The name Rob Fixmer may not be familiar to most readers of
Travel Weekly, but his impact on the publication and the travel industry at
large has been significant for the past 15 years.
As editor of Travel Weekly, he supervised the day-to-day
operations of the editorial team, working with reporters and editors to shape
stories and helping industry columnists and contributors to hone the effective
delivery of their messages.
Rob Fixmer
He retired April 1. During his time at Travel Weekly, Fixmer
reported directly to editor in chief Arnie Weissmann, and among his assignments
was to edit Weissmann’s “From the Window Seat” column.
“My trust and faith in Rob’s news judgement and my respect
for his opinion and advice only grew over the course of 15 years,” Weissmann
said.
Weissmann will be taking over Fixmer’s responsibilities
until a replacement is named.
Fixmer arrived at Travel Weekly as a veteran business and
technology editor who had helped launch the New York Times website. During his
career at the Times, he was also the first editor of the CyberTimes section,
served as the publication’s technology news editor and, for a time, was author
of the personal computing column in the Science Times section.
A native of Wisconsin and a graduate of the University of
Wisconsin, Fixmer began his career in 1977 at the Capital Times in Madison,
Wis., and moved to the Dallas Times Herald as a business writer nine years
later.
In Dallas, he rose to the position of deputy metro editor
and state editor before moving to the New York Times in 1992. In 2000, he
joined Ziff Davis as editor in chief of Interactive Week, which folded shortly
after 9/11. He stayed with Ziff Davis until mid-2002 as an editor and columnist
for eWeek, and immediately prior to joining Travel Weekly was editor in chief
of Archi-Tech, a publication of Stamats Business Media that covered
architectural technologies.
In a note to the staff about the impending retirement,
Weissmann wrote that Fixmer understood and appreciated business and business
journalism but that his success was tied closely to “his empathy, his curiosity
across a broad range of subjects and his ability to relate to people.”
Although Fixmer is retiring from Travel Weekly, he will
still maintain ties with the brand and its readers. “Rob has indicated he’s up
for doing destination stories,” Weissmann wrote to staff, “so we can look
forward to ‘hearing’ his voice -- he’s a great writer -- and
seeing his byline.”