05 Mar Farewell Paul La Monica – Financial Media Update March 5
Friday was Paul La Monica’s last day as CNN Business digital correspondent and markets reporter. He was in that position for more than 20 years.
If you’re in the small cadre of financial public relations professionals then you know Paul La Monica. He was on everybody’s hit list. I’m sure he got hundreds of email pitches a day. I don’t know if he responded to all of them but he always responded to mine with a “thank you” or “I’ll think of this for future stories” if he wasn’t interested in an interview or more info.
I’m sure with a name like La Monica he’s not Jewish but he could easily qualify as a mensch (a person of integrity and honor).
In other words, Paul is a nice guy, everyone will tell you. He saw PR people as allies, not enemies. Whenever he was out of the office he responded with a note telling us when he’d be back and open to pitches. Apparently, this is how he operated.
That’s confirmed by Zain Asher in the CNN clip below. She’s saying goodbye to Paul. “You’re not just a hard worker, you’re a very kind-natured human being,” she says.
Another good thing about Paul. He lives in Brooklyn. I grew up in Marine Park and Bay Ridge, I lived in Greenpoint when it was still a veritable working-class Polish suburb of Manhattan. Only the dead know Brooklyn, Thomas Wolfe wrote but we’re still living and it takes a certain soul to choose that place as your home.
Paul leaves with a tune by The Stroke below in his last Tweet at CNN.
I guess I just want to be nice to Paul because he was so nice to us beleaguered PR folk for so long. I wonder what the next stage will bring for him.
It’s @LaMonicaBuzz‘s last day at CNN after 22 years!
We look back at his incredible career on @questCNN.
We’ll miss you dearly, Paul! 🛎️💛 pic.twitter.com/eB9RPO4A6v
— Zain Asher (@ZainAsher) March 3, 2023
Wow. Started @CNN Nov. ’01. Amazing 21+ years. Thanks to all who followed me. Gonna take Twitter break for a bit. But looking forward to what’s next. I’ll leave you with a song that came out just before I began here. Bye. But only for now. This is NOT it. https://t.co/eARkqSx0H9
— Paul R. La Monica (@LaMonicaBuzz) March 3, 2023
