Kinsley swimming away

This week I experienced one of those moments of serendipity that can restore a person's faith in the universe. At a conference in Seattle a few days ago, I happened to meet someone who was selling a collection of used Microsoft books, magazines and memorabilia. I ended up buying pretty much all of it, and in going through the pile yesterday I came across a copy of the May 20, 1996, issue of Newsweek magazine.

On the cover, next to the headline "Swimming to Seattle," was Michael Kinsley, then the newly appointed editor of Microsoft's Slate online magazine. "Everybody is Else is Moving There," the cover read. "Should You?" The story was a fascinating read, documenting a watershed moment in Seattle's recent history, from the emergence of grunge to the rise of Starbucks and Microsoft. A passage on Kinsley -- the former New Republic editor who was probably best known for going head-to-head with Pat Buchanan on CNN's "Crossfire" -- noted that he had second thoughts about his decision to join Microsoft when he was invited to "bond with his colleagues in a game of Laser Tag."

The serendipitous part: As it happened, not two hours after I went through that article yesterday, the Los Angeles Times announced that Kinsley will be joining the newspaper in June as its editorial and opinion editor. He'll be leaving his position as a contributing editor to Slate, although he'll remain part time in Seattle. As you can probably imagine, I couldn't help but let the experience of looking back at the Newsweek story influence the angle of the story about Kinsley that ran in this morning's P-I. If you have access to a copy of the physical paper, we also ran an image of the cover along with the story.

Also see coverage by MSNBC, Editor & Publisher, Reuters, the New York Times, the Associated Press -- and, of course, the L.A. Times.