• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, July 2, 2008

Clay Felker, the legendary magazine editor who died Tuesday at the age of 82, touched many lives and influenced generations of journalists. I'd like to share how he influenced one: me. His influence began long before I actually knew him, or even knew of him. Growing up in New York City during the 1970s, I was vaguely aware that I wanted to be some kind of writer, but it wasn't until I started reading the "new journalism" being published in New York magazine that I even considered doing something like that for a living. And it wasn't until I listened to an account of the 1977 takeover of New York Magazine Corporation on the city's listener-supported radio station WBAI that I really began to think about the process of journalism and the people behind it.

The New York publishing company, which also published the venerable Village Voice, had just been acquired by an expansion-minded Australian media businessman, who according to the WBAI broadcaster, had ousted the team behind New York in move that marked the end of an era in New York City journalism. I had never heard the names Clay Felker or Rupert Murdoch before, but both would ultimately figure prominently in my career. In retrospect, it all seems fairly coincidental. I prefer to look upon it as destiny.

A few years later, while studying journalism in college, I applied for a summer internship at a New York-based magazine called ANNY, one of three regional trade publications (along with SAM and MAC) that had just been acquired by some of the former New York Magazine Corp. execs ousted by Murdoch. In fact, one of them, Ken Fadner, is still my boss (he is the founder and publisher of MediaPost). Over the next year, Ken and his partners Jack Thomas and Pen Tudor, recruited some of the best journalists and art directors to help remake their flunky, regional ad trades into what would eventually be known as Adweek. I was fortunate enough to spend the first eight years of my career working for them, and for most of that time, working for Clay Felker, who did to Madison Avenue, what he did for the City of New York. He focused on the reason the industry was so important to the rest of the world. And he focused on how the rest of the world influenced the business of advertising. And, of course, he got us to focus on the great narratives and indelible characters that are what make the ad business unlike any other business. And it's a better business because of him.

Clay's formula for great journalism was actually pretty simple. He was great at attracting the best people. And he was even better at inspiring good people to get the best out of themselves.

In the end, Clay will be remembered most for conceiving New York magazine, the publication that defined the greatest metropolis ever, during what arguably were its greatest years ever. But his imprint goes far beyond that. There were other fine publications that he created: New West, Manhattan Inc., Eastside Express. And there were many more that he touched and redirected, including both Adweek and Esquire. But his greatest gift most likely was the people he nurtured - many of whom have gone on to nurture others. So it's fitting that his last years were spent teaching at the University of California at Berkley's Graduate School of Journalism, where he also spawned The Felker Magazine Center.

The last time I actually saw Clay was during a November 2004 "future of magazine journalism" symposium in New York organized as a tribute to him. The main panel discussion featured many of the top magazine editors in the business, including Wired and Federated Media founder John Battelle, current New York magazine editor Adam Moss, as well as the next generation of quasi journalists, including then Wonkette blog writer Ana Marie Cox, who confessed that her main reason for blogging was that she couldn't get work as a magazine writer and still hoped to someday write for New York. She is now Washington editor of Radar magazine.

During the tribute, current New York editor Moss also acknowledged, ""Every day I do this, I think, 'Well, what would Clay do with this?"

Hardly a day goes by that I don't think the same thing, and the last time I saw Clay during the reception following the symposium, I was heartened to see that the trademark twinkle in his eye was as infectious as ever. And it inspired me as it always had. It also reminded me of my favorite Felker-ism - a phrase he would use to inspire young journalists to get the most out of what they were doing.

"A story," he would say, "should jump off the page and into the reader's mind."

The story of Clay Felker is, and will forever be in mine.

Thanks Clay.