John Mecklin (journalist)
Encyclopedia
John Mecklin is a journalist, novelist and editor, who specializes in narrative journalism. He is the editor-in-chief of Miller-McCune
, a national public policy magazine named after its founder, Sara Miller McCune
.
High Stakes Texas Bingo. In it, Mecklin satirizes Houston politics, as he experienced it during his time at the Houston Post. The novel, which involves semi-fictitious corrupt county judges, shipping magnates, and even vice president George H.W. Bush, focuses on the machinations of Jackie Belfast (real name: Terry O’Rourke), a Democrat and attorney who, after a stint in President Jimmy Carter's White House and a subsequent period in California, returned to Houston to face off with his rival, Bingo Satwell (real name: Harris County Commissioner "Boss" Bob Eckels).
Excerpts from the novel, which has attracted a sizable underground following, are available online.
Miller-McCune
-Background:Since its 2008 launch, Miller-McCune has won the Utne Reader Independent Press Award 2009 for science/technology coverage and the 2008-2009 Society of Environmental Journalists Award for Outstanding Explanatory Journalism, and been named one of Library Journals in 2009 and MIN's...
, a national public policy magazine named after its founder, Sara Miller McCune
Sara Miller McCune
Sara Miller McCune is the co-founder and Chair of SAGE Publications.She founded the independent academic publishing company SAGE with her late husband George McCune in 1965. She is on the Board of Directors of The American Academy of Political and Social Science...
.
Career
After growing up in the Midwest, Mecklin enrolled at Indiana University, where he graduated with a B.A. in psychology. From January 1984 to June 1992, he worked as an investigative reporter for the Houston Post. He then matriculated at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, graduating in 1993 with a master degree in public administration. Subsequently, he assumed a variety of leadership positions in alternative journalism:- August 1993 to February 1997: Editor, Phoenix New TimesPhoenix New TimesThe Phoenix New Times is a free, weekly Phoenix, Arizona newspaper, put out every Thursday. It is the founding publication of the New Times Media , but The Village Voice is now the flagship publication of that company....
(Phoenix, AZ). - February 1997 to October 2005: Editor, SF WeeklySF WeeklySF Weekly is a free alternative weekly newspaper in San Francisco, California. The newspaper, distributed throughout the San Francisco Bay Area every Wednesday, is published by Village Voice Media, a 16-paper alt weekly newspaper chain that also includes the New York City Village Voice and the Los...
(San Francisco, CA). - December 2005 to March 2006: Consulting executive editor for the launch of Key West Magazine (Key West, FL).
- October 2006 to November 2007: Editor-in-Chief, High Country NewsHigh Country NewsHigh Country News is a twice-monthly magazine published in Paonia, Colorado that primarily focuses on public policy, environmental issues, and culture in the Western United States. Founded in 1970 in Wyoming by rancher and environmentalist, Tom Bell, High Country News is a non-profit 501 corporation...
(Paonia, CO). - November 2007 to present: Editor-in-Chief, Miller-McCune (Santa Barbara, CA).
Awards
Mecklin has received numerous honors, among others an Investigative Reporters and Editors award, a John Bartlow Martin Award for Public Interest Magazine Journalism, and an Association of Alternative Newsweeklies award for Investigative Reporting. Under his guidance, journalists of the publications he managed won:- several George Polk Awards;
- the Sidney Hillman Award for reporting on social justice issues;
- several Association of Alternative Newsweeklies Awards.
- an Environmental Journalists Outstanding Explanatory Reporting Award;
- the Investigative Reporters and EditorsInvestigative Reporters and EditorsInvestigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. is a nonprofit organization that focuses on the quality of investigative reporting. Formed in 1975, it presents the IRE Awards and holds conferences and training classes for journalists. Its headquarters is in Columbia, Missouri, at the University of...
Award; - the John Bartlow Martin Award for Public Interest Magazine Journalism, and
- the University of Missouri's Lifestyle Journalism Award.
High Stakes Texas Bingo
During his tenure at SF Weekly, Mecklin began working on his roman à clefRoman à clef
Roman à clef or roman à clé , French for "novel with a key", is a phrase used to describe a novel about real life, overlaid with a façade of fiction. The fictitious names in the novel represent real people, and the "key" is the relationship between the nonfiction and the fiction...
High Stakes Texas Bingo. In it, Mecklin satirizes Houston politics, as he experienced it during his time at the Houston Post. The novel, which involves semi-fictitious corrupt county judges, shipping magnates, and even vice president George H.W. Bush, focuses on the machinations of Jackie Belfast (real name: Terry O’Rourke), a Democrat and attorney who, after a stint in President Jimmy Carter's White House and a subsequent period in California, returned to Houston to face off with his rival, Bingo Satwell (real name: Harris County Commissioner "Boss" Bob Eckels).
Excerpts from the novel, which has attracted a sizable underground following, are available online.