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Media - Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Clay Felker: A Publishing Mentor

As we have mentioned in this blog before, the a:c has a long and winding history. In fact, the brand is almost 10 years old and was first imagined as a magazine about technology and culture. We mention this because Clay Felker, an original friend and adviser to the a:c -- and a legend in publishing circles, died earlier today in his Manhattan home, aged 82. Clay, according to the New York Times, "was widely credited with inventing the formula for the modern magazine, giving it energetic expression in a glossy weekly named for and devoted to the boisterous city that fascinated him — New York."

We knew Clay as a thoughtful and sage adviser, sharing in the excitement and audacity of trying to start a print magazine from scratch. The Times obituary recalls a man who many called "the best editor in the country, although some said he was autocratic and took joy in hectoring and humiliating them." On the latter count, our experience could not have been more different. Our periodic visits to his home in the Berkeley hills and his Manhattan apartment were punctuated with frank but encouraging assessments of our work. We came to him with a rough idea and he helped us to smooth the edges. A long battle with throat cancer had softened his voice and perhaps, also, his demeanor.

Clay was generous with both his time and his prodigious knowledge. We thank him for that. Nobody knew more about making magazines.

read: Clay Felker, Magazine Pioneer, Dies at 82