EnTrends

Rieva Lesonsky graduated from the
Columbia School of Journalism in
Columbia, Missouri in 1974, during
one of the country's biggest
recessions. It would be nine months
before she landed work at Doubleday
Publishing in New York.

Lesonsky worked at Doubleday for
three years writing research reports for
proposed ventures before realizing
that she could not advance without
having an M.B.A. "I learned at an
early age that corporate life was just
not for me," says Lesonsky.

In January of 1978, Lesonsky went to
visit a college friend who was
pursuing acting in California. She
immediately fell in love with the state
and moved across country in May of
that same year. "I took the summer off
and started looking for a job in
September. It was still a recession,
however, and by November, I knew I
was going to have to make some
money or move back to New York."

Desperately seeking employment,
Lesonsky came across an ad in the
L.A. Times for a researcher. While the
ad sought someone with small
business experience, Lesonsky
thought that for $5 an hour, it could
not be that hard. She says, "The ad
said Entrepreneur in it and I had
never heard of the word before. I went
to look it up in my dictionary and it
wasn't even there."

Lesonsky wound up receiving the
position anyway. However, she was
fired only fifteen months later.
Lesonsky says, "I like to tell people
this because being fired is not the end
of the world. Different people owned
this place at the time and some weird
stuff was going on."

Following her short stint at the
original Entrepreneur, Lesonsky
worked as a researcher for another
magazine and then later a syndicated
television show. Not liking that
position, she freelanced for a year.

In 1983, Entrepreneur Magazine
called Lesonsky for assistance with
research on the annual Franchise 500
edition they were producing. While
she was there, the person who was in
charge of research at the time quit and
Lesonsky was hired. "I've been here
ever since. All together, it's been over
twenty years," says Lesonsky.

Today, Lesonsky is Senior Vice
President of Entrepreneur Media and
Editorial Director of Entrepreneur
Magazine. She says, "This means that
every word that goes through here I
am responsible for. I read every word
that goes into Entrepreneur."

Lesonsky says that people often ask
her how she can work at the same job
for twenty years. She responds,
"Because you have production cycles
with a magazine, every issue is
something different. Your tasks may
be the same, but everything you're
looking at is completely different so
it's never boring."

Currently, Lesonsky is working on the
end of the cycle for the back section
of a future issue. She is approving
copy that will go to film and then be
shipped to the printer. The process
then begins again for the front sixty-
four pages of the magazine. One of the
things Lesonsky says that people
often do not realize is how the timing
of production cycles work with
magazines. The issue that she and her
team are currently finishing up is the
October 2002 issue, two months away.

Every day, Lesonsky is approving and
reading something. At other times,
particularly this time of year, she is
planning the next year's issues. "It
was hard to sit in July of 2002, which
is when we did it, and figure out what
we wanted to write about in December
of 2003. The world can certainly
change a lot in that time, but that's
why we are always flexible," says
Lesonsky.

Despite the intensity, Lesonsky says,
"It's the most exciting job I can think
of. I love it. First, it's constantly
changing, and second, it carries a lot
of responsibility. I tell my writers that
they have to be careful because we are
giving people advice on what to do
with their money or their business,
something they have planned and
built. They are looking to us to tell
them what is good or bad or what to
do or not to do. Having the chance to
impact people's lives like that is
terrific."

Lesonsky has seen several changes
occur with Entrepreneur over the
years. In the early eighties, the
magazine first went on the
newsstands. At that point, Lesonsky
said that it had to be more self-
sustaining. In 1986, its current owner
bought the publication and a survey
of readers was done for the first time.

"At the time, we thought our readers
wanted to start a business. We found
out that half of our readers already
owned a business. That's when we
started changing the focus of the
magazine to not only give advice
about how to start a business, but
what to do once you already had
started it and how to grow it," says
Lesonsky.

The magazine has since been
redesigned twice. The first time was in
1994 and the second was in June of
2001. Currently, 70% of
Entrepreneur's readers already own a
business. Therefore, the rear of the
magazine is reserved for startup
information.