MY STORY

THE WHOLE STORY

Growing up in New Jersey, I was insatiable about getting and sharing information. Mom remembers that at seven I went around poking my finger at family members and friends, asking them to comment on everything from Little League scoring scandals to big brother bad behavior. I guess that's how I came by my journalist cred.

My first expose article appeared in Mrs. McVee's 2nd grade newsletter to parents. I blew the whistle on the misuse of allocated funds when money earmarked for our new swing set was diverted to refurbishing the teacher's lounge.

In college during the ‘70s, my covering “politics” for the student paper involved stories about frat and sorority squabbles, commuting gripes, and tuition hassles, among a few “alternative issues." I also handled collegiate angst in editing the literary journal. And as a DJ, I wrote and read about campus happenings, dude.

Graduating in an economy slumped by an oil crisis, I worked a few odd jobs, and then ducked back into college, first getting my Masters and then becoming an adjunct professor at Seton Hall University. I taught literature and writing classes there and at other area colleges to make ends meet. (My first semester, I actually wore a tweed jacket with elbow patches.)

My first pro editor gig came at All American Crafts Publishing. As Managing Editor, I launched CraftWorks, a how-to magazine (and developed some fun spin-offs). Then with a sister company, MSC Publishing, I released pro baseball and football annuals. And I fulfilled a dream of “working” at Yankee Stadium—as a sports editor, if not a shortstop.

Recruited to join Better Homes and Gardens magazine, I moved to the publisher’s Iowa HQ, a place where this Jersey boy found corn and Midwest character were great for my system. In five years, I led editorial teams producing crafts and home décor magazines and books. I ultimately embraced “new media” in ’99, when the publisher asked me if I would like to “look into” this Internet thing and help launch a company website channel. I got hooked on Web publishing overnight.

So in January 2000, I moved to San Francisco to be at the epicenter of the Internet Revolution. My first rollout was a how-to site called Homecraft.com. But, as you guessed, the site closed not long after the launch party hors d'oeuvres went cold, even as many over-hyped Internet businesses folded that year. I tripped over some other bumps in the silicon-brick road along the way, working for visionaries without venture capital, until I landed a very productive two-year job helping grow an online banking business (SVB.com).

A 2003-2005 stint with a custom publishing company (DCP ), developing both print and Web client work, had me producing magazines for the Oakland A’s and the Bay Area home industry as well as Web sites for food retailers (DiamondNuts.com and DiscoveryFoods.com). I learned that while the customer’s always right, they can’t always write, so I was the handy pen-for-hire.

In the mid 2000’s, I surfed the Web’s social networking wave, producing NetClearly.com (and its national magazine), featuring user-written site reviews, Plutoz.com, a personalized search engine, and Backfence.com, a “citizen’s journalism” site serving up hyper-local Bay Area news. And as if to summarize my own work to this stage, I edited a book on networking and career paths entitled Hire Me Inc. by Roy Blitzer (yup, he’s Wolf’s look-alike kin).

Today, in 2009, I work for eBay.com (whose culture is still happily “dress-down “diligent for all its corporate success), devising content strategy for the company’s applications on various mobile phones, including iPhones and BlackBerries, among other indispensible portable media.  I also moonlight as a content consultant for various Web site start-ups—I still have a passion (and pathology) for the next big thing in publishing.

And after all this time I still tend to point my finger at people for a quick quote (sorry, Mom), as it’s even more fun than ever to grab the blab and spill the story.