After more than 10 years as Editor of Dartmouth's Alumni Magazine, Jay Heinrichs will resign next month to launch a new in-flight magazine for the airline USAir.
Heinrichs, who has been in charge of the award-winning Alumni Magazine since 1986, has been using vacation time to work on the still-untitled in-flight magazine. He will continue to help with the Alumni Magazine until the end of February.
Heinrichs is credited with helping the magazine recover from a period of financial loss and little acclaim, and turning it into what is currently regarded as the best alumni magazine in America.
Contributing Editor Robert Nutt '49 said Heinrichs "took it from being a good alumni magazine to being one of the greats and earned quite a few awards along the way for the magazine."
A committee including the magazine's editorial board and the College Trustees will conduct a national search for Heinrichs' replacement. Yankee Magazine's Jim Collins '84, a contributing editor at the Alumni Magazine, will be Heinrichs' temporary replacement.
Editor-In-Flight
Heinrichs said he was offered a position in North Carolina in the town where the USAir magazine will be published, but he turned it down because he wanted to stay in Hanover.
The company later offered him the same job, but said he could stay in New Hampshire. Heinrichs has two children in Hanover schools and said he wants to stay for other reasons. "I love the cold," he said.
Although he will eventually be able to work at home, Heinrichs will spend much of the near future in North Carolina and Washington, D.C., where USAir is headquartered.
"I have to launch this new magazine, which doesn't even have a name yet, and get it in the seat-pockets of USAir planes around the world by mid-June," Heinrichs said.
Even though he was not looking for a new job, Heinrichs decided to accept the position because he had "been at Dartmouth for more than 10 years," he said. "It's probably a good idea not to get too stale."
In addition to working on the Alumni Magazine until the end of February and working on the new in-flight magazine, Heinrichs said he is writing a book with his wife about home remedies of country doctors. It will be Heinrichs' second book.
Heinrichs said he is not worried about the magazine's future without him.
"This magazine has one of the best magazine staffs in the country -- not just of alumni magazines, but magazines in general," Heinrichs said.
He is especially excited about the magazine's next issue, which covers the history of women at Dartmouth College. The issue will be renamed the "Dartmouth Alumnae Magazine."
Endicott said in his time at the magazine, Heinrichs, who is not an alum, "brought a real sense of what magazines can do and what they can't do." She said he enabled the magazine to connect with the alumni and that he had a "great understanding of the institution."
The rebirth of a publication
Heinrichs' success at the Alumni Magazine has been twofold -- he turned it into both a journalistic and financial success.
Heinrichs said he is proud the magazine is run as a business and receives no subsidy from the College.
The Alumni Magazine is part of a consortium of the eight Ivy League alumni magazines and Stanford University's magazine, which sell national advertisements in tandem, Heinrichs said.
He chaired the consortium for a few years and increased the income of the group from $300,000 to $3 million. He said he likes to point that out because it shows that "a magazine editor can look at a spread sheet."
In addition to the economic renaissance, Heinrichs shaped the magazine into what it is today, winning Newsweek's Magazine of the Year award twice in the process.
Nutt said Heinrichs "pushed the envelope a bit on the graphics and layout" in a way that made the magazine more readable and attractive than other alumni magazines.
Another accomplishment was introducing acclaimed writers, both those who attended Dartmouth and those who did not.
Nutt described the writers Heinrichs has brought to the magazine as "people who know their subject, but are also good writers." Nutt said Heinrichs insisted on maintaining a high standard for writing in the magazine.
Heinrichs' devotion to the total package contributed to its success. Nutt said Heinrichs' influence helped make even the Class Notes "a little more lively than the somewhat pedestrian ones" in other alumni magazines.
Dartmouth according to Heinrichs
Heinrichs describes alumni magazines as "relationship" magazines. He said his job as editor was to make people feel compelled to read the magazine, despite competing interests and the fact that they "have lives of their own."
He said his favorite letters to the editor were ones from readers who complained that reading the magazine kept them up at night.
Nutt said he attributes Heinrichs' success to his background. Before taking charge of the Alumni Magazine, Heinrichs worked for a number of conservation and outdoor magazines.
In addition to his management perspective, Heinrichs brought an outsider's perspective to the magazine.
"One of the things we've tried to do at the magazine is tell the story of Dartmouth history and traditions without being entirely reverent," Heinrichs said. "I think that Dartmouth's history tends to be taken too seriously by people who both love it and resent it."
