GOODBYE TO ALL THIS.

This article presents comments from the editor, Anthony Wilson-Smith, on his decision to leave his job as editor of "Maclean's." In the three-month period before taking this job in early 2001, my father died and our son was born. So from the day I first sat in this chair, I understood that however engaging a job can be -- and this one surely fits that description -- it still, in the end, is lower down on the list of things that really matter. Now that it's time to move to other things (a decision announced in January), I've been reflecting again -- from the back end of that equation -- about related lessons. Still, these are healthy times for journalism -- because we don't have the same powers we once did. On a personal level, I'm grateful to have worked for a national magazine run by owners -- Maclean Hunter initially and then Rogers Communications -- who allowed their journalists to travel the world while paying the bills uncomplainingly and without interfering. The last while has been especially rich emotionally, both for the chance to say farewell to Maclean's staff -- I'll miss them all more than they know -- and for the many nice comments from readers (including those complaining that I look too grim in my photo). Journalism can be very personal.