Some temporal musings

Sept. 8, 2003
Among platitudes drilled into us by my Latin teacher was "Tempus fugit." And she was right: Time certainly flies.

Among platitudes drilled into us by my Latin teacher was "Tempus fugit." And she was right: Time certainly flies.

Times also change, yet so imperceptibly that it may take 40 years' perspective to appreciate the magnitude.

Recently, an OGJ ad brochure from the same era of my Latin travails surfaced among other office flotsam and drove home that truth: The piece pictured the entire OGJ editorial staff, circa 1960.

Further digging among OGJ's dusty bound volumes narrowed the date to early 1961.

Numbers

For the discoverers of the piece, it was a wonder: "Look at all those editors!"

From small black and white photos look out 45 editors, editorial assistants, and artists comprising a staff spread among six US cities. The Journal now has about 17 or 18 editors, depending on how their duties are defined by parent company PennWell Corp.—which didn't even exist in 1961.

Among that huge group are East Coast Editor Gene T. Kinney, who would be editor in a few years; District Editor Robert J. Enright, who would become executive editor shortly; and West Coast Editor Carl J. Lawrence, who would become managing editor and a corporate vice-president before retiring nearly 30 years later.

In 1961, the staff seemed to have editorial slots for every conceivable function: editorial writer, editorial research director, Gulf Coast refining editor, something called a "technical editor," not only a pipeline editor but also an assistant pipeline editor, not only an equipment editor but also an associate equipment editor and a new-equipment editor, geophysical editor (within a couple of months, a geological editor as well), marketing editor, and photographic editor.

Among the 45 were 11 "district" editors. Virtually every editor to spend much of his or her working life with OGJ began as a district editor, covering whatever he was told to cover, learning not only the industry but the Journal as well, its editorial traditions and values. Three of OGJ's four current managing editors began as district editors in the late 1970s or early 1980s.

And service with the Journal can be long: In 1961, Associate Editor Neil Williams had been with OGJ since 1925, says his accompanying biography. George Weber served 27 years as a district editor and refining editor until becoming editor in 1958; he would not retire for another 16 years.

Pipeline Editor Paul Reed had joined the Journal in 1935; both his immediate successor (John P. O'Donnell, assistant pipeline editor) and later successor (Earl Seaton) are among this 1961 crowd. And Technical Editor W.L. Nelson had joined the Journal in 1936.

In all, the brochure crows, this staff represented more than "600 years of editorial experience unequaled by any other business publication in the world." Quite a claim; but almost certainly true.

And qualified? In an age when a bachelor's degree was just becoming a minimum requirement for professional-level employment, OGJ's representation of degreed journalists (from Missouri, Columbia, and Texas universities, among others) was complemented by a cadre of geologists, geophysicists, and engineers (mechanical, chemical, and petroleum).

The June 26, 1961, OGJ presents the magazine's fourth annual look at "Pipeline Installation and Equipment Costs," topics that evolved into the Pipeline Economics Report (see p. 60).

The entire June 26 issue reached 270 pages; 97 pages of ads push the listing of OGJ's 45 editors and various sales staff and locations to p. 98.

The news pages that finally begin in earnest on p. 115 cover the effect on the oil industry of the ongoing maritime strike, whether petroleum engineering schools will disappear (sound familiar?), and how oil-aid programs from the Soviet Union (the what?) are more dangerous than the country's exports of cheap crude oil.

In addition to extensive project news and the report on costs, OGJ readers received nearly 17 pages of processing technology coverage.

The present

It is a thorough and complete packageUin 1 week's issue. How could it be otherwise with such an army of editors?

It's encouraging to note that, more than 40 years later, OGJ readers are getting no less, despite fewer staff. But the medium has changed, diversified, become more immediate.

Near-daily web site updates complement the physical magazine to continue OGJ's tradition of delivering industry news and technology to the (also leaner) worldwide oil and gas industry.

After more than 100 years of serving that industry, we're glad to report that some things don't change, however much time flies.