I read an obituary for Otis Chandler a couple of years ago. Upon finishing that piece Chandler, who brought the L.A. Times to a place of prominence among America's daily newspapers, became my model for what a publisher ought to be.
Chandler was a sportsman of significant note and, while I don't know this with specificity, I reckon he must've dabbled in our sport during its formative years. He was certainly made of the stuff of the pioneering triathletes I knew back then.
But it's Chandler the publisher that's most compelling to me—specifically the tactics and methods he used to transform the Times from a provincial, almost backwater, regional newspaper into a juggernaut on a par with the New York Times and Chicago Tribune.
What did Chandler do? According to the Times' own novellete-length obit, "Knowing that he couldn't create a high-quality, widely respected news organization if he relied exclusively on wire service reports and his existing staff, he began hiring top reporters and editors from other major news organizations and opening Times bureaus around the world."
Because I admire that quality of surrounding yourself with the best talent, just the way Otis Chandler did, yesterday Jay Prasuhn became the newest member of the Slowtwitch editorial family. He joins us as Senior Editor.
Prasuhn spent his last nine years at Triathlete Magazine, leaving that publication in the same capacity as Senior Editor. He'll join a masthead that includes Slowtwitch Editor-in-Chief Herbert Krabel.
While Slowtwitch enjoys a friendly rivalry with Triathlete Magazine, Jay never seemed a competitor. In part that is because of his collegial and fair style, as well as his desire to find the truest thing you could about a person, company or product, and to write that. For some years I had hoped he would one day be a part of the Slowtwitch editorial family, and I'm proud and pleased that it has come to pass.
What will you read from Jay? With direction from Herbert Krabel he'll report from events we and he find compelling and interesting, and he'll conduct the occasional interview. Along with me, he'll report on technology and equipment.
About products: In the spirit of finding that "truest thing" about a product, and lest he feel tethered, my instruction to Jay is to write it like it is, extolling a thing's virtues, exposing its warts.
No, we're not the L.A. Times and no, I'm not Otis Chandler. But I know a good thing when I see it, and one of those good things is the model Chandler left aspiring publishers to follow. Another good thing is the writing of Jay Prasuhn and we hope you, the readers, will note the uptick in your Slowtwitch experience once his byline starts appearing in these pages.
