Word: parkhurst
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Edited by Kay Parkhurst Easson and Roger R. Easson...
What gives Drinkhall-and Overdrive-their franchise to hunt is the populist philosophy of the magazine's editor-publisher and sole owner, Michael Parkhurst. New Jersey-born Parkhurst, 41, became an owner-operator trucker at 17 but sold his rig after ten years and used the money to start Overdrive in Los Angeles, a major trucking center. He wanted "to wake the truckers up to the fact that they're slaves to a monopoly." Parkhurst would visit truck stops by horse for publicity, but service, not stunts, made Overdrive. It dug, exposed, and above all helped out. There...
Today, Overdrive is fat (normally 150 pages) and prosperous. In 1973 the magazine grossed more than $1 million, but Parkhurst drew barely $14,000 in salary and the journal's net was only $1,750. The reasons: Parkhurst pays good salaries to his staff of 21 and pours money into the Independent Truckers Association, legislative lobbying and other causes...
...Parkhurst also treats advertisers with truculent disdain. For example, he refuses to accept Ford Motor Co. ads because "they made a crummy truck," and both a Union Oil Co. division and White Motor Corp. have in the past pulled out their advertising after he rapped them. He also has to pay for lawyers to protect himself against an average of some $25 million in pending libel suits (he has won seven and never lost), and to maintain an electric gate at his shabby Hollywood offices to guard against midnight raiders and subpoena servers. Says one staffer: "He could be taking...
...Parkhurst's future as a publisher seems assured; Overdrive is a secure financial operation. Whether he will realize his aim of organizing the independents is anyone's guess...