{"id":20524,"date":"2018-12-23T02:27:26","date_gmt":"2018-12-23T02:27:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jackdogwelch.com\/?p=20524"},"modified":"2018-12-23T14:54:30","modified_gmt":"2018-12-23T14:54:30","slug":"way-off-and-running","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jackdogwelch.com\/?p=20524","title":{"rendered":"Way Off And Running"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Salem, Oregon, was still a small town in the late 1970s and they were often desperate for business news.  The Sunday Statesman-Journal published (8\/17\/80) a piece titled “Jack Welch Is Off… And Running.” – JDW<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By John Dillin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Dr. E.C. Frederick checks my vital signs after marathon PR<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Eugene – Jack Welch, editor and publisher of Running Magazine, is a happy man these days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Welch, happiness is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Supporting his wife for the first time in their 10-year marriage. [Fake News – ed.]<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moving out of his single-room basement office in a Salem home into a new suite with windows overlooking the Willamette River and a vast, green Eugene park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Changing Running<\/em>‘s format from a narrowly scoped technical magazine to what could become an interesting literary publication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And joining Nike’s payroll and having a $1 million budget to put out the magazine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Welch is editor and publisher, but no longer owner of Running<\/em>.  Last April, Welch went to Nike, a Beaverton-based international running shoe manufacturer, with an idea and a magazine.  The purchase was announced in May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who needed whom is tough to figure out.  Nike was in the market for a profitable magazine with a new approach, according to published reports. It was also known that the shoe company was upset with unfavorable treatment in a shoe review by another national publication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Welch, on the other hand, was unhappy with Running’s <\/em>direction. He wanted changes but couldn’t afford them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“My partner was the (technical) scientist, not me,” Welch said. “We didn’t have the money then to do this (broaden the magazine’s content).”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What will money buy? Some big-name authors, for starters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those who have enjoyed the Ken Kesey experience in one form or another will like the new magazine’s first issue, due on the newsstands September 4. Kesey covered the 1980 U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials for Running<\/em>. A 13-page feature by the Pleasant Hill author will highlight the 84-page issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“He was at the Trials every day,” said Welch. Kesey’s method of covering the Trials was “strange,” but the journal-style article is “golden,” said Welch. “He (Kesey) appreciates those striving for excellence.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Welch is in contact with authors around the nation. The South’s noted poet and novelist, James Dickey, will report on Atlanta’s Peachtree Road Race. Playwright Israel Horowitz will write about running in Paris and Finland. Norman Mailer rejected “for now” an offer from Running<\/em>, said the confident Welch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Running<\/em>‘s staff is small and experienced. Paul Perry, formerly managing editor for Runner’s World<\/em>, is executive editor. Myra Gelband, a writer with Sports Illustrated<\/em> for nine years, is senior editor. Joe Henderson, an author and former consultant for Runner’s World, i<\/em>s editor-at-large. Contributing editor is Don Kardong, a former Olympic marathoner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Welch says his magazine will be worth more than “a one-time skim.” With a $2.50 cover price, up a dollar from its old price, it had better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Welch equates Nike’s investment into Running <\/em>with the corporation’s commitment to sponsor a track and field club (Athletics West). Nike has refused to call the magazine a vehicle only to benefit the corporation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“There are a lot better ways for a company making 2-to-4 billion dollars a year selling shoes to spend its money than on magazines, a notoriously poor investment,” said Welch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As long as the quality and ingretity (sic) of the magazine remain high, Welch said there are no restraints on his operation. He said Nike and Running<\/em> are separate identities, editorially. The only interference from Nike will come from the corporate executive who watches the budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some publications and shoe manufacturers claim Nike wants its own magazine to counter unfavorable ratings it may receive in other publications. Nike denies the claim. And Welch said there will be nothing written about shoes in the magazine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said no other shoe manufacturers have purchased advertising. “They’re taking a wait-and-see attitude,” said Welch. He believes as soon as the product is out, Nike’s competitors will begin advertising.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Running<\/em>‘s circulation has nowhere to go but up. Welch is guaranteeing 50,000 copies of the first edition of the new Running, <\/em>most of them to be given away. He says subscriptions are now 15,000, and that he hopes to reach 150,000 by the end of 1981.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There will be no national mail distribution campaign. Instead Welch will continue selling the magazine in 2,000 to 3,000 retail running shops in the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Welch doesn’t want the magazine get tangled up promoting running.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Too many people have tried to promote running as the perfect leisure activity,” said Welch. “I don’t see manias as being productive. There are limits. We each should find our own limits, and we shouldn’t impose those on others.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part-owner of a running shop in Salem, Welch maintains a tie with the Capital City. He moved to Eugene because “you don’t find many quality runners coming through Salem…”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Welch and his wife, Pat, came to Salem from Arizona nearly seven years ago to enroll at Willamette University Law School. That ended after one semester. “I dreamed of law school for twenty years, and found it was the pits.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a reader of “any and all” running literature, Welch got interested in publishing a magazine of his own with a friend from college in Arizona.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other magazine were for and about runners. But Welch wanted more. He and E.C. Frederick envisioned a magazine with a technical, scientific approach. [More fake news. Ned is a scientist and I am a knucklehead. He did all the birthing really. – ed.] <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/em>During Thanksgiving vacation, 1973, Running Magazine was born.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“In September, 1975, I took over (as editor and publisher),” said Welch. “It was so technical, I couldn’t even understand it.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jim Fixx, in Jim Fixx’s Second Book of Running<\/em>, said “the magazine is notable for what it does not contain as for what it does. There are no race results, no personality pieces, no breathlessly euphoric accounts of how some formerly fat man finished his first marathon. Instead there is a steady diet of solid, unbiased, carefully documented articles on training methods, running physiology, injuries and their prevention, and equipment.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Running<\/em>, based from the basement of Welch’s home, was intended as a quarterly but published just 17 times in six and a half years. Its readers were a loyal but small (by magazine standards) group of 4,000. [We should have a reunion. – ed.]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We never lost a dollar in six and a half years,” stated Welch, who said he filed a $1300 gain last year to Uncle Sam, but “we only went (to press) when we could afford it. My wife supported me. There’;s something depressing about poverty. It’s hard to reach goals without money. We couldn’t afford to promote so we couldn’t grow.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now Welch can look out his office window over the park and Pre’s Trail winding through it, and plan growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Ha. I was gone before the second issue. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Got fired and, and, and, and nobody thought to tell me. But that’s another story. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ll skip right to the moral – if you cut out the heart of something, don’t expect it to succeed. – ed.]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n
RUNNING Magazine: Another Part of the Memoir<\/a><\/blockquote>