GEOFFREY MARK PARADISE 1954-2015
It is with sorrow and regret that we report the death of long time publisher of Transport and Trucking Today Geoff Paradise.
Geoff steered the good ship Transport and Trucking Today through 89 issues and 16 years, breaking plenty of big truck scoops and attracting a loyal readership. But to say that was Geoff’s only achievement in the publishing game would be selling one of the true giants of the business well and truly short.
In a lifetime in and around automotive publishing Geoff was a true innovator, a great writer, a font of new ideas and concepts who created a whole new genre of automotive magazines when he developed Street Machine, which went on to become the highest circulation car magazine in Australia, outselling its stablemate and longtime king of car magzines Wheels.
Paro, as everyone knew him gave away an apprenticeship as a spray painter to get involved in writing about cars and Hot Rods, building a lifetime in journalism along the way. He went to the USA in the mid 1970s to work on the famed Hot Rod Magazine, before coming back home to work for K.G Murrays, a move that would lead to the birth of Street Machine. A falling out with the management of what had become ACP led Geoff to leave and to start Performance Street Car and Fast Four & Rotaries, two titles that proved massively popular with readers.
In 1998 he bought Transport & Trucking Today from Steve Brooks and with characteristic flair and ability he would steer it through 16 years of tough times and good. Four years ago he started Coach and Bus, the highly succesful stablemate to T&TT. In September 2014 Paro was offered a role in the corporate world, ironically with Daimler Trucks. the same organization that lured Brooksy away back in 1998. He became the Senior Manager, Public Affairs for Daimler Trucks looking after the companies entire portfolio of truck brands. It was a job Paro threw himself into with typical gusto and enthusiasm and he was having a ball .
The shock of hearing the Paro had been involved in a bad car accident near his home on 11 February is still with us and despite the best efforts of the surgeons and medical staff at John Hunter Hospital in Newcastle where he was air lifted to, the Big Fella’s injuries proved be too severe and he past away on Tuesday 17 February. He was just 61 years old.
In the more than three decades that I had the pleasure and honour of knowing Geoff Paradise, I am so pleased that he became one of my closest and deepest friends as well as being a trusted business partner.
To Geoff’s wife Jacqui and his three children, Nick, Amy and Maddy we extend our sincerest and deepest condolences at his passing. Paro may be gone but he will never be forgotten.
Jon Thomson
T&TT Publisher