I was recently asked by The New York Times to write a guest column for the Sunday Business “Preoccupations” column about my  experience in bridging the worlds of digital and print media. I wrote about how exhilirating (among other things) it is to work with young, creative minds, lessons I have learned from them and surprised expectations about what I actually have to teach.

The feedback has been really wonderful. Below is an excerpt from the 11/29 Times. For the full version, please click HERE.

Over 60, and Proud to Join the Digerati

In the summer of 2008, just before I turned 61, I went to work at FLYP, an online digital publication that combines text with Flash animation, motion graphics and streaming audio and video to tell stories. It’s part of a larger effort to explore new forms of multimedia journalism.

Photo courtesy of The New York Times

FLYP’s founder, Alan Stoga, is several years younger than I am. The other people on the staff are decades younger than either of us. Most of them, I suspect, have body piercings or tattoos of some sort. You can say 60 is the new 40 all you want. Where I work, even 40 is pretty old.

I used to be the top editor of Time, Life and People magazines (back when print was king). On my first day at FLYP, I was introduced to the staff as someone who “has forgotten more about magazines than any of us has ever known.” This comported nicely with my self-image. I thought that by this time in my life, kids coming out of college would be lucky to work with me, pleased to learn from the experience that I’ve worked so hard (and proudly) to achieve.

It hasn’t turned out that way. The young digerati at FLYP are ambitious, smart, thoughtful and hard-working, and in fact, I feel lucky to be working with them.

Click HERE to read the rest of this column.