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I have known Fran since we worked together at Cresmer, Woodward, O'Mara and Ormsbee (CWO&O). I worked part-time while attending DePaul and Fran was a young salesman recently relocated from the Philadelphia area. We only worked together for about 6 months, before Fran moved back East, but we have remained friends.
I don't remember when the idea of GT actually came to Fran, but he started to seriously discuss it with me several years ago. Over dinner at the Rosewood in Rosemont (IL), Fran outlined his vision and officially invited me on board. I was pretty inexperienced at national distribution, but Fran trusted me and gave me the opportunity. I brought in Louie Atsaves (another longtime friend and coworker at Lerner Newspapers) and together we tackled GT's national distribution.
It has been an interesting 5 years since the debut issue. There has been a lot of hard work, but a lot more fun. GT has undergone some changes in design and staffing, but all for the better. A few originals remain (fortunately, I am one of them). I have met a lot of great people at GT and even a few celebrities (some appeared on this site already).
The staff of GT has been in Los Angeles for the past few days. We were there for the annual GT Readers' Awards ceremony, along with celebrating our 5th anniversary. Periodically in the near future, I will be dropping in some of the more interesting moments on this trip.