(This is the sixth in a series. Read Part One and Part Two and Part Three and Part Four and Part Five.)
As I met with various contacts and former colleagues seeking a new job in 2001, one of my more enigmatic friends, Ken Kelley, introduced me to a young couple, Tom and Heather Hartle, who had moved here from Michigan, where they had created a successful city magazine called Hour Detroit.
The Hartles asked me to help them launch 7X7, a new city magazine for San Francisco. We did launch to a lot of fanfare a week before the 9/11 attacks. New York's economy was injured in the attack; San Francisco's tourist-based economy essentially collapsed.
Despite that unfortunate timing, we were able to produce some great issues of 7X7. Local businesses as well as national accounts flocked to advertise with us, including many of the best downtown restaurants, but because they were largely empty at the time they “paid” us with trade.
Thus, we the staff embers of the magazine, could eat and drink almost at will in great restaurants night after night. So we did. The magazine couldn’t afford to pay us, so we deferred our salaries and partied like we were back in the era of the Barbary Coast.
All of it was fun — probably too much fun — but I couldn’t afford to work for free indefinitely. I’d taken out a $100,000 equity loan on my house — a rash move I’d never done before.
That would prove to be a disaster financially and personally.
In the spring of 2002, I accepted a three-year visiting professor position at Stanford, where I could keep a close eye on how the collision between traditional journalism and digital technology was unfolding.
(To be continued.)
HEADLINES:
Stormy Daniels describes meeting Trump during occasionally graphic testimony in hush money trial (AP)
Stormy Daniels Takes the Stand (New Yorker)
Trump classified documents trial in Florida postponed indefinitely (CNBC)
Trump Desperately Tries to Toss Entire Case After Stormy Condom Detail (New Republic)
Judge denies mistrial request after Stormy Daniels details alleged sex with Trump (WP)
Georgia appeals court will review decision that allowed Fani Willis to stay on Trump's Fulton County case (CBS)
Pro-Palestine protests: How some universities reached deals with students (Al Jazeera)
The Israeli military orders civilians to evacuate eastern Rafah as airstrikes escalate. (NYT)
After the war, what kind of future awaits Israelis and Palestinians? (WP)
Israeli forces take control of the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing with Egypt (AP)
Americans’ Changing Relationship With Local News (Pew)
Enough With Saving the Honeybees (Atlantic)
Remnants of a Legendary Typeface Have Been Rescued From the River Thames (ArtNet)
OpenAI working on new AI image detection tools (Verge)
New AI search engine Upend emerges from stealth, powered by 100 LLMs (VentureBeat)
The courtroom is stunned after Trump and Daniels’ 18-year-old love child, Maurice, burst into courtroom. (The Onion)
It’s great to track the arc. So many pieces to stitch together. So much of the story about startups, successes and closed magazines, was uncontrollable, circumstance, serendipity.
Wow!!!!!