In New York City, at the age of 18 and in the early 1900s, the young man who became the brain behind RCA and the father of NBC, “general” David Sarnoff, could not explain his work in the emerging wireless field. So, when his mother Leah pressed him about the nature of his work, Sarnoff used to say, “I’m a plumber,” which made her very happy and proud. Obviously, plumbing was a prized and pricey business even then. This anecdote reminds me of the types of unsympathetic third degree questioning I had to endure from my parents and relatives after I launched VideoAge. Before that, I was simply a journalist: A job description that’s easy to understand. After that, when I became a publisher and “editor” — unbeknownst to me — my new job description became blurred and incomprehensible to them. Here’s a typical exchange with the “sisters” in my family: My mother Bianca and my aunt Esther. - Do you print VideoAge? No, someone else does it. - Do you write articles? Sometimes, but they’re mostly written by others. - How do you make money? With advertising. - Do you get this “advertise?” No, someone else gets it - Then, do you design the pages? No, the art director does that. - So, what do you do? Well, I’m like an orchestra director: I don’t play, I don’t sing, I don’t organize the orchestra, I don’t write the music, I don’t find the new assignments… - Oh, all right, then. But that exchange wasn’t even the funny part. The best was yet to come. There were often times when everything happened at once and nothing was accomplished. “Hey, the typesetter is having a problem,” someone would announce. While talking to him, it became clear that he had a few manuscript pages mixed up. That required getting in touch with the author in London, who was having problems of his own with a few of the people he was interviewing for other articles and asked if we could provide him with different sources. In the newsroom no one could come up with those names, so I’d consult the MIP-TV guide, until I remembered that earlier the printer had asked about switching two or three ads around so that one full signature could be printed. That required speaking with the sales director to see if the client would mind the switch. Sales, however, was having its own set of problems with a few clients who apparently received defective copies and were complaining that the color of their ads wasn’t correct. That required looking for whatever office copies we could find lying around, since we had not yet received the full shipment. While looking around, a phone call came from a PR rep who was coordinating an important interview, asking if I could resend the page with the questions to his client. “Of course,” I said. We were past the deadline and therefore it was an urgent matter. “Let me look for it and I’ll fax it over.” Easier said than done! Back at my desk, there was a note from the art director who needed the headline on a story so that he could finish the page and send it to the printer, who was threatening to add overtime charges if he could not go to print immediately with a few signatures. By then the clock rang 6 p.m. and mercifully everyone was gone. Back at home at around 7 p.m., the “sisters” asked what I had accomplished that day. “Well, I didn’t stop for a minute. I ran around endlessly, even forgetting to take a lunch break. I dealt with over 10 major issues and emergencies, but in all honesty, I did not accomplish anything!” “So what do you do, again?,” asked the sisters. Luckily, it wasn’t long before I went back to being just the editor. Dom Serafini “What we’re looking for is a man who can do a woman’s job.” M y T w o C e n t s V I D E O • A G E MA Y 2 0 1 2 38 MAIN OFFICES 216 EAST 75TH STREET NEW YORK, NY 10021 TEL: (212) 288-3933 FAX: (212) 288-3424 VIDEO AGE WEBSITES: www.videoage.org www.videoagelatino.com www.videoage.it P.O. BOX 25282 LOS ANGELES, CA 90025 VIALE ABRUZZI 30 20123 MILAN, ITALY YUKARI MEDIA YMI BLDG. 3-3-4, UCHIHIRANOMACHI CHUO-KU, OSAKA JAPAN TEL: (816) 4790-2222 EDITOR DOM SERAFINI ASSISTANT EDITOR SARA ALESSI EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTORS ENZO CHIARULLO (ITALY) LUCY COHEN BLATTER CARLOS GUROVICH LEAH HOCHBAUM ROSNER BOB JENKINS (U.K.) AKIKO KOBAYACHI (JAPAN) LORENA SANCHEZ (ARGENTINA) LEVI SHAPIRO DAVID SHORT (AFRICA) ERIN SOMERS MARIA ZUPPELLO (BRAZIL) CORPORATE AND CIRCULATION OFFICE 216 EAST 75TH STREET NEW YORK, NY 10021 TEL: (212) 288-3933 FAX: (212) 734-9033 PUBLISHER MONICA GORGHETTO BUSINESS OFFICE LEN FINKEL LEGAL OFFICE ROBERT ACKERMANN STEVE SCHIFFMAN WEB MANAGER MIKE FAIVRE DESIGN/LAYOUT CARMINE RASPAOLO ILLUSTRATIONS BOB SHOCHET FOUNDED IN 1981 MEMBER OF NBCA (CIRCULATION) VIDEO AGE INTERNATIONAL (ISSN 0278-5013 USPS 601-230) IS PUBLISHED SEVEN TIMES A YEAR: JANUARY, MARCH/APRIL, MAY, JUNE, JULY, OCTOBER AND NOVEMBER/DECEMBER. PLUS DAILIES BY TV TRADE MEDIA, INC. SINGLE COPY U.S.$9.75. YEARLY SUBSCRIPTION U.S.$45 (U.S., CANADA, MEXICO); U.S.$60 (U.K. AND EUROPE). © TV TRADE MEDIA INC. 2012. THE ENTIRE CONTENTS OF VIDEO AGE INTERNATIONAL ARE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT IN THE U.S., U.K., AND ALL COUNTRIES SIGNATORY TO THE BERNE CONVENTIO AND THE PAN-AMERICAN CONVENTION. SEND ADDRESS CHANGES TO VIDEO AGE INTERNATIONAL, 216 EAST 75TH STREET, SUITE PW, NEW YORK, NY 10021, U.S.A. PURSUANT TO THE U.S. COPYRIGHTS ACT OF 1976, THE RIGHTS OF ALL CONTENTDONEONASSIGNMENTFORALLVIDEOAGEPUBLICATIONSARE HELD BY THE PUBLISHER OF VIDEOAGE, WHICH COMMISSIONED THEM.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTI4OTA5