All Together Now

Many hands help to make this magazine.

Some years back, I ran a daily newspaper in Fiji. Putting out a national daily in Third World conditions posed numerous challenges, which ranged from the 100-degree temperature in our newsroom to the occasional staffer who would sleep off a long night at the pubs on the ratty carpet of my tiny office. We called our scrappy newspaper The Daily Miracle, which indeed it was on most days.

But truth be told, all of us in publishing, even in modern offices with massive computing power, sophisticated software and fancy cubicles (my “executive” desk in Fiji was a student-sized table covered in bright yellow Formica) know the thrill of getting an issue out against the odds. It is a part of publishing.

And the reason we can get our publications into your hands is because we have a lot of good people who make it happen. You know some of those who are responsible for this monthly miracle: our writers and photographers, for example, whose bylines and credits can be found in every issue. But most members of our team work in relative anonymity.

From Left: Jayson Harper, Erwin Baraco, Wes Funai and Michel V.M. Le.

While I’ll miss some doing it this way, I want to introduce you to two of those groups who do their work away from the limelight. In fact, one of the groups literally does its work in the dark. It is our art and production team, which designs our four monthly magazines and many of the advertisements that appear in these publications.

Jayson Harper, an exceptionally talented designer who is also one of our senior line managers, leads the team. His team includes Wes Funai, Michel Le and Erwin Baracao.

Our administrative team, handles everything from circulation to financial management to office services. They are among the most unsung heroes in our company, but we couldn’t function without their help.

From Left: Todd Hammon, Chandra Furuto, Dawn Sakamoto and Bert Oshiro.

Chandra Furuto is our accounting manager. All financial matters have to pass across her desk. Accounting Assistant Todd Hammon works with her. The circulation team includes Circulation Manager Dawn Sakamoto and Circulation Director Bert Oshiro.

There are many others, of course, who play important roles in getting our magazines into your hands. No doubt they’ll be on my case for not mentioning their contributions this month. But they should know that, at the end of the day, after I clean the coffee pots and turn off the lights, I thank each and every one of them for what they’ve done that day for PacificBasin Communications.

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