Steering a Mid-Life Course Change

If you ask David Harrison '60 how he got to be the editor of Canoe, his answer is simple: "I bought it."

Actually, there's a little more to the story. Before he took over the magazine, Harrison was a banker who did a little writing on the side. He had, for example, written several "hobbyist" articles for Canoe chronicling his family's paddling adventures. (He and his wife, Judy, took their kids on a month-long canoe trip in the Yukon when taking the children along was virtually unheard of.) He also co-authored two books: Sports Illustrated Canoeing, with Tom Ettinger '60, and Canoe Tripping with Kids, with wife Judy

Then in 1984 the bank decided that Harrison's division was a tax liability, and Dave found himself unemployed and ready for a change of pace. Coincidentally, on a routine check-in call to Canoe, they told him "We're for sale."

To most bankers it would not have looked like an attractive investment. A study in organizational and financial chaos, it was threatening to capsize. But Harrison had that passion for paddling and felt that Canoe could be turned around like any other business. It took about as long as a thousand foot tanker.

Canoe was in Camden, Maine, when Harrison bought it. He ended up trimming most of the staff, then moved the entire organization to his home town, Kirkland, Wash.

Although Dave and Judy are listed as "editor-in-chief' and "publisher," respectively, they never made any for mal decision as to who would take which job. Dave found he liked editing and running things around the office, while Judy liked networking and "pumping hands." They learned by experience and eventually cut the editorial staff in half and eliminated nearly all of the production staff. Running the magazine as a business, the Harrisons paddled Canoe back into smooth financial waters.

But there was still an editorial dilemma: Harrison is dedicated to pro- moting paddling as a sport, but his readership is mosdy recreational paddlers. To add to the problem, paddling is a sport that is, as Harrison puts it, "a mile wide and an inch deep." How could he adequately cover all of the different kinds of competitive events, and still have room for the recreational information that the majority of his readers wanted? He couldn't. He had to strike an editorial balance that left the racing world lacking exposure. This year, however, marks the debut of Canoe magazine's first spin-off: Canoe and Kayak Racing News. The bi-monthly tabloid is devoted entirely to competition, and provides a forum for race coverage, profiles of up-andcoming competitors, and discussion of equipment and techniques. Harrison is optimistic about this new venture.

What's the best thing about his job? Mixing business with pleasure. Dave competes in all sorts of canoe and kayak events. While in Hanover to cover the 1988 U.S. Canoe Association National Marathon Championships, Dave competed on Mascoma Lake in the USCA Triathlon Championship—and came in second among masters. For another article, Harrison and Judy took a canoe tour of the Hawaiian islands. It was, he says, "the best business trip ever."