Editor’s Page: Our Biggest Champion

From my position, there are only two types of bosses: Those who value editorial content and those who don’t.

Bea Riemschneider Ebeling, Outpatient Surgery Magazine’s senior director of publications, definitely falls into that first category. You’d be hard-pressed to find anybody who works harder to champion the franchise they oversee.

It’s a luxury few editorial departments have today. In an industry that’s consumed with content at all costs, doing more with less and finding sneaky ways to let AI do the job for you (looking at you, Sports Illustrated), Bea has been quite the maverick.

She believes unequivocally in the power of quality content, and she works tirelessly to make sure anyone and everyone knows how valuable the Outpatient Surgery Magazine brand is.

“This franchise is a goldmine,” she’d often say as she encouraged our team to use everything at our disposal to “give readers what they deserve.” In the almost six years I’ve worked for Bea, I’ve never had to worry about defending the need for what we do because she was ALWAYS doing it for us. This stance makes sense when you learn the backstory. Bea was longtime editor-in-chief of Archaeology Magazine, a publication that brought her to “every single convention city in the U.S. imaginable at least three times for conferences, and for actual archaeology digs and travel to Israel, Jordan and England.” She was also the editorial director of Physicians Travel & Meeting Guide. In many ways, Bea is like the perioperative nurses who spend years perfecting their clinical skills until they’re eventually tapped to lead a facility. Despite major pressure, they never lose sight of the priority.

That’s not to say our director gave the business side of her role short shrift. When she took over from the previous owner in 2019, Bea inherited a print magazine without any real digital presence. Had we continued doing things the way we’d always done them, Outpatient Surgery Magazine would have ceased to exist. Instead, Bea quietly grew the digital arm of this franchise, creating an array of content-driven, revenue-generating products to meet readers wherever they were at. You’ve seen them. The Huddle and its fun, flirty cousin, The Special Celebration Huddle? That’s all Bea. Those inspiring Leadership Tips you get on Saturday morning? Yep, Bea again (working in conjunction with Senior Editor and copy editing prodigy Joe Paone).

You may be thinking, “Why is this guy going on and on about his boss? Isn’t this supposed to be a lead-in to the current issue?” I hear you, dear hypothetical reader. Normally it is, but Bea is retiring, effective Jan. 1, 2025, and I feel it would be criminal not to take this opportunity to mention all that she’s done for this franchise. As Mr. Paone put it: “I don’t know where we’d all be without you expertly steering us through the last five-plus years.”

Obviously, the loss of Bea’s leadership, big-picture thinking and business acumen will be felt. But I think what I’m going to miss most are the everyday moments I may have taken for granted in the thick of the grind. The hour-long, laugh-filled Teams calls that stemmed from “Can I borrow you for five minutes?” messages. The generous advice. The motherly reminders to take my vitamins, get some rest and log off every once in awhile. Once, when I was trying to work through the flu and texting Bea my plan, she convinced me to take a few days off and provided some much-needed laughs through one of those hilarious text message typos we’ve all experienced.

“Stop. You need to take care of yourself,” she texted. “You need to take a d*ck day.” It was immediately followed up with: “Sick Day! I meant Sick Day!”

Please join me in wishing Bea a happy, fulfilling and adventure-filled retirement; she certainly earned it. If you feel inclined to reach Bea, her email is [email protected]. I know she’d love to hear from you. OSM