Behind the Star – From the Editor
Gary Anderson
Looking Ahead
At the beginning of 2009, Enthusiast Publications LLC, the company within which my wife Genie and I first became magazine publishers over 20 years ago, took on the editing of The Star magazine under contract with the Mercedes-Benz Club of America. Those have been 11 very pleasant years for us, during which we’ve met a bunch of wonderful people and made some of our closest friends.
However, having recently made a radical change in our lifestyle with a move to Southern Oregon, Genie and I decided that we’d like a few less deadlines in our lives; early this year, I announced my intention to resign my contract with the Mercedes-Benz Club of America, effective with the completion of the July-August issue. Over the past two months, I’ve worked with the board and management to select a successor. We recently concluded that search by selecting as the new editor Jeff Zurschmeide, a long-time colleague who has contributed to The Star on Mercedes-Benz topics in addition to his other gigs as a freelance auto-magazine editor, technical-book author, newspaper auto reporter, website contributor and blogger/influencer.
Our plan is that Jeff will work with me as associate editor through June 15 and completion of the July-August issue. At that time, he’ll go to the top of the masthead and I’ll continue to work with him over the next six months to a year as his associate editor. Most other staff members, including our great creative director Stephan McKeown; our English contributors, heritage writer Graham Robson and F1 writer Simon Strang (who recently became Motor Sports Officer for Aston-Martin); and our talented group of photographers around the United States and in the U.K. will continue their work with the magazine.
As we move into the future, I don’t foresee any abrupt changes in the quality or content of the magazine, but do expect that with Jeff’s hands-on experience and connections with a younger demographic, he’ll bring a fresh perspective to The Star and link it closely with the club’s evolving digital- and social-media strategies.