Meeting the "Dark Prince"

A few decades ago I had the opportunity to meet Robert Novak, AKA the "Dark Prince." I finally got to see him again today at the RightOnline and Americans for Prosperity, "Defending the American Dream Summit." On both occasions I found the nationally known syndicated columnist as anything but "Dark."

I'm not being rude in my reference to Novak, in fact his memoir is actually called "The Prince of Darkness." This nickname was given to him many years ago by reporter John Lindsay because he thought Novak, "for a young man...took a very dim view of the prospects for our civilization."

Novak was a guest today on my radio show and his comfort as either an interviewer or interviewee was evident. We got the opportunity to do a panoramic overview of his career. The writer of the longest continuing running political column in history (over 45 years) has allowed him to sit on the front row of modern political history. We discussed his relationship with Rowland Evans (the other half of Evans & Novak team) and other major highlights of a fascinating career.

For those in the media business -- writers, radio and TV hosts, bloggers, etc. -- the lesson I learned from Novak is the value of relationships. Relationships are the currency that keeps a media personality current. Novak describes his job as one in which he spends a significant amount of time on the phone to find out what is going on and striving to maintain relevance. Over four decades of a daily column is a tough business. Some how, Robert Novak has made it look easy.

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Kevin Price is Host of the Houston Business Show (M-F at 11 AM on CNN 650) and Publisher of the Houston Business Review. Hear the show live and online at HoustonBusinessShow.com. Visit the archive of past shows here.