TROY MAILLIS

By DMITRY RASHNITSOV

The Beatles once sang, “You say goodbye and I say hello, hello, hello. I don’t know why you say goodbye I say hello.” Well this column is kind of my hello and my goodbye. As many of you have noticed, I took over the editorial duties of the Florida Agenda newspaper in February with no fanfare. It was business as usual around here.

Except you all did notice a difference. The paper began featuring more coverage of what was happening in your world-the local problems, issues and happy moments that surrounded your every day life. You saw us expand our coverage of the sporting events you participate in, review the plays and movies you want to watch and give you previews of the cities you want to travel to.

All the while we still kept our end of the bargain by being “your local LGBT news authority,” by presenting content that could not be found anywhere else, both positive and negative in the community.

You’ve never seen me write a column before, because I have been the one covering many of the news stories going on in the community, and I have an old school journalism mentality to never mix the news sections with the opinion pages. Experts who are passionate about their topics can give you much better opinions than I ever would. Since you’ve never heard from me before, let this column be my hello and my goodbye. I am leaving to take a fulltime position with a non-profit in the South Florida community. However, wipe those alligator tears off your face, as you’ll still see my name as a freelance reporter pop up in the pages of the Agenda (you can’t get rid of me that easy!). So without further pomp and circumstance, let me introduce you to the new editor of both the Florida Agenda and Mark Magazine, Troy Maillis.

Troy has worked with JumpOnMarksList.com since November 2009 and was in charge of editing the website. He will now be the sole editorial authority for the web and print publications for Multimedia Platforms, the parent company of Florida Agenda, Jump On Marks List and Mark Magazine. Troy is a graduate of the University of Florida and a twotime qualifier for the World Gymnastics Championship competition and nearly made the 2008 Olympics in China. He was once named the “top male gymnast in the Bahamas.”

Troy is also a graduate student at Nova S o u t h e a s t e r n University, studying to receive his Masters in Business Administration. He still teaches tumbling classes to youth gymnasts in addition to participating in competitive all star cheerleading at Top Gun in Miami. Now that’s what i call being involved!

Troy’s gymnastic feats have taken him all over the world, having spent time living in Toronto, Jacksonville, and New York City.

“The Florida Agenda and Mark Magazine are the leading publications in the South Florida GLBT community and I promise to keep the content local, informative, proactive and beneficial,” Troy said to me when he was officially announced as the new editor.

Troy, I plan on holding you to that promise. While newspapers and magazines all over the country are struggling to survive, Multimedia Platforms is in the first phase of a yearlong expansion plan. Already the Florida Agenda has launched its web presence, www.FloridaAgenda.com and JumpOnMarksList.com has expanded it’s content to offer 14 different city guides for towns in Florida and all over the United States. This is just the beginning.

Welcome to your new job Troy, the director of data, the leader of the lowdown, and the supervisor of the scoop.

Troy Maillis will take over as the Editor-in-Chief of Florida Agenda and Mark Magazine in addition to JumpOnMarksList.com. He can be reached at TroyM@JumpOnMarksList.com.