Previously On.....
(Don't worry, I'm not here to flood your inbox. I just want to make sure I know how this newsletter thing works, before I pester Alan Sepinwall for a tutorial.)
I was among the Mad Men long before Don Draper was a gleam in Matt Weiner's eye.
Having graduated from Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communication with a major in advertising (a pretty girl derailed my broadcast journalism agenda), my first job out of college was in the ad industry, at FCB/Leber Katz. As a traffic coordinator at FCB (which was riding quite a high at the time), I worked on such accounts as LifeSavers, R.J. Reynolds 🤷🏻♂️, Jamaica Tourism Board and AT&T (during the height of the MCI price wars, no less!). FCB is also where I met Jennifer, whom I would later marry (our marriage lasted 13 years) and parent two incredible sons with.
After several years at FCB, followed by stints at Ammirati & Puris (I got fired because my boss forgot I told her during the interview process that I had honeymoon plans for that fall) and then Bozell Worldwide (Annie Leibovitz's strict rules kept me from being on hand for Sarah Michelle Gellar's MILK: Where's Your Mustache? photo shoot, grr), I resolved myself to doing what I really wanted to do, which was write.
I applied and was accepted to the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, but at that exact same moment I was presented with the opportunity to learn by doing (and not while racking up student loans) – with the most entry level of jobs at Bauer Publishing's Soaps in Depth Magazine. (I have four older sisters in addition to a brother, and soaps were always on TV when I got home from school, so I was fluent in All My Children and General Hospital.) With Jennifer's blessing, I took a massive salary cut to change careers, and went to work at In Depth under the guidance of EIC Dawn Mazzurco, editors Richard Simms and Charlie Mason (both now at TVLine sister site Soaps.com), and a hard-charging news director named... Michael Ausiello.
Whereas Charlie taught me how to write gooder, Richard taught me time management and Dawn taught me how to run a fruitful photo shoot, Aus helped me discover my nose for news. Any issue where I landed an item in his front-of-book News section (usually with the name "Roger Howarth" in the headline) delivered quite a rush. Breaking news and coaxing storyline intel from interview subjects became my lifeblood – especially after Aus left for TV Guide Magazine and I took over as In Depth news director.
I eventually followed Michael to TVGuide.com, where I took over the daily Entertainment News column while he branched out with exclusives, "post mortem" interviews (which weren't a thing yet) and Ask Ausiello, which I always thought was the coolest (and sassiest) column ever. We were also regulars on the TV Guide Podcast, alongside any combination of Angel Cohn, Dan Manu, movie maven Maitland McDonough and "Ask Matt" himself, Matt Roush.
On January 22, 2008 (don't ask me how I remember), Ausiello and I were kicking back in his office, grumbling about... well, the reason why I remember January 22, 2008. We dreamed aloud in unison, "One day, we will run our own magazine or website, where we write about what we want to write about." (My go-to quip at the time was, "You do not want someone angrily recapping According to Jim.")
A little over two-and-a-half years later, as Michael wrapped a stint at Entertainment Weekly, he got the tap from Penske Media owner Jay Penske to launch a consumer-facing companion site to Nikki Finke's Deadline Hollywood. I was Michael's first call after his hire was announced; in November 2010 we began picking fonts, color schemes and a logo; and on Jan. 4, 2011, TVLine went live with a tiiiiny staff that also included senior editor Michael Slezak and West Coast editor Megan Masters. Yes, I tried, but failed, to get M&Ms to sponsor our launch.
TVLine – which as of Aug. 1 (my birthday, natch) is owned by Static Media – will turn 15 years old in January, a remarkable accomplishment by any measure. What's more, all along it has been what Michael and I always dreamed of, boasting a staff that brings so much to the table and the TV conversation. We also strived to make TVLine a fun place to work, and given that over nearly 15 years, no one has ever left to write for a rival publication, I think we pulled that off.
TVLine came along at a critical juncture in my life, and thus is deeply a part of me – one that I hate having to let go. But that sadness is far outweighed by my relief that the rest of the full-time staff will continue on, doing the amazing and creative things they each do.
My full statement is below:
It was 15 years ago this October that Michael Ausiello asked me to be first on board for the thrilling venture that became TVLine. Since Day 1, TVLine has fulfilled its "All TV, No Interference" mission, as a TV-centric site where editors lean into their expertise to write about what they want to write about.
Both Michael and I are delighted to see the brand “endure” (as my sons put it) with Kimberly Roots -- one of the finest writers I have known, and a true leader -- running things as Editor-in-Chief. I am also personally pleased to see the full-time TVLine staff — the hardest and smartest writers that a bustling site could ask for, but more importantly just wonderful people — continue on.
As for myself: After 15 years of diligent, passionate work on behalf of this homegrown PMC brand.... TVLine will be an incredibly tough act to follow, yes, but I love and know too much about this business to stop writing about it now, at the spry age of [SPOILER]. Then again, maybe I will hit the pro pickleball circuit, though I'm a 3.5 at best.
