Todd
Seibt's story
Todd Seibt has been greeting, meeting
and beating journalism deadlines since before 1984, and
his love of motorcycles stretches back — literally — to
diapers.
His father, a master mechanic and professional driver,
brought home a BMW from Germany after his Indiana Air National
Guard unit was stationed there during the Berlin Wall crisis.
He often rode between his parents on the bike in those
pre-helmet, pre-car seat, pre-seatbelt days.
That was the start of his love of two wheels in general,
and BMWs in particular. Moving about the Midwest, he had
a series of basket-case Japanese dirt bikes, all built
up by his father, and rode off-road extensively in Indiana,
Iowa, Illinois, Ohio and Michigan.
In high school, about the time he bought his first road
bike, a Suzuki GT550, an English teacher noticed his flair
for writing, and recruited him for the school paper. Since
then, he has worked for his hometown paper, The Monroe
Evening News in Monroe, Michigan, as well as The Huron
Daily Tribune in Bad Axe, Michigan, and the Flint Journal
in Flint, Michigan. He has also freelanced for other publications,
mainly on hard news events.
Along the way, he wore out another Suzuki, a GS650G, and
spent a long, hot summer without a motorcycle, working
three jobs to save for a BMWR80RT.
Whenever possible, he has combined his twin loves of writing
and riding to amuse, inform and entertain readers. However,
as a professional, he has also covered deadly serious events,
from Flint's record-breaking homicide rates in the 1980s,
to multiple murder trials and all that goes with working
the police beat in a major American city.
His most recent full-time job is director of communications
for a large non-profit in Michigan, where he handles internal
and external communications, as well as coordination of
marketing efforts.
Formerly, as The Journal's assistant business editor,
he was responsible for of covering the UAW, GeneralMotors
and Delphi Corp., among many other reporting duties. In
addition, he plans, writes for, designs and publishes a
weekly personal finance page.
He also plays a critical role in the design, layout and
production of multiple daily and weekly pages and sections.
And he manages the business team staff, and its myriad
production issues, in the absence of the business editor.
Since then, he has easily made the multiple technological
leaps from manual typewriters and glue pots up to today's
handheld, Web-capable personal digital assistants, cell
phones, text messaging and laptops — and used them
to better serve news consumers, his supervisors and his
colleagues.
That frequently means using them to write faster and better,
editing and reporting literally on the fly. That technology,
however, isn't just about personal use or convenience.
It also allows a savvy, technologically-inclined journalist
to provide more complete, real-time, user-friendly information — in
fresh, new ways — to news consumers.
But all work and no play make Todd a dull boy. So he fills
his spare time planning major motorcycle trips with his
wife, coaching his sons' various sports teams, serving
in leadership, teaching and project-management roles at
his church, and frequently working as a volunteer in his
community.
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