Editor’s Note: Meet the New Boss…
My late colleague Burl Gilyard and I used to challenge each other to use classic song lyrics as headlines. So the one above is for Burl, h/t to The Who.
It was never my goal to be the new boss. I’m a guy who likes to spend his days out in the community, learning what’s going on, then conveying it to you. So, it was also never my goal to write the editor’s column, which is supposed to be a genial welcome mat to the magazine. I spend a lot of time thinking and writing about complicated, tough issues, and I’d like to continue to do that here, if you’ll indulge me.
TCB 100/Person of the Year is our signature annual effort, as seen in our December/January issue, out now. It’s the only issue we start before we finish the previous one, because it’s 90 days of nonstop work by a small army of people whom I appreciate more than ever. Since we started the TCB 100 over a decade ago, we’ve profiled over 1,000 noteworthy individuals. We work hard to get the right mix, capture people’s essence, keep it a fun read. (You can’t buy your way in—or out, by the way.) I hope people attend our TCB 100 events and come away with new contacts who make their professional lives richer.
Person of the Year is always a tough choice, especially in a year when Minnesota’s corporate sector has been flagging. We had three strong candidates, and one stood out: University of St. Thomas’s Rob Vischer, who has led UST on an ambitious and even risky evolution, and yet—as my colleague Liz Fedor learned—held fast to his soul and internal compass.
We live in complicated times. St. Thomas’s evolution is an amazing success story, even as higher ed as a whole is mired in troubling trends: a demographic cliff, an economic model that the country simply can’t afford, and a troubling disdain for intellectual diversity that poorly prepares young adults for the real world. Our role is to celebrate UST’s success while being mindful of the bigger picture.
If you made it to our TCB100 event, you met Charlie Rybak (TCB 100—2023), our company’s new editorial director. We’re excited to work with him, as we are associate editor Connor O’Neal, who just joined us from TV news. (I will have the team over to watch Network, the most prescient film about media and culture ever made.)
I’m TCB’s fifth editor. Each one has put their stamp on the magazine, reflecting their interests and histories. I’ve known all of them in some capacity, and here’s what isn’t changing: Our commitment to telling the business community’s stories—acting as its advocate without being blind to its failings.
We do things a little differently. We try to cover the stories that matter, from a perspective where we can deliver meaning. We’re not afraid of analysis. We value depth and expertise. We are out in the community talking to you, understanding your challenges and aspirations. Ideally, that depth informs our work.
Read more from this issue
Too much media today enters the conversation with an agenda of one kind or another—typically deeply felt ideologies, offering simple solutions to complex problems. The profession has lost sight of the fact that the most memorable journalists are storytellers. If we do our job really well, we don’t need to tell you what to think or how to act. You’ll be able to decide for yourself.
As for me, I stand for what works. Schools that graduate literate kids. Housing policies that build housing. Diversity tools that empower without disenfranchising. I expect the highest standards of accountability from our public sector, not the lowest. I don’t believe capitalism is inherently exploitive: We should listen to business, especially small business, because we’ve seen in this community what happens to places where business can’t prosper.
You and I have never had more demands on our time, more options for our attention. So, most of all, TCB has to be interesting, engaging, and worth your time. Business journalism is only dull when we make it that way. Thanks for reading.
I’ll see you at the office.
