: “Thanks to you.” After a few anxious weeks, NCM announced it would entrust me with this respected magazine as its new editor-in-chief. (And yes, I did take a few more steps back to that same college bar to celebrate a new milestone in my career.)
I hope my transition into EIC of LM goes as smoothly as my previous job changes. I’m thankful to have the support of my family and of NCM.
Now I just need your support.
Throughout my career, I’ve always understood that I’m the one playing in your sandbox. I’m the guy who carries pen and paper, trying to learn how the boots-on-the-ground reader is doing his or her job and how I can go about helping that reader. After all, this is not my magazine, it’s your magazine.
With any change in leadership there is an opportunity to take a look at what works and what could be improved. So I ask you now: What do you want to see more of? Less of? How can we best help you and your company?
We’re going to endeavor to do our best to keep what readers love about LM while adding even more solutions to their many challenges in LM’s print and digital media. I love seeing the newest equipment available to the industry, and I pride myself in getting that information out as quickly as possible. You’ll see that reflected in this month’s cover story I wrote on the LM Growth Summit, detailing the many products and solutions on display at the event. You can count on LM continuing to be your top source for real-world solutions.
I’m excited for this new journey and to see where it takes me. As I take these next steps in my career, I hope you will walk with me and help me and my team keep LM as the premier magazine for green industry professionals.
Drop me a line at sjones@northcoastmedia.net.
