Sayonara But Not Good-Bye

If I had walked into one of those Hollywood Boulevard fortune tellers ten years ago and asked the gypsy lady behind the crystal ball “Oh, Madame Vladanska [or whatever her name was], what will my future be?” And she had replied, “You will be CEO of a new media company for seven years and three months”… I undoubtedly would have given her the evil eye and demanded my fifty dollars back.  I was a novelist and a screenwriter — and had been all my life.

But Madame Vladanska would have been right. Life, as John Lennon once said, is what happens when you’re making other plans.  Even though I had never dreamed of being a CEO of anything and was just learning there might be such a thing as new media, in November 2005 I became the chief executive officer of the then fledgling online company Pajamas Media.

Over the years that company (now PJ Media) grew, added PJTV and now is … well, not exactly a media behemoth but certainly a significant Internet player on the center-right, a respected part of the national dialogue on political affairs. I am inordinately proud of it.

But as of Feb 14, 2013, I am ending my tenure as CEO. Roger Simon, the novelist-screenwriter, is calling to me. After more than seven years, he is feeling extremely neglected. I am going to return to my creative writing while I still, to be honest, have some ability to do it.

I will not, however, be deserting PJ Media, the company I helped found. I couldn’t do that even if I wanted to, and I don’t. I will still be writing my regular column here and co-hosting the Poliwood show on PJTV with my good buddy Lionel Chetwynd. I also will be nibbling around the edges with wanted (or unwanted) advice.

To readers of this site, everything will be much the same.  The executive tasks I was performing were largely invisible to the public, as they should be.

I would like to take this moment to thank everyone who has written for this site for making my job incredibly easy and rewarding.  You are people of remarkable courage and talent.

Also, to the PJ Media editors and the producers and staff at PJTV, you are extraordinary people. Thank you for your support and for putting up with me.

And, most of all, I would like to thank the readers whose comments and reactions have inspired me more than you could possibly know.  I hope my future work will not let you down.

For those interested, a formal press release is here.