Our very own Joe Sixpack just got written up in the American Journalism Review. How did Don Russell end up writing one of the most popular beer columns in the country? Let’s find out:
Don Russell wrote that story. Wrote all of the Joe Sixpack stories, as a matter of fact. Still does, once a week, for the city’s pugnacious tabloid. Became so associated with the hometown hero most folks just call him Joe Sixpack. He left the newspaper racket after nearly 30 years to do Joe Sixpack full-time. The Joe Sixpack column, a Joe Sixpack Web site (joesixpack.net) and, coming in March, a book: “Joe Sixpack’s Philly Beer Guide.”
“The beer business in Philadelphia is a very tightly knit community, and Joe Sixpack is an absolutely huge part of it,” says Tom Peters, owner of Monk’s Café in center city Philadelphia, one of America’s great beer bars. “But the unique part of it is that the column is directed at a broader audience.”
The Column That Became a Franchise [American Journalism Review]
