We learned last month that our colleague and friend Bob Sillick had passed away on July 3 after a battle with cancer.
The news came as a shock.
After completing his final assignment for us in May, Bob said he needed to take some time away to address a health issue. In typical Bob fashion, he didn’t make much of it. He simply told us he expected to be back in the fall.
When an email asking whether we could count on him for our September issue went unanswered, we contacted his family. Bob’s niece then shared the news we were not prepared to receive.
Bob was gone.
His family obituary describes a fascinating and varied career. One of his first jobs was as a disc jockey at KCOL, a progressive-rock station in Columbus, Ohio. He was also a professional photographer, worked in advertising and served as a contract copywriter for numerous commercial enterprises.
But there was so much more to Bob’s professional life — and especially to his contributions to the media industry.
By the time I met Bob, he had accumulated more than 45 years of experience in marketing, advertising and related fields. He had spent a decade as a partner in an advertising agency and held senior positions at several others, most of which served local businesses.
Bob joined THE MEDIACENTER — now Media Group Online — as a contract researcher and writer in late 2011. Beginning in 2014, he researched and wrote the company’s reports, following hundreds of subjects spanning marketing, media, retail, the automotive industry and emerging technologies.
His work helped media sales professionals across the country better understand their advertisers’ industries, recognize new opportunities and approach local businesses with more useful information.
That breadth of knowledge made Bob uniquely valuable. He understood not only media, but also the advertisers that support it and the sales professionals charged with connecting the two.
In 2020, Bob became an integral part of the Editor & Publisher team.
During the next six years, he wrote more than 160 articles and features for our audience of news media executives. A number of those pieces became E&P cover stories.
Those numbers are impressive, but they don’t fully capture Bob’s contribution.
His reporting was thoughtful, perceptive and grounded in a genuine understanding of the people and businesses he covered. He approached every assignment with curiosity and professionalism. He knew how to listen, how to ask the right questions and how to translate complicated industry challenges into stories that were useful to our readers.
Most importantly, Bob’s work reflected his sincere affection for the news media industry and the people working to sustain it.
Bob was dependable, gracious and remarkably easy to work with. He never needed the spotlight. He simply took the assignment, did the work and delivered something meaningful. We trusted him — not only as a journalist, but as a colleague who cared deeply about getting the story right.
Looking back, it is especially difficult to know that his May assignment would be his last for us. Bob expected to return, and we expected to welcome him back.
Although that will not happen, his voice will remain present in the hundreds of pages he contributed to E&P and in the knowledge he shared with media professionals throughout his long career.
We extend our deepest condolences to Bob’s family, friends and everyone fortunate enough to know and work with him.
All of us at Editor & Publisher will miss him greatly.
Rest well, Bob — and thank you for everything you gave to E&P and to the media industry you served so thoughtfully.
