Posted on December 14, 2005 by Larry Bodine

ABA Journal Editor Abruptly Quits

Danailkim_1 Danial Kim, the editor and publisher of the ABA Journal has quit.  The question circling the pending departure is did he jump or was he pushed?

The official ABA memo is set out below.  Marketers should know about this because the Journal is the nation's largest legal magazine with some 400,000 recipients.  It's a prime target for P.R. purposes for law firms.

Those who say Kim "jumped" note that his new job is VP for a major set of newspapers to oversee their online operations.  Kim is known for starting the ABA Journal eReport, an award-winning free email newsletter.  He starts January 9. He briefly moved to Illinois where the ABA offices are in Chicago, but then moved back to Ann Arbor and would commute in from Michigan, a sweet deal he worked out with the ABA executive director. 

Those who say Kim was pushed refer to the low morale, internal infighting among the staff and his annoying habit of picking out the pictures for the magazine.  Kim came to the ABAJ five years ago.  He was Acting Executive Director of the State Bar of Michigan; before joining the Bar, Kim was publisher of Michigan Lawyers Weekly and practiced law in Detroit with Clark, Klein & Beaumont.  Rumor has it that he delegated all editorial duties to Managing Editor Debra Cassens Weiss, who now takes over as Interim Editor.  The eReport is popular, but it drained away from the Journal's Web presence and generated little if any revenue.  Meanwhile, some say that under Kim's tenure the magazine became so dull that a recent issue generated no letters to the editor at all.

Full disclosure: I was editor and publisher of the ABA Journal for eight tempestuous years back in the 1980s.  I can tell you there will be a feeding frenzy among people trying to get Kim's job. I will not be among them, because the job is a punching bag for the ABA Board of Governors.

----- Original Message -----

Sent: Tuesday, December 13, 2005 7:04 PM

Subject: Danial Kim

Colleagues--

Danial Kim, Editor and Publisher of the ABA Journal for the past five years, has advised me and the Journal's Board of Editors that he will be leaving the ABA in January to accept a position as Vice President for Media Integration for the Detroit Newspaper Partnership (The Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News).  In this position Dan will oversee the newpapers' online operations and specialty publications.

This is a wonderful professional opportunity for Dan. In addition, as many of you know, Dan has been commuting each week to the ABA in Chicago from his home in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and so this new position will also eliminate many hours of commuting each week for him.

During the past five years that Dan has served as Editor and Publisher of the Journal, he has led a cover-to-cover redesign of the magazine and launched an award-winning weekly electronic publication, the eReport.  Dan has also served superbly as a member of my ABA Senior Management Team. I thank him for his leadership.  On behalf of all of us at the ABA, I wish Dan well in his new position.

The Board of Editors of the Journal and I will immediately begin a search for a successor to Dan as Editor and Publisher.  Following Dan's departure and until a permanent successor is selected, Debra Cassens Weiss, the Journal's Managing Editor, will serve as Interim Editor, and Robert A. Brouwer, the Journal's Associate Publisher, will serve as Interim Publisher.

Robert A. Stein, Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer

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