Janet Stilson

A 'Wonder Woman' of Substance

It seems to me that the question we should be asking ourselves is not whether or not our glass is half empty or full, but rather: What is the substance inside it? And what does the glass look like?  

As I write this, mine is a long-stemmed glass filled with Chateauneuf du Papes, that queen of all Cotes du Rhone wines. Tomorrow, maybe it won't be a glass at all, but rather an earthen mug filled with deep, rich green tea from the hills surrounding West Lake in China. I have a treasured memory of sipping tea in a little restaurant there. Its flavor was enhanced by someone telling me, at the time, that green tea can actually improve your eyesight. I love the idea of that, whether or not it's actually true.

Occasionally I write a story about someone who seems to have filled their own drinking vessel with a very rarified substance, and as they tell me about their world, it is as if they offer me a delicious sip.

There was a bit of that feeling when I recently interviewed Rebecca Glashow, pictured here. She is senior vice president of digital media distribution at Discovery Communications.The media trade publication Multichannel News named her one of its Wonder Women, and asked me to tell the tale.

Looking Under the "Hood" of Very Successful People

Recently, someone asked me what kind of journalism writing I liked to do the best.  That was easy to answer.  Because in addition to the pleasure I get from digging down deep into issues and trends, I love to write profile articles about people that I find inspiring.

Successful people generally have some really interesting stories to tell, and they give me clues about the key character traits and personal philosophies that lead to the highest levels of achievement. Plus, they're just fun to speak with. (Sure beats meeting people at a cocktail party!)

I really enjoyed writing profiles of four individuals who were named "People to Watch in 2012" by The Financial Manager magazine. While all of the executives I wrote about were fascinating in their own ways, the comment that resonated most deeply for me came from Patrick Walsh, who is pictured here.

The Powers of Enchantment

It's remarkable when you meet someone from beyond the grave. That's happened to me over the last few months as I've worked on a special supplement to The Financial Manager magazine that was all about a man named Ed Deichman. I have the honor of serving as TFM's editor. And Ed was chairman of the organization who publishes the magazine, the Media Financial Management Association (MFM).

Ed passed away in the middle of 2011, and MFM's board decided to honor him by creating the supplement. I spent a good chunk of November editing the reminiscenses of over 20 people who served with Ed on MFM's board and at the company where he worked his entire career, Media General, which owns a string of broadcast, Web and publishing properties.

Ed and I ran into each other over the years at MFM conferences, but our exchanges were short and rare. I began to relate to him on a deeper level as I edited all those memories. I learned he was a beloved task master. He wasn't the first person to speak up during an intense board debate, but when he did, his observations were so astute that everyone listened very carefully. And he had a very infectuous laugh.

The  most striking remark for me came from MFM's CEO and president, Mary Collins. She wrote that Ed became deeply involved in MFM because the organization was navigating very difficult waters, and it was so important to the industry. He didn't want it to fail.  

It seems so incredibly admirable, to leave such a deep impression on those around you that they feel compelled to write their thoughts down about you when you die.

This resonated for me all the more because at the same time I was working on the Ed Deichman supplement, I was helping to produce a big gala fundraising event for New York Women in Film & Television in my capacity as VP of Special Events on its board.

My Favorite Sales Person

Meet Carnation France. We first encountered each other around six years ago when my mate David and I moved to Harlem. And I've come to consider him one of the best sales people I've ever met. He's one of many different street vendors that line the wide sidewalks of my street, Lenox Avenue, also known as Malcolm X Boulevard or Sixth Avenue. (Because why have one name when you can have three?)

Carnation and his sidekick, a Jack Russell terrier named Jewel, have a lot of competition in the hood from other hawkers.There's a guy known as Soup Man, who roams all over the area, rolling his various liquid lunchtime fare whereever the spirit moves him. A bit of an elusive guy, who seems wild as the escapee parrot that's always cawing when I zoom down the side of the Hudson River on my bike. There's lot of jewelry for sale, which is one of Carnation's specialties, and some really great hat stands as well.

Making Sense Amidst Senseless Violence

Almost exactly one week ago, one of my favorite people in the media business was murdered. He was shot repeatedly in front of his three-year-old child.

His name is Steven McIntosh, and I posted a blog about him on Jan. 28th. If you scroll down, you'll find his photo and why I find the work that he was doing on behalf of the whole television industry so important.

The account of Steve's death is disturbing even if you never met him. But part of the shock for me has to do with how deeply his death hit me, because I'd grown so fond of him in such a short span of time. How many phone conversations did we have? Maybe five. How many e-mails did we exchange? Around 20. How many times did I meet him face to face? Zero. 

