Former Muscular Development Senior Editor John Romano tells behind the scenes stories and alleges having to kill or write stories he disagreed with.
For those who don’t know John Romano, he is a major journalistic presence in the bodybuilding industry. He worked for 18 years as the Senior Editor of Muscular Development at a time when bodybuilding magazines were king before the internet slowly changed everything. But as with any media company, calls need to be made, and sometimes Romano didn’t agree with the assignments he had to write – or the assignments he had to kill. In our latest GI Exclusive interview, John Romano takes us behind the scenes of Muscular Development and discusses his disagreements with editorial assignments over the years.
The world of media has been slowly changing over the years as the internet has made information more immediate. Magazines are slowly shuttering or transitioning into digital only publications. John Romano is a journalist in the bodybuilding world who worked through both eras – when magazines stood tall and through into the transition to digital. So when we had an opportunity to video chat with Romano, we wanted to get his insight into the journalistic world of bodybuilding and his experiences after 18 years of working with Muscular Development.
John Romano details how he first discovered bodybuilding and was able to parlay that into a life of writing about the sport. It should come to no surprise that networking and creating mentor relationships are a huge help in getting your footing in the world of journalism. This was especially true for Romano, who grew up in an Upstate New York town very disconnected from the bodybuilding word.
Eventually, Romano worked his way up to Senior Editor of Muscular Development magazine. While he was in a high position as Senior Editor, he was not the very top decision maker for the magazine. As such, he had a few disagreements with decisions made during his time there. Specifically if there was a story that had to be killed – or an assignment he didn’t agree with writing about.
“I was a loyal soldier to the cause. If I work for you I’m going to give you everything I got. And if you tell me you want something done, if I disagree with it, I’ll tell you I disagree with it,” John Romano states in our GI Exclusive interview. “But at the end of the day I’m going to do what you want. So yeah, there were times where I was given something I do not agree with but I did it because that’s what I was supposed to do.”
That’s certainly a professional and high road to take. But the question remains from a journalistic integrity standpoint – was he upset about what he had to write or what he had to avoid writing? Romano continues:
“Yes, absolutely. And I was kicking and screaming all the way through the editorial process. At the end of the day I wasn’t my magazine and it wasn’t my position. Senior editor is not editor. Senior editor is not publisher. Senior editor is the second guy on the masthead. The guy above me makes the decisions and he tells you what to do and that’s what you do.”
Romano ends his behind the scenes talk about Muscular Development by discussing what it was like to work with certain big name athletes. Which ones were hard to work with and which ones were great to work with. Romano focuses on the positive and lists off a few bodybuilders that he had the pleasure of working with happily over the years.
You can watch John Romano’s full comments in our latest GI Exclusive interview segment above!
