Taking An Editorial Round Trip—From T&M To EiC

Aug. 16, 2007
It's hard to believe that nearly 10 years have gone by since I started with Electronic Design as a technology editor covering the test & measurement beat. Some of you may even remember me from that time. Others may remember me from EEPN (formerly

It's hard to believe that nearly 10 years have gone by since I started with Electronic Design as a technology editor covering the test & measurement beat. Some of you may even remember me from that time. Others may remember me from EEPN (formerly EE Product News), where I became editor-in-chief (EiC) back in May 2000 and continued in that role for seven years. It feels good to be back at Electronic Design.

Only one of the editors from Electronic Design's Feb. 23, 1998 editorial masthead is still on the staff today—Roger Engelke, our issue editor. Amazing. But it's not like I have to introduce myself to the staff. I've worked with all of them in our Paramus, N.J., office, some for many years.

POWER, PACKAGING, INTERCONNECTS... Speaking of our editorial masthead, you'll see another addition—Mat Dirjish. Mat was at EE Product News when I joined that magazine, and he has been covering new products with me since then. He'll continue to cover new products for Electronic Design as we expand our coverage in certain areas.

His title is quite a mouthful, covering power, packaging, interconnects, components, and optoelectronics. Believe it or not, this title was in force back in 1998, though that editor has since found a home with another media company. To make sure we keep Mat, we'll condense that title in the near future, though he will continue to cover those areas just as he did at EEPN.

When I look back to 1998, I see print, print, print. Our Web site existed back then, but only as an afterthought. Nowadays, we pay a lot of attention to our Web site and other e-media initiatives. At EEPN, we posted new products every day on our home page as soon as they were released, like all of our competitors do with their sites.

We'll continue to do that. The EEPN Web site will be integrated with the Electronic Design site, which also offers our daily Product Picks and breaking news stories. Soon, you'll see a bevy of new products covered on the home page every day.

TOP-NOTCH STAFF I would be remiss if I didn't say something about Electronic Design's current staff. I'm awed by their expertise in the areas they cover. David Maliniak (EDA), Don Tuite (analog and power), Dan Harris (digital technology), Bill Wong (embedded systems and software), and Lou Frenzel (communications and test) are about as fine a group of editors as you could assemble on one magazine. I look forward to working with them and expanding their roles as editorial leaders in their respective areas.

It's only natural that I would have some memories of my first few months covering test & measurement for Electronic Design. John Novellino, who had covered the beat for 15 years, was moving into a managing editor's role. But he was committed to a "transition" period, and so we both flew out to Portland, Ore., in 1998 to take part in the Tektronix Technology Conference, which drew editors from the U.S., Europe, and Asia. This conference was a significant learning experience for me, both for test technology and industry trends.

My next foray into test territory was a visit to Hewlett-Packard's facilities in Loveland and Colorado Springs, Colo. It wasn't until about a year and a half later that HP spun off this group and some others to become Agilent Technologies. The two-day tour was enlightening. Talking with engineers face to face with equipment on the bench always helped me immensely in understanding the nuances of the beat I was covering.

As the months passed, Tom Halligan, who was the editor-in-chief at the time, expanded my beats to include communications and consumer electronics, which is very close to the title held by Lou Frenzel now. So I can understand very well the demands of his particular job. Lou handles it very well and—great news—he recently received an industry award.

AWARD-WINNING EDITOR Lou Frenzel won this year's MATEC Industry Recognition Award, presented on July 25 at the Semiconductors, Automated Manufacturing, Electronics-Training and Education Conference (SAME-TEC) in Irving, Texas.

The Industry Recognition Award salutes key industry personnel for outstanding contributions in promoting technology education and career awareness. Nominees for the award must have had a demonstrated impact on technology education on both a local and national level.

The award represents MATEC's commitment to recognize industry colleagues who make significant contributions to the education and training of today's technology workforce. Congratulations, Lou!

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