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When Petersen Publishing purchased Stereophile, Inc.'s assets on June 1 of this year (see previous story,) previous co-owners Larry Archibald and John Atkinson remained with the magazine. Whereas JA's responsibilities as Stereophile editor have remained the same as they had been, Larry Archibald's position changed considerably. He retained his masthead title of publisher (with the December issue it changes to "publisher emeritus"), but in reality, Larry has been more like "magazine spokesman and general factotum" since the purchase.

All the nitty-gritty work of publishing---financial analysis and responsibility, approval of advertising contracts, setting of ad rates, resolution of problems, and the like---has been handled since June 1 by Petersen VP Jackie Augustine. Jackie's an astoundingly busy woman, working as publisher at Petersen's Photographic, executive publisher at Stereophile and Stereophile Guide to Home Theater, head of the Petersen high-tech publishing division, and member of the Petersen Executive Committee.

As of October 12, the publishing nitty-gritty is being handled by John B. Gourlay, who comes to Stereophile from Utne Reader by way of Audubon, and a fascinating stint representing such opinion magazines as National Review, The New Republic, Foreign Affairs, and Columbia Journalism Review.

John earned a bachelor's degree from Grinnell College in Iowa. Best of all, John's an audiophile---Martin-Logan and Adcom, CD and vinyl, attended HI-FI '96 at the Waldorf=Astoria in New York---in short, one of us. And perhaps the most surprising bit of biographical trivia: he's a high-school classmate of Listener's Art Dudley, who wrote the November issue's "As We See It."

A hearty Welcome Aboard, John.