Esther Alicia Reid, longtime business manager for Publishers Weekly, died September 26 after a battle with ALS. She was 68.
Reid was born in Newark, N.J. and graduated from the Essex County College. Reid worked in New York City for her entire career, including working for 14 years in the fashion industry, and 13 years in magazine publishing. She originally worked for Publishers Weekly under Reed Business Information, PW’s previous owner, before leaving to work as an executive assistant at the Jordan Edmiston Group, a boutique investment bank. She rejoined PW in 2011 as its marketing manager, after the magazine was acquired by PW president and owner George Slowik Jr.
During her time at PW, Reid worked as its business manager overseeing a wide range of accounting, employee, and human resource services. She was a meticulous and efficacious manager, as well as a valued and beloved colleague, whose sense of humor, personal charm, and warm personality touched and transformed everyone fortunate enough to work alongside her.
Reid was a devout Christian and spoke often of her faith and of her church, the Metropolitan Baptist Church, and its programs and services. She served in the Women’s Fellowship Ministry’s hospitality, prayer ministry and liturgical dance along with Discipleship and African American Cultural Ministry. And she enthusiastically collected books for the children and teens in the church’s reading programs.
The family plans a memorial service.
