MHS grad top editor at Chatelaine

Kim Pittaway, managing editor of the most-read women’s magazine in the country, using her position to help women connect

Moncton native Kim Pittaway is  Chatelaine’s managing editor.  RON WARD/TIMES & TRANSCRIPT

In a place where natives feel everyone seems to know each other, Kim Pittaway has taken on a new identity.  As passers-by scurry past Cafe Cognito, their images veiled by a spring rain, she sits back to enjoy a cafe latte and contemplate the full circle her life path has taken. Some 20 years after graduating from Moncton High School where she served as editor of the high school yearbook - she has returned during the region’s grad week as the managing editor of Chatelaine, the most-read women’s magazine in the country.  "I never would have imagined, in a million years, that I would end up where I am," she says. "I’m having so much fun doing what I’m doing."  It all began in a house on Elmwood Drive where she and younger siblings Tom and Tina lived with their parents, Tom and Marie, and grandparents, Tom Sr. and Edna. Throughout the 1970s, the city on Canada’s east coast was known more as a railway centre than a cosmopolitan metropolis, and as avid outdoor enthusiasts, the Pittaways enjoyed the unique ruralness of being urbanites. The employees of the nearby New Brunswick Community College campus (he taught technical communciations while she worked as campus health nurse) spent their free time with their family, gardening in the backyard and exploring the wider area by camping, canoeing and cross-country skiing on weekends and vacations. Life was good.

It was the type of place where everyone knew each other, or so it appeared. Teenagers spent hours hanging out at McKay’s Dairy under a number of watchful eyes, ever mindful that the adults seemed to adhere to the mantra that it takes, if not a village, then certainly a neighbourhood, to raise a child. 

"In a small community, you’re connected to everybody," explains Kim. "It was a great place to grow up." 

Admittedly, it was a long way from Toronto, where she now makes a home (along with her siblings), but it provided key opportunities to those who sought them. For instance, taking part in a student co-op program in the 1980-’81 school year marked the beginning of a journalism career when the student was placed at no less than the Times & Transcript newspaper. The exercise proved exciting and daunting, she says; while there was the thrill of seeing her name in print in paper after paper rolling off the press, there was also the fear of mistakes being repeated in similar fashion. 

Bolstered by the former and unencumbered by the latter, she continued to study hard, taking a number of enrichment classes and further considering the option of journalism as a lifetime commitment when, in Grade 12, another opportunity was presented. Shortly before March Break, George Stanley, a math and computer teacher who served as faculty advisor for the yearbook, was dismayed to discover the annual project which was as much a part of graduation as the ceremony itself - was far from meeting its deadline. In fact, it was nowhere near it. 

"We were being faced with being a week before deadline and it wasn’t ready," he says, sighing even now when recalling the stress. "Very little was done and there was a possibility that there would be no yearbook that year." 

Realizing he needed the help of two highly organized students, he approached Kim and a classmate, Greg Geldart (who has since been ordained a minister), who both quickly agreed to help. Within two to three days, the trio had spent long hours sifting through photographs; writing, proofreading and editing copy and organizing the layout in time to make it to the printer. 

"She and Greg were just tremendous," says the retired teacher. "They got organized in no time flat. Kim is a very intelligent person. She has the grey matter between the ears, so to speak, and it went together. I always thought the world of Kim." 

Upon graduation from high school, she had finalized her decision to enrol in a bachelor of journalism degree at Carleton University. The move marked the first time she had been away from home for more than a week, but she excelled and after graduating in 1986, set about the business of finding a job in a systematic, organized manner. Some 200 resumés were sent to book publishers, magazines and public relations companies, one of which resulted in a job as editorial assistant at Discovery, a small magazine for people over age 50. Valuable work experience was gained, particularly by working with freelance writers, and by 1988, when the publication folded, she decided to try her own hand at it. 

Over the next few years, Kim wrote freelance copy for CBC Radio and advertising firms, conducted research for YTV and proofread drafts of Harlequin books, along with writing articles for national magazines such as Canadian Living, Homemaker’s, HealthWatch and Chatelaine. By the time 13 years of freelance editing and writing had passed, along with teaching a class in feature writing at Ryerson University, Kim decided to return to an office setting. She accepted an offer in 1999 to fill in as acting executive editor at Chatelaine where she had a seven-year freelance agreement, the last three as its Broadside columnist. And when managing editor Caroline Connell (whose job she was doing) was ready to return to work from maternity leave and jumped over to sister title Today’s Parent as a four-day-a-week senior editor, Kim accepted the job as managing editor. 

"It was time," she says, "and I was looking for a new challenge." 

Catering to a wide audience - Chatelaine is celebrating its 75th publication year with a circulation of 800,000 and a readership basis of four million - provides the Moncton native with a voice that reaches from one end of the country to the other. It’s one she uses carefully, conscious of the weight it carries. Women have a strong connection to each other and their lives, she believes, whether they hail from Riverview or Riviere-Du-Loup, and by making the introductions, she is the liason in a massive support system. 

"The power these articles can have is connecting with people and giving people a sense they are not alone," she says. "I think that the challenge is there to bring something fresh to the page and help readers connect with something they may be experiencing." 

At her parent’s home, where Chatelaine arrives every month, Kim’s mother, Marie, follows her daughter’s career with as much pride as she always did. 

"As a parent, you appreciate all the successes of your children and if they happen to be successes that are more public, it doesn’t make them more important than those that are more private," she muses. "You just rejoice with them when things are going well." 

The rain continues on Main Street as Kim steps out, her daily planner filled with other appointments with media, along with a cousin’s evening graduation ceremony. Then, too, there is the Chatelaine Walking Club walk in support of Canadian Women’s Foundation. All part of a working holiday’s work that she considers something of a privilege to be doing. 

"I love what I’m doing," she says, "and the East Coast is a huge part of that and who I am." 

No identity crisis here.