NewsBeat

2 NewsBeat May/June 2017 Pat Cowles once said he hired a bartender to be the editor of his newspaper. And that was true. Pat had just bought the Sag Harbor Express in 1988, and hired me without a lot of real journalism experience. I was a writing major at Dowling College and had written a handful of restaurant reviews for a friend's paper on Fire Island — where I also did a quick interview with Andy Warhol after running into him at a bar when he was signing copies of his new tabloid, Interview — but had little else to recommend me to the job. I had just moved to Sag Harbor two years before and, finding myself in between positions, took a job as a bartender in a local pub. I was working one afternoon when Pat,who I had met years before, and my old friend Warren McDowell, who owned the paper on Fire Island, walked in and sat down at the bar. I learned that Pat was buying the local paper and was looking for an editor. I applied and, against all logic — and probably due to the dearth of editorial talent in Sag Harbor at the time — was hired. I've done a lot of other things in my life to make a living, from washing dishes to selling shoes. After finishing at Dowling, and after a particularly bleak three years selling telephone systems, I decided to go back to college and get my teaching certification from Stony Brook University. I taught high school English in Brentwood, Long Island, and remember teaching students what little I had learned about journalism. I triedworking as an actor and ran a cabaret and a summer stock theater. And, of course, tended bar off and on whenever I was in between positions. But journalism is the one job that I truly ever thought of as a career. And I've been doing it for about thirty years. The Express was started in 1859, a Republican paper when newspapers were not shy about broadcasting their affiliations and political preferences. It survived a number of challenges from competitors, occasionally consuming its rivals. By the time Pat Cowles came along in 1988, the paper had been owned by just two families. It had fallen on hard times; its then- owner, Vicky Gardner, had been bed-ridden for four years and was putting the paper together on a lap board, literally cutting and pasting, with rubber cement, galleys of copy onto flats. It was a rough looking broadsheet, with just a little bit of straight news, rewritten press releases, and a handful of community columns written by members of the Chamber of Commerce, American Legion and Community Band. The columns of copy were frequently tilted on the page, and if there were no cut lines already type set, well, then Vicky would just write them in by hand with a ball point pen directly onto the flat. Advertising was lean and relied on whatever came in over the transom, or the kindness of a business community that remained loyal to its hometown paper, regardless of its failings. There was a cranky old reporter who had cut her teeth at the Brooklyn Eagle, and her husband, a retired Chicago police detective, who doubled as photographer and newspaper deliveryman. That was the full time staff. Despite all this, Pat saw an opportunity in The Express. He thought it was a jewel that just needed some polishing. I learned from Pat what it meant to be a newspaperman. The importance of being a part of the community, and the role the local newspaper plays in its community: keeping the people truly informed and taking positions as the community continues to evolve. He taught me the business side — although I don't blame him for me not getting that quite right —and he left me pretty much on my own to run The Express as I saw fit, while he tended to his two other papers. Pat brought in computers, and we were the first, I believe, on Long Island to design a weekly using Apple Macs and pagination programs. We hired additional staff and Pat rebuilt the Main Street office The Express had occupied since 1915. My real education came from learning by doing, and much of the first four years of my tenure at The Express was spent in a newspaper war with a new startup, both of us competing for news and advertising dollars in the tiny two square mile village with one Main Street. We outlasted them, and as the economy in Sag Harbor began to improve, and the gentrification of an old factory town took hold, The Express was buoyed and gained a stronger financial foundation. In 2000, Pat said he wanted to step back a bit from his role at the paper, and I became publisher and part owner of The Express. In 2012, Pat got out entirely, and I became full owner. Over the years I was lucky to work with quite a few extraordinarily talented reporters, editors, advertising staff and production people, who helped make The Express the polished jewel Pat imagined back in 1988. We've done a lot of good work, I believe, and much of it I'm very proud of, from reporting on