A Note from the Publisher: Thank You, Anna

This column by Ricardo Guise celebrates 20 years of Anna Carugati’s contribution to World Screen. But one day in all those years stands out above all others.

I will remember that day, in September of 2000, for the rest of my life. It was the worst day in my professional career. I thought I would not be able to make it. But I did, thanks to Anna.

It all started when my then-editor of seven years came to my office a few weeks before we were sending the MIPCOM edition to the printer. This was a stressful time, even if all things went perfectly according to plan. My editor sat down and nervously told me that a huge conglomerate was hiring him to work on several magazines that competed with us.

This publishing group had a plan, and the plan was to annihilate us. It started a couple of years earlier, when they created several titles similar to ours—we had TV Europe, they launched Television Europe; we had TV Latina, they launched Television Latin America. They would send numerous people to the markets, build palatial stands, and have girls on Rollerblades distributing their magazines. It was a formidable display of wealth and power.

At one time, when I was extremely happy to finally get an upgrade to business class when flying to a market, I ended up sitting next to their head of sales, who spent a couple of hours detailing their five-year plan to conquer the world and dispose of us in a trash bin. I so much wished I were back in my usual economy-class seat!

None of this braggadocio really scared me. Until that day when my editor came to my office. He said that he needed to leave immediately. In shock, I asked him if he could stay for at least two more weeks, as we were putting to bed the biggest edition of the year. He said that, as a condition for hiring him, they demanded that he start his new job as group editor right away. I remember saying, “You know they are doing this just to kill us, right?” And he said, “Yes, I do.” With these last words, he said goodbye and departed.

Completely dazed, I left my office and took my commuter train to Long Island. An hour after it departed, I realized that I was on the wrong train and in a very scary neighborhood. That was my state of mind! I got off, tried to look tough, then immediately took the next train back to Penn Station.

Anna had first started writing for us in 1993, as a freelance reporter based in Italy. A few years later she became a full-time member of the editorial team.

In September of 2000, Anna had been my wife for a little more than two years. We had a child, Alessia, who was barely a year old. When Anna was expecting Alessia, the arrangement I made with her was that she would work from our house and help our editor to the best of her ability, but taking care of our infant daughter was going to be her primary responsibility.

Our lives turned upside down when I finally arrived home very late that evening, after spending some hairy moments on the wrong train platform.

As I explained to her what had happened, I could see it in her eyes: the changes that she knew needed to be made were going to be pretty devastating for her.

But Anna did not blink. She immediately took on the editor’s responsibilities, which caused a complete upheaval in her life. She now had to commute for hours every day and leave our daughter with a babysitter. It was a very difficult personal moment, and she made a huge sacrifice to help this company stay afloat.

Not only did World Screen stay afloat, it positively flourished. More than ever, we were determined to prove that an independent company that is passionate in its pursuit of excellence was not going to end up being a giant conglomerate’s road kill.

Of course, our exponential growth in print and online has been the work of the entire editorial team, including the indefatigable and multitalented (we ran out of titles to define her contributions) Mansha Daswani, who recently celebrated her own milestone: her tenth year at World Screen.

Meanwhile, as the years passed, that conglomerate slowly dissipated, and our ex-editor had to be present as one executive after another was fired, until it was finally his turn. He eventually worked with us again as a freelance writer. It took some time, but we got over it.

Anna vastly improved on what she was given, helping make this the most important publishing group in the industry. Over the years, she has interviewed every top executive of every major media company in the world. She set the tone for accurate and ambitious reporting, which is overwhelmingly evident in this October issue, the biggest and most impressive edition in our 28 years.

But more than anything else, she saved my sorry ass on that miserable day when I felt I was not going to make it. As Nietzsche said, what does not kill you makes you stronger. And it sure helps to have Anna as your partner!