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Editors’ Note: Jim Sexton is retiring after 12 years as the editor of Bassmaster.com. This is what he said at his retirement lunch to B.A.S.S. employees gathered Birmingham, Ala., on December 13. Some names have been left off to protect the innocent.
First, let me thank the people who put together this special lunch for me. Faith McDonough and Jessica Anderson, Chase Anderson, Phillip Johnson and Nick Grabowski. This means a lot to me.
B.A.S.S. is a really special place. I’ve worked for 44 years in my adult life, at six different companies, and I’ve called B.A.S.S. the best job I ever had, and alternately the hardest job I ever had. I’ve come to realize those two things, Best and Hardest, typically go together because that’s the most gratifying, when you can overcome challenges.
I’ve also realized that it’s really fun to retire, particularly when you give three months’ notice. There’s plenty of time for lunches and drinks, congratulations and feelings shared. People who hated you now love you. That has been fun. I should do this more often.
I’m an editor so I came up with a few lists to mark this day.
The two best responses to my retirement post on Facebook:
From a former colleague who may not understand what I do for a living: “Wait… You’re retiring from fishing, every day?”
From a high school classmate who overestimates my fishing skills: “Fish EVERYWHERE are thanking the Lord above for this day……….”
Closest near-death experience at B.A.S.S.
- Announcing the new BassTrakk map in the angler meeting for the 2013 Tulsa Classic. Tournament Director Trip Weldon and B.A.S.S. video honcho Mike McKinnis had been big supporters of this idea. The interactive map showed the exact location of every angler at any point in the competition day. It was super cool. Fans loved it. But, the anglers hated it. In hindsight, of course they did! By the end of the meeting, I could see that Trip and Mike didn’t want anything to do with the BassTrakk map, and Chris Mitchell and I were left to fend off an angry mob of Classic anglers.
Worst/Best editorial idea
- The Elite shoe gallery of 2012. I became fascinated with all the different shoe styles Elite anglers wore for fishing. And I had our photographers get close to the stage and shoot just the feet. They whined about it, but we ended up with a 100-slide photo gallery of shoes, flip flops and the funny toe socks Aaron Martens wore. Some people made fun of me for this gallery, but I got revenge when the gallery got 800,000 pageviews.
The time I nearly got fired
- Steve Bowman and I came up with the precursor to the LIVE Show. It was called the War Room and was pretty amateur in its execution, but it was streamed live to Bassmaster.com and fans loved it. Expectations for quality were lower in those days. Part of the show included leaving the camera on in the tournament media trailer where our photographers and writers do their work. We figured fans would enjoy hearing our behind-the-scenes banter. Until one day when that chatter included me dropping an F-bomb. Shortly afterwards one of the B.A.S.S. higher ups called and insisted we turn off that camera. But sometimes mistakes lead you to better things, and the War Room eventually became the LIVE Show.
The top three things I’ve loved at B.A.S.S.
- The millions of storytelling opportunities. Unlike most pro sports we actually get to know our competitors, the fans, and the sponsors. For an editor that’s a gold mine for content.
- I’ve loved the size of B.A.S.S. Because it’s a small company you get pulled into all parts of the business. As a website editor in a big company (which was my previous experience), you are typically 100 percent focused on your job only. At B.A.S.S. I’ve been involved in Membership, TV, Sales, Tournament operation, and more. That’s been fun.
- The opportunity to hire people and help them grow. At this point, late in my career, that’s my favorite part of the job. It became less about me and more about them.
Three secrets to my success (if you want to call it that)
- I’ve been just hard headed enough to keep us publishing new content every single day for 12 and half years. Fans don’t lose interest over the weekends, so we fed that interest 365 days a year. Thank you, Digital team!
- Hiring quality technology vendors you can count on, which is expensive. But that investment has meant Bassmaster.com has never had a serious breakdown, and there’ve been no security breaches. Thank you to the Anderson family and our previous owners for being willing to invest in quality user experiences.
- Making a lot of friends in the fishing industry, inside the organization and outside it too. That’s been the best part of my B.A.S.S. career. I’ll miss hanging out with James Hall and Steve Bowman, strategizing about the work, but also BS-ing about life. Talking about Welsh Cakes and TV documentaries with Chris Sheppard. And, talking sports with Kyle Jessie and Bryan Brasher, then wearing my Tennessee Daddy hat in front of Laura Rush, Mary Katherine Thomas, Brasher and Hank Weldon every year when the Vols beat Alabama in football. Oh wait, that’s only happened once in the past 13 years. But it was worth it!
Three secret reasons I’m retiring
- I became a Journalism major primarily to avoid math, and yet I somehow spend a lot of time working on budgets, paying invoices and reviewing Travel & Expense forms. No more!
- It has become a hopeless task to correct all of Phillip Johnson’s writing mistakes. And I see no hope for the future there.
- Ever since Phil Lawless moved in next door to me at the office he comes over and talks to me for hours on end. I mean, you know Phil is a big talker? This drove me to retire.
Thank you Chase for taking good care of me and the Digital team.
Thank you to the Digital team for making me look good.
Thank you to my wife for supporting me and giving the best advice.
And thanks to the fishing fans who’ve been interested in our work!