Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/409381
P96 CN III CARRUTHERS SAYS BY PAUL CARRUTHERS I t all started innocently enough with my own little mention "In The Wind" on June 12, 1985: "Hired: Paul Carruthers, 23, as Associate Editor of Cycle News… joined Cycle News, Inc. on June 3." At that point and time, my goal was pretty simple. Don't end up like the guy who was also featured in an "In The Wind" item directly above mine: "Fired: (name withheld) after 10 months as Feature Editor of Cy- cle News, on May 31." Guess I shouldn't have fret- ted, considering that I'm writing this column almost 30 years later. So here we go… The problem when writing something like this, it is that when you are trying to mention people from 30 years, some will inadvertently be left out. All I can say to them is not to feel that they were in any way forge- table, but instead to forgive me for being old. It's also difficult to write about 30 years of memo- ries in a column of this length. I'd need a book (that's a novel idea) to even begin to tell a frac- tion of the memories from this place that I will cherish forever. It's been an incredible 30 years. I don't remember every race I've covered, every column I've written, every bit of news I dug up for "In The Wind," but I do re- member what matters the most: the people who worked with me and for me (and I always tried to make it so that they are one and the same). When I started at Cycle News in 1985, the masthead of edi- tors read: John Ulrich, Editor; Kit Palmer, Associate Editor; Matt Hilgenberg, Associate Editor; Jim Wolcott, Associate Editor; and yours truly, Associ- ate Editor. I was at the bottom of the food chain, but I loved every minute of it and I was de- termined to sit at the top of that masthead one day. Today that same masthead reads, for one last time: Paul Carruthers, Editor; Kit Palmer, Off-Road Editor; Andrea Wil- son, Associate Editor. I'd be remiss without mentioning the others on today's masthead: Larry Lawrence, Contributing Editor; Shan Moore, Contribut- ing Editor; Alan Cathcart, Eu- ropean Editor; Michelle Baird and Mary Kettles, Copy Edi- tors; Sunny Kwon, Art Direction and Design. And, of course, our sales team of general manager Sean Finley and sales director Jesse Ziegler. The team of late has been lean and mean, but I'm proud of what we've been able to accomplish in the three years since the "old" Cycle News went upside down and we started producing the digi- tal edition, something that was made possible by the lifeline thrown to me by the Motorsport Aftermarket Group (MAG), via the man who has long been a mentor to me - Terry Vance. In between those two mast- heads the list of those who have worked with me is long and im- pressive. I'll fast-forward to 1988 to Kit Palmer (I'm not going to mention him again because he doesn't go away. And more on him later) Farren Williams, Nate Rauba and Brian Catter- son. With my second boss Jack Mangus at the very top. In 1993, I took over as edi- tor of the weekly publication from Mangus and my staff was made up of Palmer, Don Mae- da, Chris Jonnum and Scott Rousseau. This was my first go at being the boss and those guys had my back. At that point in time, I went to battle each and every week with a group of young men who I knew were the very best. We were a great team and we attacked each is- THANK YOU ALL!