At the Helm: Charting the next course

A visit to Boating Industry’s archives recently reminded me of the significance of a recent deep-sea discovery, and its importance to a newly minted trade press editor who has a love of naval history.

In mid-August, a team led by Paul G. Allen, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft, announced that it had found unmistakable wreckage of the USS Indianapolis 18,000 feet deep in the Philippine Sea.

Just before the Indianapolis sank, it had completed a top-secret mission: Delivering parts of the atomic bomb, that was later dropped on Hiroshima, from San Francisco to Tinian Island in the Western Pacific. 

The discovery of the ship’s final resting place required detective work to get a more accurate location for the historic ship after it was struck with two torpedoes from a Japanese submarine the night of July 30, 1945. A naval historian’s discovery of a blog post helped pinpoint the cruiser’s location.

There’s an important lesson to be learned from the Indianapolis discovery: Keep digging using the best data you can acquire, and eventually, you’ll complete your mission. Boating Industry has a similar calling in providing marine industry professionals with in-depth feature articles, research and business intelligence. 

I’d like to provide a quick editorial update regarding the Boating Industry editorial team. 

Jonathan Sweet, former editor-in-chief, has been promoted to Top 100 Dealers program director. This shift allows Jonathan to focus more attention to the ever-growing Top 100 Dealers program.

Brianna Liestman has just completed three years as our managing editor. Liz Keener, senior editor, provides vital conference support and rounds out our Top 100 team.

I’m looking forward to meeting many of you in December at the 2017 Marine Dealer Conference & Expo in Orlando. We have an exciting lineup of education sessions that will continue to foster innovation and successful marine dealerships. 

I’m excited about the magazine’s editorial mission, and bringing industry economics to life while tracing the past, depicting the present and providing industry intelligence and market data to our loyal readers. I was wrapping up one of my first industry interviews, a call to Iconic Marine Group COO Joe Curran, when I mentioned a common acquaintance I’d met after landing my first newspaper job in Northern Minnesota. 

Curran recalled some appropriate advice he had received early in his career from Larry Lavold, former Lund Boats president: “Develop your story, tell it the same way, tell it often, and you’ll be just fine.” 

I’m taking that advice to head and heart in serving a new group of readers, and charting a professional course with Boating Industry.   

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