Margolis Is New 'SLJ’ Executive Editor

By Debra Lau Whelan -- School Library Journal, 3/1/2006

Rick Margolis, School Library Journal’s news and features editor, has been promoted to executive editor of news, features, and technology.

In his new role, Margolis will oversee and craft the editorial direction and content of all those departments, as well as SLJ’s new monthly Web casts of interviews with prominent children’s book creators. The series debuted in February with an interview with Caldecott Honor–winning Mo Willems and will feature Newbery Medalist Kate DiCamillo this month. Margolis also recently launched the magazine’s new monthly “Under Cover” column, featuring interviews with authors and illustrators.

Prior to joining SLJ in 1998, Margolis was an editor at several magazines, including the Wheaton Quarterly, the alumni magazine for Wheaton College in Massachusetts. Margolis’s overhaul of the magazine led to its winning a gold medal from the Council for Advancement in Support of Education for the most improved alumni magazine in the country.

As a former reading specialist, Margolis oversaw the language arts program for first through sixth graders at the Pittsfield Public Schools in New Hampshire, where he created and directed a language development program called SUNSPOTS for incoming first graders. Margolis was awarded a grant to create the program, which helped decrease the number of kids who had to repeat first grade.