IN MEMORY of Gene DeWitt

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Gene DeWitt

Published: January 28, 2009 at 03:22 AM GMT
Last Updated: January 28, 2009 at 03:22 AM GMT

By Jack Myers

Media industry veteran Gene DeWitt passed away this week. Gene was truly a legend, one of the few visionaries who led the media industry into the 21^st century, with firm grounding in the traditional media world. I was honored to include Gene as one of our original MediaBizBloggers and he was the very first featured guest in my Lunch at Michael’s interview series. In tribute to Gene and his career, here is that interview.

Gene DeWitt: Media Philosopher

MAY 9, 2003 — It was another cold monotone Spring day in New York but the gossip was flying and table hopping was incessant at Michael's when I met Gene DeWitt for lunch. Liz Smith was holding court; Barbara Walters was at a table adjacent to Jane Pauley. Ann O'Grady of CBS was enjoying a ladies lunch with CBS' daytime programming execs, while ex-CNN chief Reese Schonfeld whispered to cohorts at his regular back corner table. Sam Cohen, one of New York's best known talent agents, enjoyed a casual lunch while at table 22, ex-AOLers Marshall Cohen and Wendy Goldberg chatted with Jesse Kornbluth. Michael's is the media industry Elaine's. You're really not there to see or be seen, but why not do some celebrity sighting and say hello to friends? DeWitt, sitting with me at table 7, paid little attention to the surroundings, neither his eye contact nor his conversation straying. He would have been just as comfortable at a coffee shop or at Daniel.

Gene and I are close to the same age, so it seems incongruous that when I was just starting out as a media salesman, Gene was already a legend, one of those senior agency media executives who young salespeople aspired to see and get to know. Gene recently confronted rumors about leaving his post at the SNTA only a few weeks after the syndication industry's best received advertiser presentation ever. As it turned out, Electronic Media (now Television Weekly) had the story wrong, to the relief of syndication executives. Bottom line, Gene is happy at the SNTA and intends to stay.

Just a few years ago, when Gene was running his own media shop before it was acquired by Optimedia, I was engaged with a number of major advertisers in developing new economic models for advertiser produced television programming and I asked Gene for advice. He had no vested interest in the project; none of his clients were involved; and I couldn't pay him. Without hesitation Gene jumped in and became an essential contributor to the project. He did it, he says, because he "likes to exercise his creative juices; it was a start-up; it was fun; and it was worth it to learn if the models could work."

In a business where creativity is often relegated to the back burner, and everything needs to be quantified, Gene has always been somewhat of an enigma. Once among the most quoted media executives in the business, Gene's opinions often went against the grain and he was never shy about offering them. But try to find anyone who holds a grudge or feels they were dealt with unfairly. If they exist, I don't know them.

Gene spent at least half our time at lunch pitching the merits of syndication, and he tells a compelling story. When the SNTA job was offered, he realized it would be the ideal job: "eating, drinking, and talking." He says the SNTA achieved his three year goals in the first year, but that he "underestimated how little young people in the media community know about syndication, and how eager they would be to learn."

After leaving Optimedia and before joining SNTA, Gene spent six months traveling in Europe, rented a villa in Tuscany, and lived in Eastern Long Island before he realized he missed the people and the energy of working. He also missed Manhattan where he lives on the East Side.

He contributes his time developing free summer theater for young people and works with the Manhattan Theater Group, which develops young playwrights. See an off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway play and there's a good chance you'll see Gene in the audience. Two recent plays he's liked are "Our Lady of 121st Street" and "Dirty Story." Every Sunday, Gene's at St. Bartholomew's Church on Park Avenue. Although he says he's not deeply religious, he enjoys immersing himself each week in the spirituality and philosophy of church.

Gene is one of the few remaining media philosophers in our industry. His contributions have been made quietly, but there are few executives on the buyer or seller side who haven't been impacted by him in some way. He still speaks eloquently about the history of the business and his passion for the creativity of media planning, and now of media selling. Gene may be the head of a trade association, which does not allow him to be in the heat of the negotiation. But he remains an inspiration.

This is the first in a new series of weekly conversations with media industry leaders, influencers, and interesting people. Unlike the daily Jack Myers Report, my Lunch at Michael's are personality profiles of friends and colleagues based on weekly lunches at the well-known media industry meeting place, Michael's Restaurant on West 55th Street in New York. My lunches at Michael's will be front and center at table 7, so if you're there, say hello. My first lunch is with Gene DeWitt, president of the Syndicated Network Television Association, and a forty year veteran of the advertising business.

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