Editor's Note- October

The first time I picked up a copy of PDX Magazine (the March 2006 issue, left), I was surprised I hadn’t heard of it. The glossy photos, the super-handy happy hour guide and the subject matter (tattoos, fashion and late night dining) seemed right up my alley.

Of course, I hadn’t heard of the magazine because at that time it was only six months old. It was only two days later that I saw their ad for an editorial intern.

Things have changed a lot since then. We have seen many of our co-workers move on to other things. We’ve seen the readership grow more numerous and more diverse. We’ve seen the pages inside the magazine change a lot, too, thanks to the remarkable work of our Art Director, Joel Masters (who has, by the way, been here since the magazine’s debut). When I see how far we’ve come in such a short time, frankly, I’m pretty proud to be a part of it. In fact (as we celebrate our third birthday) I am positively brimming with pride.

It hasn’t always been easy, of course. Times are tough for publications whether they are The New York Times or a little start up like us. Like anyone else, we’ve hit a few roadblocks (like the month we had to pack up our 40,000 magazines in trucks and deliver them ourselves!) but, in spite of it all, we are still going strong.

For me, I owe a tremendous amount of gratitude (and food, booze, prizes, money, etc) to my two assistant editors, Nathan Peasley and Jeremy Lloyd. There’s simply not enough that I can say about those guys and their ability to get the job done while still making me laugh. It’s pretty remarkable to get through a particularly grueling press cycle and still want to hang out with anyone from the office, but these guys are just that cool. And when the proverbial you-know-what hits the fan, they are just the sort of guys you want backing you up.

As we move forward, I am excited about the changes we have in store. Never the sort of publication to rest on our laurels, we approached this advent with more of a question of “what’s next?” than a sense of self-congratulatory relief. To be honest, I expected the latter. I have heard apocryphal tales of magazines surviving after three years, as if that were some magical threshold that had to be crossed.

Around here, though, we are simply glad to be around and glad to have the opportunity to express our creativity and share the things that we love about this city. Frankly, when it comes to creating a “where to go, what to do” magazine, there’s not a better city to be in.