Founder’s Day: Redefining my arc

I decided to sell Watermark to our talented publisher, Rick Claggett, some time ago. In fact, I considered timing the transition to coincide with our 20th anniversary celebration last fall. But I wasn’t ready.

Last week I finally shared my plans with Watermark’s staff, just before the lunch break at our year-end retreat. I’d been contemplating the details for months,so my emotional reaction was a surprise. The shocked look on their faces illuminated something I had avoided: that a remarkable chapter of my life was ending. Along with some staff members, I shed a few tears.

As a publishing venture, Watermark has exceeded my most ambitious fantasy. Believe me—I never envisioned a full time staff of 11 churning out not just a newspaper and a half-dozen specialty publications, but also a website, e-blasts and social media posts that provide instantaneous information and ideas to people throughout the region and beyond.

Personally, it has provided me with a richness of experience that I could never have anticipated. After Watermark’s emotional victory in city government, I watched as rainbow flags were hung throughout downtown Orlando, making national news. I stood at the gates as thousands of excited bathing-suit-clad revelers streamed into Typhoon Lagoon for the first Beach Ball. And I met and talked with history-makers like Gloria Steinem, Jane Fonda and Billie Jean King.

During lunch at the retreat, I shared laughs with Watermark’s close staff. But I was still shaken. More accurately, I felt hollowed out. Why would I disengage from these wonderful people and the important mission I had first defined for them? Why had I chosen to reduce my footprint in the world?

I had planned to duck out after lunch, but I decided stay for the afternoon session and explore this unexpected melancholy. And as Watermark’s talented team brainstormed ambitious plans for 2016—enhanced election year coverage with video blogging, enlarged wedding guide, expanded Twitter account, mobile app—I recalled why I had made the decision to sell in the first place.

When I started Watermark back in 1994, I was fueled by a clear vision of what I wanted the newspaper to be and an uncharacteristic confidence that I would do whatever it took to make it succeed.

And I did. I worked 36 straight hours meeting our first deadline. When I couldn’t pay an early printing bill, I borrowed money from a loan shark. And when a new distribution person bailed on me, I bought a map and spent a day and night hunting down more than a hundred locations throughout Pinellas and Hillsborough counties.

There were investors to pay off, and an ego to stroke. But the stakes were higher.

In my original business plan I described Watermark as a publication that would “cast a spotlight on the richness of the gay and lesbian experience.” What I didn’t say—and what I certainly didn’t understand back then—was that I was also trying to convince myself of the richness of that experience.

I come from a generation that grew up believing that a gay ‘lifestyle’ involved shadowy bars, camp humor, transient relationships and guilty sex. I wanted it to be more. Watermark would be my proof.

In a June 2000 profile in the Orlando Sentinel, I said that “The denial of my sexual orientation, and then the reclaiming of that, is the defining arc of my life.”

Largely because of Watermark, that arc has played out happily. It’s time for redefining.

I have enormous pride in Watermark’s past. I don’t have a clear or defining vision for its future, and I think someone who does should be in charge, including holding the purse strings. I’m fortunate that I can transfer ownership to the person most responsible for its recent success. Rick has been with Watermark for 14 years. Trust me—he loves the newspaper and the company every bit as much as I do.

With the assistance of editor-in-chief Billy Manes, online media director Jamie Hyman, art director Jake Stevens, sales director Danny Garcia, senior account manager Sam Rennels, Tampa Bay staff writer Jeremy Williams, creative assistant Deanndra Meno and office manager Kathleen Harper—all talented, experienced innovators—I can’t wait to see what’s in store. Who knows… Billy may let me chime in with a contribution from time to time?

Either way, I’ll continue as Watermark’s landlord, practicing law in the building next door and stealing office supplies. And part of my deal with Rick is that—now and forevermore—I will be listed on the masthead as “Founder and Guiding Light.”