Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1507383
BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM SEPT. 16, 2023 7 LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHER ✦ STU COMAN to Rivals, we had to make several concessions and one was that Tom stayed at that network. Tom is still with 247 and is a strong competitor in the Irish recruiting market. Andrew Ivins — We hired Andrew from a small newspaper in Rocky Mount, N.C., where he cov- ered everything from the ACC to prep sports. He had ambitious goals and wanted to cover recruit- ing in his home state of Florida. Andrew showed up in South Bend in December without a winter coat, worked very hard and after one year with us, 247 Sports and Rivals both were bidding on him. He signed with 247 and now is a national recruiting analyst for the network. Todd Burlage — Todd joined us from the original staff when we purchased Blue & Gold and stayed with us a couple of years before deciding to be a full-time freelance writer. He continues to be a huge asset to the publication, contributing feature articles and his popular "Upon Further Review" column. Todd played a major part in helping us survive after Lou passed away. He remains a key member of our extended team. Mike Singer — Mike has done a tremendous job covering football recruiting for us for over three years. He also plays a big part in our podcasts. He is fun to work with (most of the time) and a strong team player. Jeanette Blankenship — Jeanette has designed the pages of Blue & Gold Illustrated for the last 14 years. She oversees our digital editions, helps with marketing and assists with customer service. She has been critical to our success and a pleasure to work with. She gets up early, early on Sunday mornings to lay out the game package from the day (or night) before to ensure that our magazine gets off to the printer by 10 a.m. Tyler Horka — Tyler is a talented young writer with Texas roots, and he has planted himself firmly in South Bend for the past two-plus years. He came on board with us after Lou's death and covers the current Irish program in great detail and with the flourish of a born storyteller. Bill Panzica — Bill handled photography for us for around five years and was a pleasure to work with. He would work road games into his business schedule to save us money, was always helpful and provided us with excellent photography on deadline. Dan Murphy — We have hired many young writ- ers for their first full-time jobs. Dan came to us af- ter completing the master's in journalism program at Northwestern. Few of our hires have done as well as Dan. He left us after three years for a job covering college football at ESPN and a couple of years ago coauthored the book "Start By Believ- ing: Larry Nassar's Crimes, the Institutions that Enabled Him, and the Brave Women Who Stopped a Monster." Dan currently is a staff writer at ESPN working with the Investigate/News Enterprise Group. Jim Lefebvre — Jim approached us about cover- ing Irish history for the magazine after Lou passed away. He has done an excellent job for us in that capacity, writing the "Irish Echoes" feature in each issue. It suits him well. He is the executive direc- tor of the Knute Rockne Memorial Society and an award-winning author, speaker and sports historian. Patrick Engel — We hired Patrick from a small newspaper in Illinois and he stayed with us almost three years. He continued to improve as a writer and reporter, and he did his best work for us on our most recent football preview magazine. Pat- rick also helped us get through the loss of Lou. He is now working for a start-up business in the Chicago area. Bryan Driskell — Brian and I didn't mesh as well as I wanted. However, he was one of the best football analysts we've ever had in the company and did some excellent work for us. He developed as a writer and reporter, and he parlayed that ex- perience and his talent into a successful business venture of his own. I count him as a success story for the company. The Papers — Since the early 1990s, The Papers, a printing and newspaper publishing company in Milford, Indiana, had printed Blue & Gold Illus- trated. We kept the printing with them after we bought the publication. Owner Ron Baumgartner and his staff, including Todd Clark, Jim Cox and Khoeun Khoeuth have given us fast turnaround, excellent service and a quality product. We liked their work so much we moved all our publications to their plant. ✦ ✦ ✦ I sold my company to On3 in Novem- ber 2021 (after my own heart attack and Lou's death from one) and have stayed on as the publisher of our five maga- zines. I will be 73 in October, and it's time to reduce my management role. I will stay on to help with copy editing on a part-time basis, which is something I love to do. Mark Panus, whose grandfather played on the 1930 Notre Dame fresh- man football team, will replace me as the publisher. He has strong Fighting Irish roots and works hand-in-hand with our terrific managing editor Steve Downey. The publication is in their great hands, along with our young and very talented staff of Ty Horka, Mike Singer, Kyle Kelly and Jack Soble plus designers Jeanette Blankenship and Chris Miller, regular contributors Todd Burlage and Jim Lefebvre, and our ex- ceptional photographer Chad Weaver. Thank you all for your continued readership and support over the last 14 years. It has been a true pleasure to publish Blue & Gold Illustrated. I wasn't a fan when we purchased the publica- tion, but I am now, and I especially en- joy following the football and women's basketball programs. I have developed a great appreciation for how special Notre Dame is and tremendous respect for how it conducts its business. Go Irish!! Our late editor Lou Somogyi possessed an unmatched knowledge of Notre Dame football, and he spent 37 years covering the Fighting Irish and pouring his heart into Blue & Gold Illustrated until his untimely death in April 2021. STAFF PHOTO