David Tell, editor and publisher
(602) 462-5675

For more than 20 years, David has created and managed publications of all sorts. After gaining initial experience reporting and editing for major metropolitan dailies, he became business editor of a small-city daily and then news editor of a suburban weekly newspaper. He helped overhaul and redesign the weekly paper, located in a fast-growing, affluent area of Oakland County, Michigan--adding new departments and features and making it the entertainment "things-to-do" information source for its suburban locale. For the same publisher, he also created and managed a niche magazine targeting lakeside dwellers/boaters in its watersports-intensive coverage area.

Using this springboard, David left news journalism, making the leap to strategize, launch and manage newsletters and magazines for corporate sponsors including GM, Unisys, Compuware, New Detroit, Baylor University Medical Center, Ohio State University Medical Center, University of Phoenix, SAP A.G. software maker and a number of others. Subsequently, resuming a local, consumer-lifestyle publishing focus, David played a key role in getting a new city magazine for the Valley's West Side--Glendale Magazine--off the ground and into print. Restless to run his own publishing operation and make a positive difference in the community in which he lives, David then created The Midtown Messenger, adopting the successful model of publishing around a core of well-selected, tightly written and thoughtfully edited hard news, reporting on matters affecting neighborhood residents in midtown Phoenix. E-mail David at editor@midtownmessenger.com.

Marci Tell, Advertising Sales Director

Marci is a longtime resident of the Valley, with a long career in retail and commercial banking. Despite that, she remains preternaturally youthful, doesn't golf, and is the most babe-alicious 50-something professional woman you are apt to meet outside of Hollywood, Paris, Rome, Scottsdale or Aurora, Illinois. Call her and let her sweet-talk you out of that stuffy suit and into an lengthy, iron-clad advertising contract!

Marc Oxborrow, design consultant

Marc, creative director at McMurry Inc., created the distinctive logo and effective publication design for The Midtown Messenger. He designed and art directed many of the same publications edited by then associate publisher David Tell at McMurry, prior to which he was art director for Selling Power magazine for a number of years. E-mail Marc at marcox@cox.net.

Shari Boulanger, cartoonist and illustrator

Shari is board vice president and the driving, unifying force behind Artlink. In her spare time she does marketing and graphic design for Sun Sounds of Arizona. She is also a founding member of PlanB Writers Group (www.planbwritersgroup.org), where her dissociative identification with a persona called "Iris" finds its voice. In The Midtown Messenger, by contrast, Iris' dissociative identification with Shari yields brilliant, understated, New Yorker-like cartoons. (Or used to ...)

Matt Jewett, theater critic

When we first met Matt, he was with the Ken Clark state legislative campaign. Currently, he is a recovering Ken Clark state legislative campaign associate, a program in which he is aided by retreating into the alternate worlds provided by live theater. Reach him at stagebuzz@midtownmessenger.com. .

Barbara Stocklin, historic preservation columnist

Barbara has been city Historic Preservation Officer since late 2002, when she was appointed after a nationwide search. She had held an analogous position in Austin, Texas. She administers the city's HP Office, programs and ordinance with a soft, singsong-y voice and an iron fist, and maintains an incomprehensible grace under the pressure of City Hall politics. Not only that, her columns require minimal editing, only one of many things for which we are eternally grateful to her. E-mail her at bypreservationonly@midtownmessenger.com.

Eric Eggert is The Midtown Messenger's Web designer and interactivity coordinator. E-mail him at eric@urbanphoenix.com

Robert Zusman

Robert, a former president of Arizona Macintosh Users Group, is the Midtown Messenger's technology infrastructure specialist and network administrator. He can be e-mailed at rzusman@amug.org, usually.

PDQ Baklava, Portobella Vanderbilt Diaz-Thigpen, L.E.J. Hunter, dining critics

PDQ's Greek roots mean he brings an epicure's discernment and a Hellene's passion and immoderacy to the enjoyment of all types of cuisine. Don't even get him started on the fun he claims can be had with phyllo dough, ouzo, and a live lamb. In her own kitchen, Portobella has a fondness for comfort foods such as Spaghettios laced with tablespoonfuls of Kraft (R) Grated Parmesan and Romano cheese--but when dining out, she is exacting in her standards of service and culinary execution.

L.E.J. is an inheritor of the literary and gustatory acumen of the Algonquin group of expatriates in interregnum Paris of the 20s, being a protege (and, some say, bastard issue) of the great food writer M.F.K. Fisher in sensibilities and author Ernest Hemingway in style. And Norman Mailer in temperament--don't bring him a good beer in a chilled (much less a frosted) mug, unless you want to wear it. Contact these gastronomes at critic@midtownmessenger.com.

Marci Tell	Daniel Tell	Naomi Tell

Marci Tell, Daniel Tell, Naomi Tell, contributing writers, data entry workers, receptionists and delivery girls

Few organizations completely eschew nepotism, and The Midtown Messenger is no exception. Who says you have to be a multinational corporation exploiting cheap overseas labor markets to keep costs down? Nonetheless, the editorial, clerical and menial contributions of the wife and offspring of the patriarch--er, publisher—have been inestimable, if not invaluable. Marci walked the talk by helping deliver the paper in some smaller neighborhoods the first few issues, and with an arts background and yen, contributes occasional reviews and critiques. And she writes for the paper, too. Daniel plans to follow in his father’s footsteps by disregarding probable medical and scientific aptitudes in favor of liberal-artsy stuff, having begun a career as a novelist at age 9. He is almost a clone of the editor, in fact, in his nuanced logical and aesthetic judgments, except for his review of the film “Signs,” and, his sister Naomi would say, “Reign of Fire.” Naomi, a subtle if aberrant thinker and articulate writer herself, is also a budding rock musician and cult leader, facets people say they never would have realized from her friendly yet professional phone manner.