So how did he do it? Why is it that my heart is so shattered when I never even spoke with the bloke until late last year -- less than six months ago?

Ted, Rene, Stephen and Bill

Last week I had the opportunity to ask Michele Ganeless, president of Comedy Central, about Stephen Colbert. His show, The Colbert Report, is one of the funniest programs on TV, if you ask me. She said that nothing motivated Stephen more than if you told him that something was really hard or impossible to do. That's Stephen, pictured here. (Photo credit: Scott Gries, PictureGroup)

Michele's remarks reminded me of some of the most intelligent, successful people I've ever known. They share the same traits: They're incredibly determined despite all the odds against them, and they can be really, really funny.

The Lost Advertising Windfall

What if there was $45,000 out there in the universe with your name on it, but you just weren't aware that it was there -- or figured it was too much trouble to get? What if there was $45 million just waiting for you, or some of your rivals? How about $45 billion -- during a really, really tough economic period?

That last figure is an estimate concerning the amount of revenue that advertisers leave on the table every year, either out of ignorance or because they can't be bothered, according to Steve McIntosh (pictured here), who is vice president and general manager of the Belo Advertising Customer Service. That's a unit within Belo Corp., which owns 20 TV stations in the U.S.

The estimate relates to something known as coop advertising, and it encompasses advertising on all forms of media, not just TV.

Steve is on a mission to make the process of getting at those dollars a whole lot easier for advertisers as well as the TV stations where they run commercials.

Defying Journalism's Realities

It's enough to give give a journalist whiplash -- finding out that there's actually a news organization that's hiring reporters in droves, rather than laying them off en masse. It runs counter to the general trend that most news services have faced over the last several years.

So it was a particular pleasure for me to write an article about Allbritton Communications' raging success, Politico, which is both a newspaper and an online news source dedicated to providing Washington, DC insiders with the very latest news about their various interests. That's Politico's bustling newsroom in the image above.

The Korean Touch

There's a place I love to go to in Queens called SpaCastle where you can spend all day getting the kinks out for an extremely affordable price. The Koreans who run it are very friendly but have a military-like, exacting set of rules. A chorus of pretty, screaming girl-women raise the roof if some wears their sneakers in the wrong area. You have to take it with a sense of humor.

As my partner David and I were luxuriating there yesterday, we noted that the hyper attention to detail and the desire to please are  common character traits of many Korean businesses.

That certainly was driven home for me when I recently interviewed Joel Ewanick, VP of marketing at Hyundai Motor America, for a profile in Brandweek.  The magazine named Joel Grand Marketer of the Year for the outstanding Assurance campaign that I blogged about a few months ago.

Joel (pictured above) told me about an incident shortly after he arrived at Hyundai, when he and Jeff Goodby, who heads one of the most creative and well respected agencies in the country, Goodby Silverstein & Partners, received a lesson in humility from one of Hyundai's top executives, in on special assignment from HQ in South Korea.

The big cheese didn't like the commercial they'd just produced, and they did 56 rough cuts to get it right. In the end, the problem was a two-second segment, and the expression on a car driver's face. Joel actually relished the challenge and says it was an extremely valuable learning experience. And those are some of the reasons why he stands out in the marketer crowd, and why Brandweek is honoring him.

Below is a link to my profile. But you can also hear Joel talk about the anecdote I just described in an audio clip excerpt from our interview. Brandweek included it on their site, along with my story. It's the one called "Jeff Goodby and Making Every Second Count."

Download Brandweek - Ewanick - 0909

Bad Guy Turned Good

What do you do if you find out you're a distant cousin of an infamous persona of the Old West?  That was a burning issue for Terry "Ike" Clanton when he discovered he was the distant cousin of one of the supposed bad guys during the Shootout at the OK Corral, which took place in Tombstone, Ariz. in 1881. His grandfather was so embarrassed by his ancestors, he denied there was any familial connection.  But Terry dug around and unearthed one big juicy truth.

Chances are, you've seen a movie or TV show depicting Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday as the heroes of that bloody gun battle, and Ike and Billy Clanton as ruthless cattle rustlers. Kurt Russell and Kevin Costner are among those who have depicted Earp, and Val Kilmer certainly gave Doc Holliday a colorful spin in the movie Tombstone.

I thoroughly enjoyed taking a spin down that thorny trail in history to give Terry "Ike" Clanton's side of the story for American Road magazine. And it was pretty amazing to see the almost spooky resemblance between the present day and historic Clantons. Terry's deep research into the subject has revealed an entirely different perspective on what happened, and paints his distant cousins in a much more positive, albeit somewhat eccentric light.

American Road won't allow me to link you to the story, which was published in its summer issue. But Terry's revisionist history is easily accessible.