Before coming to this magazine six years ago, I worked for a company that gave its top leaders access to executive coaches. The one I chose was Kelley Freeman, based in Helotes, near my home in San Antonio. Kelley had cowritten an insightful book called C.O.A.C.H., whose thesis was stated succinctly in its subtitle: The final act of leading is leaving. Kelley emphasized that when you take on a new job—especially if it might be your last—you should start with the end in mind. What would a successful exit look and feel like? In what condition would you want to leave your team and your organization?
I’ve thought a lot about Kelley’s advice over the past couple of years, as I looked toward my seventieth birthday, in January 2025. And I’ve decided that the end of 2024 is the right time for me to step down as editor in chief.
After hearing an enthusiastic recommendation from me, Texas Monthly’s chairman, Randa Duncan Williams, has named as my successor our deputy editor, Ross McCammon. Ross is an exceptional journalist and leader whom I was pleased to lure back to his native Texas two years ago, after he’d spent nearly twenty years at acclaimed magazines in New York City. He and I have been working on the transition for several months. I’m confident that he’s ready to take charge and that you, our readers, will be in good hands. What’s more, he will be in good hands, thanks to the talent and collegiality of our editorial and business staffs. I’ve been blessed to work with several great teams over the past half century, but this one has been the best.
I leave TM feeling proud of what this team has accomplished, in the quality of our work and the rapid growth of our audience on all the platforms where folks want to enjoy great storytelling about Texas: from the award-winning print magazine that you’re holding to our lively website and our beloved Texas Country Reporter TV show; from our podcasts, videos, newsletters, books, and live events to the Hollywood movies and streaming series inspired by our stories. (Check out our latest series, Landman, which launched in mid-November on Paramount+. Cocreated by Texan Taylor Sheridan, of Yellowstone fame, and starring Billy Bob Thornton, Landman is based on a Texas Monthly feature story about the Permian Basin oil boom and a podcast we produced in collaboration with Imperative Entertainment.)
At a time when many publications are announcing layoffs or shutting their doors, we’re among the few that are growing in audience, revenue, and editorial staff. Since 2019 our team of full-time journalists has roughly doubled, to sixty, and now includes specialists in everything from energy to barbecue and tacos. And our print readership is growing. Earlier this year, MRI-Simmons, an independent firm whose audience measurements are closely followed by advertisers, estimated that Texas Monthly’s total monthly readership had reached an all-time high of 2.9 million.
None of these achievements would be possible without the passion that you, our readers, demonstrate for stories about Texas. In mid-October I emailed my thanks to many of you, but I want to reiterate that message here for anyone who might have missed it. I’m grateful not only for your support of Texas Monthly but also for the advice, correction, praise and occasional dudgeon that thousands of you have shared with me since I took the reins and began reaching out to a few of you each day, by email, mail, phone, and text.
One of you wrote to suggest that we stop writing about politics and stick to barbecue, and then engaged in a pleasant exchange with me about how a magazine is like a department store and the French word for department store is magasin. One convinced me that we should pick up more of our best website stories and publish them in print. One groused (correctly) that we were paying insufficient attention to East Texas and, at my request, sent us some intriguing story ideas. You’ve been demanding and discerning, and while we’ve had our disagreements, your generous feedback has helped me and my team publish better stories.
Starting in January, my wife and I plan to spend more time traveling to visit our sons and mothers and our new granddaughter. I also look forward to more fishing, hunting, skiing, and golf. But I’ll always have time for Texas Monthly, and I hope you will too.
This article originally appeared in the December 2024 issue of Texas Monthly with the headline “On Leading—and Leaving.” Subscribe today.
