| BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : SEPTEMBER 20, 1999 ISSUE | ||||||||
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| COVER STORY
It Ain't Over When It's Over As retirement looms, the rituals are familiar. Whether you're looking ahead to a voluntary departure--or, as happens all too often these days, are told to go--you collect the facts and figures on how golden a parachute your employer will be providing. Then you add in Social Security and your own nest egg, and compute what you'll have to live on. But money is far from the only source of anxiety. What to do with all that free time? With work so often the center of personal identity, and colleagues very much an alternate family, what of the sense of self? And how will home relationships bear up under being around the house much more of the time? Predictably, I went through all these calculations. I was fortunate to have survived until my 65th birthday in a high-pressure job as the managing editor of BUSINESS WEEK. It was clearly time to move on, but to where? My termination package included a consulting deal, and I drew the assignment of exploring the potential of putting BUSINESS WEEK on one of the new online services. SHEPHERD. The task wasn't all that alien. Although an English major who fancied himself primarily a wordsmith, I had 15 years earlier shepherded the magazine's transition from typewriters to computers. And in my early days at BUSINESS WEEK, in the late 1950s, I had edited a Special Report on the shift from vacuum tubes to transistors as the key element in computers. In the first few months, I sat through one presentation after another from rival online services, some of which never took off into cyber-orbit. Ultimately, it was America Online that most talked our language. As we geared up for launch, it became clear that posting the magazine online was only part of the opportunity. To reach an audience in a new way, I volunteered to become the concierge of the online message boards and the honcho for live interactive events. That, too, was an outgrowth of earlier experience as the moderator of a radio show and of dozens of the magazine's ''dog and pony shows''--panels of BUSINESS WEEK editors appearing around the country. On Dec. 30, 1994, the requisite buttons were pushed, and Business Week Online made its debut. The launch team had worked for weeks preparing for this day. We huddled around a computer screen in great suspense. Five welcoming messages popped up rapid-fire from contacts at AOL. Then, this: ''Looking for Early American pattern glass 1850-1910.'' That broke the tension--and broke us all up. There were people out there at their computers after all. TO THE FRONTIER. Since then, Business Week Online has received many thousands of message-board postings and done 600 or so live events, most of which I have moderated. What had started as almost a make-work chore ended up propelling me to the frontier of a vast new medium. There are still deadlines, but they're far less demanding than those at a weekly magazine. I can do the work from almost anywhere and at almost any time. Perhaps most important, my post-retirement job has kept me in touch with old friends and introduced me to many new ones, including a number of twentysomethings. They have taught me the technology; in return, I have taught them something about the history and traditions of the magazine. Meantime, Business Week Online has expanded to the Web (www.businessweek.com). Recently we added video, and I helped anchor that effort. And, as with most retirees, there are those outside groups that beseech a retiree for help--in my case, a New York club and two performing-arts organizations. Plus, once or twice a year, travel--most recently to Russia with a group of journalists. Will someone please tell me when ''elderly'' begins? Dierdorff, 71, is consulting editor of Business Week Online. He retired as managing editor of BUSINESS WEEK in 1993. By Jack Dierdorff. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP |
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 RELATED ITEMS Brain Drain COVER IMAGE CHART: As the Country Gets Grayer... CHART: ...And the Workplace Ages... CHART: ...The Talent Shortage Gets Worse TABLE: Facing the Crunch TABLE: Aging Workers: Suddenly a Hot Topic TABLE: Flexible Retirement, Inflexible Rules It Ain't Over When It's Over ONLINE ORIGINAL: Retirement Funds for Those Too Busy to Plan ONLINE SURVEY RESULTS: What Are Your Post-Retirement Plans? INTERACT E-Mail to Business Week Online | |||
