Editor Don Jackson has been fired

[Martin Holladay]

The private equity company that purchased JLC (and all of Hanley-Wood), Oaktree Capital Management, is enforcing a new program for JLC: reducing the number of editors at the magazine, and increasing requirements for overworked editors to post short blogs and little messages on the JLC website instead of longer, in-depth magazine articles. The paper magazine has an uncertain future at this point.

Editor Don Jackson resisted the changes and defended the magazine's focus. Don Jackson has just been fired.

[newtonpaul]

It was Don Jackson's leadership and vision at JLC that inspired me to write for the magazine; he and his team would take whatever I sent them and turn it into something of value. Hanley-Wood is about to learn just how hard it is to get remodelers and custom builders to produce useful editorial content without someone like Don Jackson nudging them along (and there are very few like Don Jackson).

To put it mildly, I'm not optimistic about the direction Hanley-Wood thinks it's going in by firing him. It seems to reveal a fundamental cluelessness on their part about our industry, in which JLC has been a key voice for about as long as I remember.

--Paul Eldrenkamp

[Martin Holladay]

In the publishing world these days, technology determines content, it seems. The current mantras are: do more with less; post short articles quickly; imitate USA Today -- because readers don't want depth.

These days, the investment gurus who own magazines want to cut costs. But I'm afraid that they don't understand anything about why readers subscribe to JLC.

[worthy]

I was a tradebook editor in the 1970s. Editorial staff were considered interchangeable and completely disposable; sales staff were gods.

[Martin Holladay]

From the boiler room in the basement, the owners shoveling fuel into the boiler shout, "Give me some more content! I need about 11 pages, quick!"

[Dancing Dan]

It's horrible news. JLC has been instrumental for decades in fostering the notion that builders should be professional and educated, and should share their knowledge. There are few things I'm as proud of as the pieces I've had published in the magazine.

[jstoddard]

That's still somewhat the case for the free trade magazines (all you have to do is look at the bylines in Builder mag...) but JLC is and always has been completely different. We're the only all-paid circulation in the industry, and the content requires deep knowledge of the subject matter AND the context of that subject matter. There are lots of editors floating around, but precious few people who can do what Don has been doing for the past 20-ish years.

When the magazine was founded by Mike Reitz (as New England Builder) the core principle was 100% separation of "church and state" (Ads/Content). JLC isn't a trade magazine, it's a very tight-knit brotherhood (and I don't use that term loosely) of building pros (to quote Mike)"telling each other what works and what doesn't work".

Most trade magazines go in the trash soon after they're mailed. JLC goes on the shelf as a research tool. That's the difference.

[philthegreek]

Amen to that Joe. My office is lined with magazine organizers filled with JLC. I have noticed that in recent years the content has gotten a lot thinner. I'm now usually finished with the issue before my legs go numb. ;-)
This is terrible news about Don.
Methinks the downward spiral will continue. Seems to me no one there knows how to lock opposite rudder, elevators up and engine at full throttle.

Phil

[Salfano]

Martin, I wish we had spoken before you posted this. Let me see if I can correct some of the mischaracterizations your post contains.

Most importantly, there is nothing “uncertain” about the future of the JLC print magazine. It will continue to publish – with ink on paper -- the kind of in-depth articles its readers expect. Those articles will continue to be written by working contractors and edited by a staff at JLC who augment their own direct knowledge of residential construction with links to a broad group of subject matter experts.

That said, as a blogger yourself, I’m sure you would agree that print isn’t the only way we get our information these days. The recent decision to reorganize the JLC website and bring archival articles out from behind the pay wall is a first step toward expanding JLC’s digital presence. It is also an acknowledgement that JLC’s current audience is expanding beyond the print publication, and recognizes that JLC has new audiences who prefer to get their information online in a variety of formats delivered using a variety of digital devices.

As you know, I have been associated with JLC for more than 20 years, 6 of those as chief editor. What you didn’t mention -- perhaps you didn’t know -- is that I am returning to that role and looking forward to building upon the foundation of JLC’s print legacy, not replacing it. And I can assure that our digital initiative will go well beyond what you refer to as “short blogs and little messages.”

With regard to Hanley Wood’s new owners “enforcing” something at JLC, you apparently know more people at Oaktree than I do, because I haven’t heard a word from them. As for overworked editors, I can’t remember a time in the last 22 years when I didn’t have more to do than time to do it in. I am as sorry to see Don depart as you are, and I hope that he and I will be able to continue to work together in the future.

[Martin Holladay]

Sal,
I did try to call you this morning; I left a message on your answering machine. In any case, thanks very much for providing more information.

If the future of JLC as a paper magazine -- complete with in-depth original articles written by builders and edited by a strong cadre of experienced editors with construction experience -- is assured, that's good news. We're all crossing our fingers and hoping that's true.

Sal, I've known you for years, and I appreciate your comments on this question. But all evidence supports the conclusion that JLC decided to show Don Jackson the door. JLC will be the poorer as a result.

I am a veteran of several takeovers of print magazines by private-equity investors. The ownership structure of JLC is very different from the Mike Reitz days, and I imagine that it has to service a lot of debt -- a legacy of its sale to a series of new owners. The same thing happened to Energy Design Update, with disastrous results.

If you are asserting that these factors -- the debt load associated with JLC and its acquisition by private equity investors in search of a profit -- have no relevance to the reorganization of JLC, I think you are being disingenuous. However, time will tell.

[newtonpaul]

This is probably going to sound at best hopelessly sentimental and at worst sadly out of touch, but what I've liked best about writing for JLC over the last couple of decades is that I knew I could always trust the readers to meet me half-way. They pay for the magazine, keep copies on their desks or in their trucks, e-mail me comments and questions about my columns. In short, they make an effort. They put something out that matches what I put out as a writer. I hear from people in the trades who get the print magazine, I talk with them at conferences and via random phone calls. I don't hear nearly as much from people who've just stumbled across some old piece while trolling on-line. I do believe there's a big difference between print and screen (and I realize I just may be the dinosaur munching away with the meteor screaming down).

Sal, you're an amazing guy, you ran JLC when I first started writing for it, and you gave me great encouragement. But I don't know how you're going to maintain any sort of meaningful JLC tradition as a print publication if you're doing it as a part-time job.

[mbyrne]

Most of us have opinions about where JLC is going, how thick the content will be (hopefully not the 1/4-inch depth of USA today), etc., but we can only guess about these things. I certainly have my own opinions about JLC, but I will keep them to myself.

For me, the issue is that DJ is gone. Don wore some mighty big shoes that are going to be hard to fill. Like Steve Bliss before him, Don's day at the job was a lot longer and a lot more intense than any of us would put up with. I am going to miss Don, but maybe now that he has more time on his hands, I hope he comes down to visit so we can both waste some of that time fishing.

DJ, if you are reading this, you have a loyal bunch of writers and readers who are now in mourning.

[frenchie]

Is the clearance sale on JLC books related to any of this?

Got a flyer last week, 75% off some of the titles, hurry now when they're gone they're gone...?