Rachel Wimberly

Caught Flat-footed

As a reporter, every once in a while you can be caught completely flat-footed on a story. Let me explain.

A few weeks ago, I interviewed Mike Cooke, CEO of dmg world media, about the sale of the California Gift Show to Merchandise Mart Properties Inc., as well as the sale of a few art shows and a plan to sell off the rest of the West Coast and Canadian gift shows.

I also was working on another story for a different issue that was going to be dropped at the Exhibition & Convention Executives Forum a few weeks later. The story was about leadership roles and the kind of tough decisions that have been made as a result of the downturn in the economy.

Since I already had Cooke on the phone, I got the bright idea to ask him if I could interview him the following week for the ECEF story as well. He graciously agreed.

I wrote the story last week, including interviews with three other leaders in the industry, and was happy with the way it came out. (Look for it in the June 8 print issue.)

We go to press on Monday mornings. I walked in this Monday ready to lay out the story and, lo and behold, we had just received a press release from dmg informing us that Cooke was stepping down as CEO.

It’s not that Cooke is no longer a good candidate for the story, it’s just that the news he was leaving would come out before the story I had written for ECEF got into readers’ hands – leaving me with some really flat feet.

Posted by Rachel Wimberly on June 3, 2009 | Comments (1)