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Of
course, if you're going to
interview a Mr. Stegemeier, you
need a topic. I didn't have one,
but kind of filed away the event
for the future. Then one day in
1991 I read in the Los Angeles
Times that UNOCAL would be moving
their headquarters from one
downtown location to another
within a few years. Ah yes, here
was a topic. I went to my trusty
Writer's Market and began
searching for suitable
publication.
Business
Facilities was exactly right for
this subject. The focus of the
magazine was on site selection
for corporations. The next step
was to contact the editor Eric
Peterson. That I did by
telephone, asking if he would be
interested in an article on
UNOCAL. He said yes.
Next
step, to contact UNOCAL and try
to get something set up with Mr.
Stegemeier. This as I recall was
a bit more involved than the call
to Eric Peterson, as I was going
through their public relations
people. Finally though I learned
that Mr. Stegemeier still had my
business card, and yes they would
do an interview--with the
condition that they could review
the copy before it went to the
magazine. I agreed to
that.
This
was all very exciting to me. This
was a major piece for a new
magazine. Public Relations had
cautioned me to be on time, as
Mr. Stegemeier's time was very
precious. I remember that I was
early--as I tend to always
be--and sitting in the lobby
waiting to be called to the top
floor of the 12 story
building.
The
interview took place in his
office, with the public relations
person also there. We sat at a
small sofa and two chairs with a
coffee table in between. I had
been given 45 minutes, and as
always my questions were ready at
hand, and I did the interview in
shorthand. When we were finished,
I took out my camera and took
several shots of him at his
desk.
The
story was published in September
of 1991. Mr. Stegemeier was on
the cover, and there was a
full-page color photo of him
inside along with a lengthy
article. It's also interesting to
me that following publication,
the public relations people
called me and wanted to know how
many extra copies I could get for
him. It seems even a CEO of a $10
billion a year oil company was
pleased to be on the cover of
Business Facilities. Of course, I
was very pleased about that as
well.
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