The Challenge of Change

The challenge of change. It’s not exactly a new sentiment, but it feels current in an era when AI is iterating everything, seemingly by the day.

In my case it’s also a page from the past. Specifically, the name of a public relations conference I attended in Chicago with my dad back in the ’80s, when I was a journalism student, and he was working in corporate public relations. I came home with a poster from that conference — “The Challenge of Change” emblazoned across it — and hung it next to my desk, where it’s remained through a couple dozen moves these past decades.

I’d like to say I was being prescient, that somehow, even then, I sensed change would be a constant in my life. But the truth is, I just loved the design: the Chicago skyline silhouetted behind a chessboard. And that poster has remained a pleasant memory of my dad all these years, especially since he recently passed away.

Change has certainly been foisted on the marine industry, and it’s come to this title too, as I take the helm from Gary Reich, who so superbly shepherded it for five years. I’m glad he stayed in the Firecrown Media family, moving to our sister brand, Soundings.

Speaking of Firecrown, it’s rare to find a media company, let alone a magazine publisher, still investing, growing and scaling. This one believes in the marine industry, and in the Soundings Trade Only brand.

But like the industry we cover, we are facing headwinds. Call it a squeeze on both revenue and attention: Publishers still pay for reporting, editing and production, while readers increasingly find stories through search, social feeds, video and AI-generated answers that may never send them to the original source.

For a trade title, the challenge is especially pointed. Our value depends on knowing an industry deeply, even as the ways of reaching that industry keep shifting.

That makes our commitment to you, our audience, more important than ever. We need to report from the docks, factories, dealerships and boat shows where this industry does its work; to talk with the people making decisions and the people living with their consequences; and to follow a story beyond an announcement.

We’ll ask why sales are changing, what problems new products solve for boaters, and where the industry’s assumptions deserve a closer look. You can expect journalism that brings you the day-one facts, the day-two stories behind them, a clearer sense of what comes next and why it matters.

My career has prepared me well for this moment. I’ve worked in news bureaus, led business and consumer magazines, reported and anchored local and network television news, directed public relations for a NASCAR team, worked in marketing and communications, hosted podcasts, and spoken professionally from conference stages around the country.

I’m also a lifelong boater and watersports enthusiast who grew up in Minnesota skiing and tubing behind a succession of outboard, sterndrive and, eventually, direct drive inboard ski boats. 

Soundings Trade Only has heritage, credibility, a commitment to deep journalism and a loyal audience. Those are strong assets. But legacy brands also must keep evolving: more video, more personality, more digital storytelling, more direct audience engagement, more ways to bring marine industry stories to people wherever they already are. 

I understand the old school well enough to know what must be protected, and the modern media environment enough to know what must change.

People don’t simply want more content. There’s already an almost unlimited amount of it online. What audiences are hungry for is something different, with a focus on authenticity, access, focus, expertise, perspective and context.

I look forward to leading a talented team into that future and, of course, to working alongside my new teammate, publisher and industry force of nature, Michele Goldsmith. The goal is not to chase every platform. It’s to make the best journalism work harder, travel farther and become more valuable.

I recently moved around the well-traveled desk and bookshelves in my office, and that old Chicago Challenge of Change poster now sits to my left, more visible than it was the day I first hung it behind me.

All these decades later, the challenge of change hasn’t diminished. In fact, it has only accelerated.

Thanks for being part of the journey.

This article first appeared in the November 2026 issue of Soundings Trade Only.