the skirmishes in village hall and on the school board, to the changing dynamics of a village in transition, to sensitive story telling of the human tragedies and successes — both large and small — in the community we serve. In 2012, thanks to Pat's great generosity, I was able to step back a bit at work and began to think about who should take over The Express,and who could ensure its success. One thing I had learned about the financial side of the business is that the person who is in charge of the revenue needs to have a stake. Kathryn Menu, one of the finest reporters I've ever met, and who knows Sag Harbor better than anyone, had been working for me about five years when I decided to change my role. Her husband, Gavin, was working as the advertising rep at a competing newspaper, and had very successfully started and grown business there. Together they would make a great team. We met and I suggested Gavin come to work at The Express as director of advertising, and if, after a year's time, they felt they could make a go of it, we would make an ownership deal. Which is what we've done and the future of The Express looks brighter than ever. Today my workload is lighter, and I get to do the part of the job I enjoy the most, designing and packaging the news. I play more golf, poorly, with occasional glimmers of mediocrity, and my wife Ellen and I enjoy a little more traveling and taking hikes — when she's not riding her motorcycle. Our daughter, Maggie, who we adopted several years after I started working at The Express, is finishing college. I still come into the office every day. And so does Pat, when he's in town. There's a desk for him, with his things, a computer and a pile of papers. It's hard to leave the newsroom behind. And we frequently walk down the street for a drink and a bite to eat. BNC hat trick for Sag Harbor Express Sag Harbor Express wins Newspaper of the Year, Stuart C. Dorman Award for Editorial Excellence, and John J. Evans Award for Advertising Excellence. Gavin became a sports writer shortly after graduating from Wesleyan University in Connecticut, where he played four years of varsity football. His first job was at The Independent newspaper (side note, The Independent, based in East Hampton, was purchased this week by billionaire Ron Pearlman), where he met his future wife, Kathryn. Gavin, 41, moved to The Southampton Press in 2004 and began writing for the news section as well as the sports section, winning his first NYPA award for Best Feature Story for a piece he did on the 60th anniversary of The D-Day invasion (the piece was heavily edited by his now-News Editor and NYPA's 2016 Writer of the Year, Stephen J. Kotz). Kathryn was introduced to journalism at the age of five, when she began exploring the offices of The East Hampton Star, where her stepfather, Jack Graves, has served as a reporter, sports editor and columnist during his close to 50 years at that newspaper. A graduate of Long Island University, Kathryn completed visiting semesters at Oxford University and Loyola University in New Orleans prior to graduation. She also interned under Sally and Anthony Amato at New York City's Amato Opera. Kathryn, 37, was hired by The Independent newspaper in 2004 as a reporter, where she met Gavin. The couple was married in 2005. Kathryn was hired by The Sag Harbor Express in 2007. By 2007, Gavin and Kathryn realized their reporter salaries combined would not sustain a life on the East End of Long Island, so Gavin moved over to sales, where he helped successfully launch The East Hampton Press. He also continued to write as much as possible, since the editorial side of the business remained his true passion. The couple welcomed their first child, Ella Marie, in 2009. In 2012, Bryan Boyhan, the then-publisher and editor of The Sag Harbor Express, asked Gavin to run his sales department at The Express and promoted Kathryn to editor. In 2014 — the same year the couple welcomed their second child, Charlie Dean — Gavin and Kathryn became co-publishers. Today, they work-side-by-side with Boyhan. Over the last five years, their Express Magazine series has nearly doubled in circulation and advertising sales. The newspaper has seen sales increases year-over-year for four consecutive years. Kathryn remains editor of The Sag Harbor Express, Express Magazine and sagharborexpress.com and Gavin continues to write sports in addition to leading advertising sales, but is still searching for that elusive Sports Writer of the Year award from NYPA… And their children delight, and occasionally torture, staff at The Express offices in Sag Harbor on a regular basis, much as Kathryn and her twin sister once did at The East Hampton Star three decades ago. An Opportunity for The Express About Gavin and Kathryn Menu By BRYAN BOYHAN — Publisher Emeritus

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