OUT FRONT You Asked For It

A FEW WEEKS AGO, I RECEIVED A CALL from a prominent elder statesman of the Dallas business community.

“Wick, you got a minute?” “Sure.”

“Good. Now who in the hell is so-and-so?”

The Rolodex of my mind raced. Finally it stopped at the right name, the resume came up and I recited as best I could what I knew about so-and-so.

“Oh, good!” responded my questioner. “Met him at a party last night. Thought he was an interesting sort of person. Didn’t know who the hell he was. Thanks. Goodbye.”

These phone calls happen all the time. It has slowly occurred to me as I keep getting them that very few people, even at the top, know each other anymore- This city-these cities-have gotten too big. Entire industries have been born and taken root here that didn’t exist 15 years ago.

I learned this most directly with our recent Downtown Edition. No issue of D Magazine in 23 years has stimulated such a positive response. From the hundreds of communiqués we’ve received from our readers (among hundreds more from outside the city), the message is clear: give us more, be direct, set goals, be critical, help point us toward our common future. From the business community we’ve received a similar message: give us more, set the tone, help us understand what’s happening here and who the players are.

With this issue of D Magazine we launch D Business, a new quarterly publication that will be included in D and mailed separately to people we think should know about business in Dallas and Fort Worth. Its purpose is to celebrate our region as a dynamic business center-but celebrate in the high sense, with good reporting and tough-minded criticism, mixed as always with a little fun. Intent as we are on our journalism, we are also intent on journalism with a purpose: to make this city the best that it can be.

That’s because we’re the magazine of the leadership class. Our readers are tough, they’re skeptical, they’ve heard it all (and probably said it all), but they are as determined as we are on building a city that ranks among the world’s best.

This idea of a new magazine came about because our readers asked that we build on this premise. We’ve responded with a premiere issue that is among the finest I’ve ever published. That’s due to a guy named Mike Orren, who took on this idea of a D business magazine and made it his own. Mike’s is a typical Dallas story: He came from somewhere else (North Carolina), decided to make his mark here, and when presented with an opportunity, seized it.

But there’s more to Mike than his persistence and his abilities. There’s his age. When I originally founded D Magazine 23 years ago, I happened to be 25 years old. Everyone else my age was entrepreneurial and full of ideas and selling projects (or at least land plots). Now it occurs to me with sudden shock that 25 is awfully young to be starting your own magazine, and that my investors then were fairly bold people.

This thought occurs to me because Mike is 24-that’s a full year younger than I was when this magazine was launched. This wouldn’t matter much except that a lovely young lady came into my office the other day to interview for a sales position. The advertising director opened the conversation by introducing me as the original founder of D Magazine in 1974.

“Oh, I know.” the interviewee exclaimed. “That was the year I was born!”

Mike, that day will come for you.