[Leica] LIFE

["Sal DiMarco,Jr." <sdmp007@pressroom.com>]

Harrison, Ted,
        You are both wrong. LIFE did not deserve to die. This is coming from
a man who openly refered to it as DEAD magazine, and did so once in front of
the managing editor at a Christman Party. (FYI- He later became the M.E.at
TIME, and I went to his office and announced I was there "to eat crow.")
        Yes, the orginal LIFE was a great magazine, I grew up on it too....
In the beginning they were television to the masses. They didn't know how
and still don't know how to compete with television.
        The new LIFE was run by the bean counters up stairs, and they
plugged the latest hot PEOPLE editor into the LIFE's M.E. spot. All were
word people. They missed, NO, ignored the most important and basic fact,
LIFE was a picture magazine.
        After, the late Ed Thompson was promoted up stairs, the magazine
lost it luster, TV came along and no one knew how to compete with it. What
the old and the new LIFE needed was a dynamic editor, like the
late John Durniak to bring some energy and excitement back into it. LIFE
needed to give readers discoverage not coverage, show the viewer something
they couldn't see on television or in their daily paper. Look at the success
of Sport Illustrated, it comes out at the earliest four days after an event.
An event which has been covered live and slo-moed by TV, and written about
in the dailies. They found what I call "discoverage."
        What Ralph Morse did covering the space program was discoverage. I
remember waiting every week after a launch to see where he'd put the camera
this time. I still get chills looking at his picture of a rocket launch shot
from the top of the gantry with a fish-eye lens, and you can see the flames
burning!
        On a more subtle note, if you want to another example of
discoverage, go to the LIFE web page (www.lifemag.com) and click on the
cover collection. Type in the name Howard Sochurek.
        The second cover is one of Lyndon Johnson accepting Presidential
nomination. His daughter Lynda is at his side, with her arm around it, and a
look that says "I'm proud of my Dad." THAT you can't get on TV! It brings a
new dimension to picture coverage. People have to want to read LIFE. The
only way they will want it, it to make it interesting and exciting. The new
LIFE was boring.
        The new LIFE was a very poor PEOPLE retread, but alive, it still had
hope. Dead it has done.

Sadly,
Sal DiMarco, Jr.