Ask Margaret
by Margaret Word Burnside
Tampa Bay Magazine’s 30th anniversary issue seems like the
perfect time to answer you, as well as the many other friends and
readers who have asked how Aaron Fodiman and I happened to
start our publication back in 1986.
In all honesty, Tampa Bay Magazine was really Aaron’s idea. He
had moved to Clearwater following his purchase of the Kapok Tree
restaurant chain after having spent 18 years in Washington D.C.
working for every presidential administration from 1960 to 1978
and five years in New York City as president of Popeye’s Famous
Fried Chicken. He noticed that our area lacked the equivalent of a
Washingtonian or a New York Magazine, which he was accustomed
to reading while living in those two metropolitan areas. He found
it difficult to discover the best places to dine and shop, the leading
charity events to attend and the movers and shakers who helped
make this community a better place to live, work and play.
I assured him that we didn’t need a lifestyle magazine here.
After all, as a Clearwater native, I knew the people, places and
events he needed to meet, discover and attend. To prove it, I took
him to the UPARC Omelette Party benefit, where he would meet
“everyone he needed to know.” Although Aaron admitted that
the formal event held in a private home was impressive and that
he got to know some lovely and interesting people, he observed
that 350 people was a very small number for Clearwater and
even smaller for this entire area.
He then pointed out that the populations of neither Clearwater,
St. Petersburg nor even Tampa were large enough to rank in
the top 150 listing of U.S. cities. He also insisted that each city
appeared to be rather insignificant, compared to the entire area,
a combination of Hillsborough and Pinellas Counties with its 25
municipalities, plus neighboring counties of Manatee, Sarasota,
Pasco and Hernando. He noted that together, these counties were
one impressively large and influential greater “Tampa Bay” region.
Of course, Aaron was right. Once the Tampa Bay concept caught
on, our area raced up the Area of Dominant Influence (A.D.I.)
charts, which listed our country’s cities and towns. When our
area was seen as the one large megalopolis, which I had to admit
it was and is, it ranked number 13, just below Detroit, Michigan.
Another reason that Aaron felt our area needed a lifestyle
magazine immediately and got my approval was that, during the
mid-1980s, our local charities were struggling to survive, expand
and thrive with little help from the larger media groups, which
seemed to have decided that nonprofits were not particularly
newsworthy. Since I served on several of these boards at the time,
I was acutely aware of the situation.
124 TAMPA BAY MAGAZINE | JULY/AUGUST 2016
Although we founded Tampa Bay Magazine, we didn’t plan to
work full time at it ourselves, as we were both extremely busy
people. Aaron was running the Kapok Tree Restaurant chain,
taking care of businesses up north and becoming involved in
his new community. I was busy with the nonprofit groups, as
well as modeling in sometimes up to three fashion shows a day,
coordinating shows for the department stores and malls, plus
teaching etiquette and modeling classes.
Since Aaron and I were already so overbooked, we
were fortunate to find experienced employees at our new
Tampa Bay Magazine. We were proud of each issue, as we offered
our visions and ideas from afar, rather than going into the
office. After less than two years, however, we could see that
our directions were only being loosely followed. Since we are
both the first of four children, we are used to being in charge.
Aaron suggested that I run our fledgling Tampa Bay Magazine
until we could find other people to take over the responsibilities
of publisher, art department and comptroller. It sounded easy
enough, especially since it would be temporary. After all, I was
used to writing charity news releases and had handled the
marketing and catalog production and design for two different
international manufacturing companies. I could do the editorial
and take care of the art department, which at that pre-computer
time meant designing layouts, specifying type and doing pasteup
on a drafting board. I was totally ill-equipped, however, to
Why did you and Aaron decide
to create Tampa Bay Magazine? \
S.W., Tampa