The Monthly’s one-and-only publisher on four decades in fine print.
A self-described “scrapper” and passionate artist, Karen Lance arrived in Berkeley from Miami, Fla. via Brooklyn and Long Island in the late ’60s and met her soon-to-be husband, Tom Klaber. Equally important, she made the acquaintance of professor Allan Coult, founder of an underground rag and, briefly, owner of The Berkeley Barb. Something of a guru to Klaber, Coult liked to theorize about “psychedelic anthropology” (remember, it was the ’60s). He also encouraged Klaber and her man to start a little “shopper.” The result: a publication originally called The Telegraph Monthly that would, rather incredibly, grow into The Berkeley Monthly and then into what you hold in your hands today—a fiercely independent, 80K-plus circulation magazine that still puts content first. It also, despite the death threats, continues to publish this column. How does Klaber—divorced from Tom since 1983, and sole owner of The Monthly since 1981—do it? How does she have the energy to sell all those ads, personally select the cover art and color scheme, and keep the whole darn show running year after year? What does she eat for breakfast? Who’s her yoga instructor? I had to know.
Paul Kilduff: After all these years, in the face of what a lot of people are saying is the end of print, how do you keep things rolling?
Karen Klaber: Well, for one thing, anxiety spurs me to action. I’m not going to lie down for it. I’m on my own and I guess that makes me scrappy and dedicated. This is my baby! I’m definitely going to fight for its survival. And quality. Since I deliver so many free, door-to-door, I want to make sure that it’s an invited guest.
PK: The quality of the journalism itself is something that’s always been a selling point.
KK: Yes, from the beginning, we never looked to other publications to fashion what we did. It was always a pioneering creative set of ideas that we would refine and refine. I love the Rudyard Kipling quote about an old man on his deathbed telling his son his secret to success and about his competitors. He said, “Well, they can copy what they can follow but they can’t copy my mind. I left them sweating and stealing a year and a half behind.” I don’t have time to think about the competition and I certainly don’t want to do anything gimmicky. There is a higher level archetype in everybody and the subconscious mind sees all.
PK: How do you approach an advertiser who is drinking the Kool-Aid that print is dead?
KK: They say print is a dinosaur—but it took the dinosaurs millions of years to die. But the main thing is, I have not met one person who doesn’t say, “Even though I’m computer savvy, I love picking up a local publication. It’s relevant to me and holding it in my hands and reading it at my leisure, it’s not a light glaring back at me.” Turning the pages, there’s something very tactile about that experience, very intimate, friendly. We are not doing that badly, to tell you the truth, compared to other publications we read about and these enormous losses. However, I sure could use an investor partner or philanthropist to help me launch a dynamic website and get us the equipment and software we need. We are very resourceful on what little we have but it sure would be nice to operate more efficiently if we had those assets.
PK: So you started the magazine when you were 2, right?
KK: You’re not going to ask me my age. I already lie about it on Match.com. I say I’m 52 and that’s bad enough! No one’s looking for someone 52.
PK: How do you keep the energy level going? What do you have for breakfast?
KK: Variety is the spice. Don’t ask me why I’ve had the same job for 40 years. One of my favorite breakfasts is this brown rice cream that my ex-husband actually grinds on our old stone grain grinder and he brings me a bunch when he visits from Santa Rosa. Then I throw in raisins, nuts, flaxseeds, and maple syrup. We were extreme health nuts in the early ’70s and at one point, when we worked out of our home, we would only hire vegetarians.
PK: Okay.
KK: We were just pure. I’m an omnivore now but I rarely eat red meat, although I had delicious organic buffalo the other day.
PK: What’s your exercise regimen?
KK: Lately I’ve been into Pilates and gyrotonics and dancing.
PK: What about sky diving?
KK: No, no, no. I’m not attracted to dangerous sports. I take calculated risks.
PK: Shortly after I started writing this column in 1994, I talked to some publicist at Cal and I said, “Yeah, I’m with The East Bay Monthly.” And she just corrected me, “Oh, it’s The Berkeley Monthly.” I hate to say this, but I still get that a little bit to this day.
KK: I don’t care if people call it The Berkeley Monthly. That’s still our corporate name. They can do that. I mean, they often don’t read the tiny little East Bay between The and Monthly on the covers and they just think of it as The Berkeley Monthly. We had to change the name since our circulation is well beyond Berkeley. It includes Berkeley but also Oakland and Lamorinda and Alameda and El Cerrito and Albany and Kensington and we want people to, even though they want the flavor of Berkeley that still is in the [magazine], we want them to identify with it as a resident who is receiving their local publication. If they live in Oakland, they may not connect to The Berkeley Monthly as they would The East Bay Monthly, capisce?
PK: I grew up in Rockridge. I knew that over the hill there was Orinda, there was Lafayette, Moraga, etc. I never felt any great connection with those communities, but I know The Monthly sort of bridges that gulf.
KK: After the home I was renting burned in the Oakland fire [of 1991], I lived in Orinda for 11 years. At first, I thought, “Oh no, I couldn’t possibly live in that community because I need to have my diversity.” I probably would be bored if I was only on that side of the tunnel all the time. But it’s so idyllic and there’s a feeling of safety there. And of course, I would always come to this side to work. And we [The Monthly] are appreciated on both sides of the tunnel. We don’t want to be separatists. We want to be inclusive. Hit people in that higher level archetype.
PK: Maybe you should have become a Jungian psychologist or something.
KK: My friends do call me up at night for advice, that’s for sure.
PK: If you could immigrate to a planet, what planet would it be, and why?
KK: Venus, because I’m a romantic. I used to pray to Venus in the sky when I was a kid, pretend that Venus was my mother. I used to pray, “Oh, make him like me,” and it would give me the courage to write the guy a note. What prayer, I think, is all about, it’s you talking to the god within yourself. And it gives you the impetus, the courage, to take action to get what you want, not just wait for somebody to hand it to you.
PK: One thing I have known for a while is that you’re quite the night owl. Is this because you’re going out every night or because you’re working that late? What’s keeping you up till 4 in the morning, Karen?
KK: I’ve been doing a lot of tango dancing. I’m out almost every night for one thing or another like dinner with friends or movies, concerts, the theater. And then after that, I like to go into the office and get paperwork done and answer 5,000 emails. Besides dancing, I like to sing jazz and go to open mics. Some people say I missed my calling. It would be tragic if this publishing thing was all for naught.
PK: Do you sing in the shower?
KK: Oh yeah.
PK: Have you ever recorded yourself in the shower?
KK: No.
PK: Maybe that would be a good CD, Karen Sings the American Standards as She Lathers Up. What do you think?
KK: I think the shower would get in the way. I should actually sing a tune for your podcast.
PK: Well, what are you going to sing for us?
KK: God, let’s see . . . oh, I’ve got a perfect one since I’m such a night owl. “It begins to tell ’round midnight, ’round midnight I do pretty well ’till after sundown. Suppertime I’m feeling sad; but it really gets bad ’round midnight.” How’s that?
PK: Excellent. Great job.
KK: That’s a little tease.
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For more Kilduff, go to thekilduff-file.blogspot.com.
Age: 62
Birthplace: Brooklyn, N.Y.
Astrological sign: Capricorn
Website: themonthly.com
