Ex-CLer named Atlanta magazine editor
February 24, 2009 at 5:42 pm by Scott Henry in NewsThe semi-official motto at Creative Loafing when I started here was, “Once a Loafer always a Loafer!”
No, I never quite swallowed that line either, but I’m willing to invoke it with some pride in reporting that our former news editor, Steve Fennessy, has just been named the next editor of Atlanta magazine, starting April 1. Steve now serves as deputy editor to Rebecca Burns, who will make a lateral move into a newly created position overseeing the magazine’s online initiatives.
Here’s what Deborah Paul, editorial director of Emmis Publications, the magazine’s parent company in Indianapolis, had to say about Steve in an internal memo (which, I should add, was not provided to me by Steve):
Steve has excelled as a writer and editor at Atlanta magazine, where his work has been recognized by Best American Crime Writing and earned him a prestigious Knight-Wallace fellowship. With close to a decade of experience in the Atlanta market (he was an award-winning senior editor at Creative Loafing prior to joining Atlanta), Steve brings a deep knowledge of the city to this role, vital for any city magazine editor. As a seasoned reporter, writer, and editor whose work has taken him from upstate New York to Egypt, he will ensure that Atlanta magazine’s standards for journalistic excellence are maintained.
Awwww. Not to get picky, however, Steve was news editor here and then senior writer, but never quite reached the pinnacle of professional achievement that is the job of CL senior editor.
Steve came to Atlanta in 2000 fresh from the storied Rochester (NY) Democrat & Chronicle. As he explained it to me, he took the job at CL because the AJC wouldn’t give him a second interview. Who hasn’t been there? But even while editing the weekly news section and serving as midwife to other writers’ cover stories, Steve frequently contributed his own reportage. Finally, he’d had enough of struggling to assemble something usuable from our drivel and switched to writing full time.
He jumped ship to Atlanta magazine in late 2005, arguably getting out when the gettin’ was good. But just before he left, he wrote what I consider to be his finest cover story, about a young Atlanta man who survived a tour in Iraq as a Marine only to be shot to death in a road-rage incident on West Peachtree.
Good luck, Steve. You earned it. The rest of you can peruse Steve’s mag blog here.
February 27th, 2009 at 11:40 am
Wish I still read magazine. Wish I had a drink too.