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PrintFootball, Flynt and more
Jeffry Konczal
Photographer Jeffry Konczal and I were brainstorming recently about various ideas for photo essays. Nothing much was capturing our immediate attention, so we agreed to talk later. Before leaving, though, he casually mentioned a personal project he had started in the fall of 2010 that involved shooting high school football for Suburban News Publications (part of our publishing family). In addition to photographing the action on the field, he also concentrated, just for fun, on the activities of everyone else not participating in the game.
That idea got my attention, as did the photos he directed me to on his personal blog. He had captured the essence of the event that dominates Friday nights in Central Ohio communities.
Jeffry agreed to shoot more of the same this football season. And, thus, a photo essay was born. See “Friday night,” starting on page 56.
Another story in this issue also took a circuitous route to completion. It’s “My life with Larry Flynt,” which begins on page 50. Late last year, associate editor Dave Ghose got a tip about Roger “Ollie” Brooke, who once was the confidant and bodyguard of the nation’s most notorious skin publisher. Dave tracked him down and Brooke agreed to talk. “He had an extraordinary memory and he was a great storyteller,” says Dave, who thought Brooke should tell his own tale for the magazine—except Brooke told him: “I can talk. I can’t write.” So they met at least seven times over several months and Dave, using the transcripts of those interviews, wrote the story in Brooke’s voice.
Culling a mountain of material into 3,671 words was “brutal,” Dave says. It reads as if anything but.
Attention home remodelers: We’re accepting entries for the Columbus Monthly Homes Annual Renovation Competition. Send us three before and three after photos for one of the following rooms with a brief description of the transformation: kitchen, bathroom, master bedroom, living room or family room. Winners will be featured in Columbus Monthly’s Guide to Remodeling in August.
Send photos to: spaprocki@columbusmediaenterprises.com or Columbus Monthly, Attn: Home Renovation Competition, 5255 Sinclair Rd., Columbus, OH 43229.
As you may have heard, the Dispatch Printing Company announced on Sept. 27 that it had acquired Columbus Monthly’s parent company, Columbus Media Enterprises, from American Community Newspapers.
In addition to Columbus Monthly, the publications that became part of Dispatch Media Group include Suburban News Publications, a group of 22 community newspapers serving Central Ohio; Columbus C.E.O., a monthly business magazine; a dozen specialty magazine publications, including Columbus Bride, CityGuide, Restaurant Guide and the Official Columbus Visitors Guide, and The Other Paper, a news and entertainment weekly.
“The addition of these titles to our niche print and digital portfolio is a very exciting prospect,” said John F. Wolfe, chief executive officer and chairman of the Dispatch Printing Company. “Putting all of these titles under one roof opens up enormous and exciting possibilities for local readers, subscribers and advertisers.”
