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Jul 2 2008 8:43AM EDT

The Perils of the Monthly News Cycle

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Just about every time a celebrity dies young, some magazine ends up with a cover it would rather not have. This time around it's Newsmax, the Florida-based conservative magazine, which put a scowling Tim Russert on the front of its July issue to illustrate a story about pundits and the election. Editorial director Cable Neuhaus says he'd just received the first bound copies of the issue when his executive editor announced that Russert had died. "Of course, I immediately figured it was a bad, somewhat distasteful joke," he says.

Here's Neuhaus's whole response:

Well, let's face it, it was an extraordinary situation. Several boxes of the July issue had just arrived in our office, and I was sitting in a conference room with our graphics department, discussing some designs I hoped to implement in the months ahead. It was, I think, some four hours since our in-office supply of bound books had appeared here in West Palm Beach, when suddenly word came that Russert had died. An executive editor poked his head into the conference room and made the announcement. Of course I immediately figured it was a bad, somewhat distasteful joke. I think blood quickly drained from my face, Jeff, as I realized this was largely unprecedented -- and somewhat spooky -- territory. The magazine had already shipped, darnit. It had just shipped, in fact. We could not modify the covers -- not the ones going to subs, not the ones traveling to newsstands. The book was on its way to readers ... with Russert on the cover, and nothing could be done to avert an, uh, awkward situation. At least, thank goodness, we were singing Tim Russert's praises, essentially calling him the most influential political pundit/reporter on TV. The next issue of Newsmax (August) will include a paragraph in which we explain to our readers what had happened. And of course we say that Russert's presence will be missed as we move deeper in the presidential election season.
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