The People

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, March 1, 2003 by Susan Thea Posnock

MOVIN' AT 'EW'

CATCHING UP WITH... Carol Wallace

When we last heard from Wallace... She had left her post as managing editor of People and taken a short-term, part-time role as an editor-at -large at Time Inc. After striking that deal in April, Wallace started jetting back and forth between NYC and Aberfeldy, Scotland - where she owns a spa. Wallace was working on developing a less expensive celeb-driven newsweekly for Time Inc., but now that her stay is officially over (it ended in December) Wallace says she's taking some time to relax and visit family and friends before diving into new projects.

"I'm just trying to get things up and running in Scotland. I'm renting some office space so I can do some freelance writing for people here or there. And I've started a journal in case I want to do a book about the experience," she says. With no intention of giving up her New York apartment, Wallace says she plans to return to Scotland in the spring and stay through the summer. Already she has a few assignments lined up, including a piece for Fortune sometime next fall, and a monthly column in the Scotland-based Property Illustrated. "The great joy of what I'm doing now is I get to pick and choose. I don't have to take anything," she says. As for a return to full-time status, she says it's nothing she's "sitting around and envisioning." But that doesn't mean a big project isn't in the future. "I've always thought that if I had a fairy godmother come and tap me on the shoulder, I might want to do a mainstream travel magazine." Regarding those friends who predicted she'd "tear her hair out" without a full-time gig: "I haven't had a lobotomy, so I still have to keep my brain active. Just doing it in other ways than putting out a magazine." - STP