ASME’s New Prez: Web is Our Present

Runner's World editor Willey succeeds Glamour's Leive.

By Dylan Stableford
04/30/2008

For print magazine editors, having the added duty of editing a Web site was once the equivalent of "being sent down to Pawtucket," David Willey, editorial director of Runner's World, said at the American Society of Magazine Editors luncheon Tuesday at the Hearst Tower in New York.

Not anymore.

Willey, who was named ASME president Wednesday replacing Glamour editor Cindi Leive, ASME's outgoing president [both pictured], delivered a rousing speech echoing the power of print while noting how drastically the job of an editor has changed.

"What was journalism is now content," Willey said. Editors, he said, have become "platforms."

Willey said that issuing an updated set of editorial guidelines governing digital, as well as reducing the environmental impact of magazine production and distribution would be his top priorities.

"It's a tumultuous but thrilling time to be an editor," Willey said.

"It's silly to say the Web is our future," Willey added. "Because it's our present."

Robbie Myers, editor-in-chief of Elle, was re-elected as ASME vice president. Adam Moss, New York's editor, was reelected to the secretary post. Lucy Danziger of Self was elected as treasurer.