06/03/2011

Going…


You may not notice anything different about this first quarter issue of Bank Director magazine. I would guess you don’t. I hope and believe that “Q1,” as we call it, continues our 20-year tradition of publishing a magazine of ever-increasing relevance to senior man-agement and directors of American banks. The quality of the magazine, its focus on important banking issues, its readability-I don’t think that has changed a bit, nor is it likely to.

But at the offices of Bank Director, something has changed. Deborah Scally, Bank Director’s long-time editor-long time being 18 years-has moved on. Not to “new opportunities,” the euphemism these days for career changes, but new in a good way. Deborah has become editor of NYSE Board Member magazine. The change reflects the acquisition a few months ago of Bank Director’s sister publication, Corporate Board Member, by NYSE Euronext.

Anyone who has been around a newsroom, anyone who has worked with writers, anyone who has ever taken a collection of 8 u00bd x 11 typed articles, merged them with illustrations and photos, corrected typos and made grammatical tweaks and style corrections-anyone who has done those things with a magazine will find it hard to believe that Deborah could have possibly have done all that for Corporate Board Member while serving as editor of Bank Director magazine.

Deborah did all that and more. Putting out a magazine presents crises every day: The article on a regulatory issue is researched, written, edited and ready to go to press when Congress changes the law. The groundbreaking cover story, sure to provide insight into Fed monetary policy, comes in the same day Lehman Brothers crashes and burns, changing everything. Such is the norm when pub-lishing a magazine for bank directors and officers, and handling crises and the occasional disaster has been the norm for Deb Scally since her name first graced the masthead two decades ago. Deborah will be missed. It’s solace, but only a little, that her new office will only be a few blocks from ours.

…and Coming

Only a few NFL coaches are lucky enough to have two great quarterbacks on their team, and only a few magazines have two great editors. For the past few years, we’ve had Jack Milligan on our team. You’ve probably met him at Bank Director’s conferences, leading breakout sessions, moderating panels, sneaking back to his hotel room to rewrite an article on a critical banking issue or penning his regular Bank Director column. Nothing could be more natural for Jack or for us than his becoming the new editor of Bank Director. He’s served as editor-in-chief of both U.S. Banker and SNL Financial, has written extensively on corporate governance, and is the rare financial writer who consistently asks the right questions, dives into the right issues, and ends up communicating stories that both engage and inform. His commitment to excellence makes me comfortable that, while Bank Director is guided by Jack Milligan’s sure hand, you’ll read well and I’ll sleep well.

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