The story below is from our September/October 2024 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!
In a world where print journalism faces challenges that have eliminated or severely diminished most magazines that were around in 1974, The Roanoker celebrates its 50th in fine form and with a strong eye toward its future.
Thanks to this magazine, I have been allowed to live out my dream for the last 50 years.
A dream of building my own company.
A dream of hiring other young people and helping them achieve their goals and dreams as well.
A dream of being a voice for progress for the city I love. The Roanoke Valley has been a wonderful place to raise my five children.
A dream that the magazine I launched in 1974 would continue to thrive long after I was gone.
Because if you think about the leading magazines in 1974—Reader’s Digest, TV Guide, Woman’s Day, Better Homes & Gardens, even LIFE and LOOK still had editions—you see that it’s a major accomplishment for a magazine to last, in full form for 50 years.
In the last few years as I began my transition toward retirement (I was 27 years old when the first issue was published), I have watched, with great pride, as a loyal and talented team of writers, editors and marketers have taken up the mantle and moved The Roanoker forward.
Some, like 40-year veteran editor-in-chief Kurt Rheinheimer, have been with me almost from the beginning.
For a small business, the number of employees who have celebrated 20, 25 and 30 years at the company is extraordinary. That work environment, where everyone’s ideas are heard and respected, is the single most important element in The Roanoker’s half century of longevity.
Reflection on that collection of talent inevitably takes me back to the start of things, when I was equally fortunate to be surrounded by another group of inspired and dedicated people.
By the fourth issue, Teresa Black, the mother of two of my children, would begin to advance the look of the magazine with her fine design touch and her talent for great cover shoots.
The very next issue marked the first appearance of a veteran journalist and writing star who would move the magazine’s content forward immeasurably. Norma Lugar, who passed away in 2010, championed the magazine’s Finest Homes series, which continues in slightly different form to this day. She also imposed her credo for good storytelling: It’s always about people.
That dream of being a voice for progress in Roanoke began to come to fruition with the arrival of Brenda McDaniel in 1976. Her wonderful investigative instincts were on display immediately with her stories on the dynamic city manager, Bern Ewert, and perhaps most pointedly with her exposé on the city’s running Piedmont Airlines out of town by failing to extend the airport runway.
Brenda also planted, in 1981, an accidental seed for the magazine’s and the company’s future success when she accepted a gloriously sophomoric humor column—The Star City Seer.
When Brenda decided to move on to a career in banking, and after she’d given Kurt Rheinheimer a few more serious assignments, she suggested he apply for her job as editor of The Roanoker.
Kurt, who stepped into the editorship of the magazine in 1984, continues to flourish with the company as editor-in-chief. His rare blend of writing and editing talent, along with organizational skills that keep every train running on time, would not only advance The Roanoker, but also enable and cascade through the company’s ensuing successes, including Blue Ridge Country magazine—now in its 36th year under his editorship—and Leisure’s 25-year run as publisher of Virginia Travel Guide, in collaboration with Virginia Tourism Corporation.
To put a bow on the history of the editor position at the magazine over the 50 years, consider that, including me for the initial four issues, there have been only five editors. Liz Long, who took over the day-to-day editor’s position in 2018, has distinguished herself as the fifth, as she rose meteorically from her initial, foot-in-the-door front desk position to establish herself as a full-fledged modern American city magazine editor, having innovated and vastly expanded the magazine’s digital and social media reach as well as creating podcasts and other reader-interactive offerings. Her executive board membership at the Jefferson Center is emblematic of her woman-about-town gifts to the position.
The company has employed more than 500 people over the years of The Roanoker. With my heartfelt thanks to each and every one, space here allows me to highlight the company-advancing accomplishments of just a few more.
Redesigns over the years, both in look and masthead, are thanks to talented art directors. Our current art director, Ana Morales, brings an artistic spin to her creativity and layouts, keeping us aligned with today’s top magazines and beautiful imagery. In keeping with modern times, Jeff Wood, who joined us immediately after graduating from Virginia Tech in 2005, ensures our digital platforms and marketing approach are always at the cutting edge, expanding our reach and engaging with our audience in innovative ways.
Denise Koff, who joined the company in 1998 and retired in 2023, brought our magazines new levels of circulation, new dimensions in marketing and a solid business sense that led to her rise from circulation director to vice president in charge of Leisure’s day-to-day operations during the five years before her retirement. Her innovative and insightful approach brought a new level of publishing excellence to the company with innovations ranging from national magazine and newspaper inserts to digital sales.
Denise’s record of longevity combined with accomplishment and excellence is not an isolated phenomenon at Leisure. Jo Diedrich, who began with us in ’94, has been the company’s most successful sales representative over the years, having sold Blue Ridge Country, many special publications and, most notably, millions upon millions of dollars into the Virginia Travel Guide and its ancillaries.
And Jo’s partner in that record of success with the Virginia Tourism Corporation, Nell Wichmann, has been an invaluable contributor since 1998.
Joining Denise in retirement recently was another multi-decade veteran who steered the fiscal ship of Leisure with unerring precision. Doris Tice’s talents for accurate P & L projections, for complete precision in recordkeeping and so much more are unparalleled in company history.
The fine paper, immaculate color and beautiful reproduction that have marked The Roanoker since its inception? For the last 30 years, that work—and the resulting premier quality of all of our publications—has been in the so-capable hands of Patty Jackson, production director extraordinaire.
Perhaps the most satisfying aspect of our 500 or so employees is that we have so often been able to recognize and advance talent from within. Most notable among all of those over 50 years is the story of a young lady who came to us just out of the University of Virginia, to take the worst job we have: collections manager. A job her parents insisted the new grad not take.
Shiree Carr’s vast talents were first recognized as she turned angry debtors into friends of the company. Her dedication to both Leisure and to lifetime learning were next evidenced as she mastered accounting. Then, as the company grew into the need for a human resources department, she educated herself there as well, and became HR director.
Next challenge? The long-time and highly successful salesperson for The Roanoker left the position to move to another state. Shiree, who would have said she was the last person in the world to take on sales, instead marched directly into the challenges, the countless hours, the non-stop no-thank-yous, and improved sales for The Roanoker to the point of a national Shooting Star Award from Niche Media in 2020.
Today, in perhaps the consummate realization of hire-hometown and promote-from-within, Shiree Carr is in her second year of running my company. Leisure’s executive vice president is universally admired and respected both by our employees and within the Roanoke community as a whole.
And Shiree would be the first to point to that Roanoke community as whole as a key element of The Roanoker’s 50-year success story. Without the support of the business community, there would have been no launch and there would be no Roanoker today. My heartfelt thanks to every advertiser over the half century, and to each and every one in this anniversary issue.
Without the support of every subscriber and reader—here in the Roanoke Valley and across many states—there would be no Roanoker today. I am deeply grateful to those who continue to express a desire and spend their hard-earned money for the printed page, for the look, feel and touch of a magazine.
And not just another magazine, but our hometown magazine.
Fifty years. So much has changed in the Roanoke Valley over that time, much of it positive and some not so much, especially in the realm of print publishing. A glance at the former Roanoke Times building—now home to Roanoke City Schools—is both emblematic and a perfect metaphor for the overall state of print.
I’m humbled as I offer my warmest thanks—to readers, to advertisers and to all of those I’ve had the pleasure to work with, for helping my lifetime dreams come to such perfect—and ongoing—realization.
The story above is from our September/October 2024 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!