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Rob Bates Steps Down as JCK News Director
After 28 years with JCK, the veteran industry journalist is launching his own publication on Substack called The Jewelry Wire.
After 28 years with JCK, Rob Bates is leaving his full-time position as news director to launch The Jewelry Wire, an independent news site hosted on Substack. He will continue to contribute articles to JCK and co-host its podcast.
New York—Rob Bates has left his full-time position as JCK’s news director to launch The Jewelry Wire, an independent industry news platform.
Bates had been with JCK for a total of 28 years and is one of the industry’s most well-respected journalists.
He has received numerous awards over the course of his career, including two Jesse H. Neal Awards for excellence in business journalism, the American Gem Society’s Triple Zero Award, and the Industry Service Award from the Jewelers’ Security Alliance.
“I’m leaving because I’m excited to try something new,” Bates said in an interview with National Jeweler last week.
“Twenty-eight years is a long time and I’m not the youngest person in the world. I think it’s a good time of life to do it. I have a lot of friends who are retiring ... you just get to a point where you think, what do I want to do for my last act? And this is what I want to do for my last act.”
Hosted on Substack, The Jewelry Wire will be a newsletter and reporting platform covering the global jewelry industry.
There will be four to five newsletters each week covering the latest developments in jewelry through a combination of original reporting, analysis from Bates and other industry voices, and discussions with both trade insiders and outside experts.
While the site is live now, it doesn’t officially launch until March 30.
Subscribing to The Jewelry Wire will be free initially, though there are plans to later add a paid subscription tier that will give readers access to additional exclusive content.
“The format is going to be really cool,” he said. “I just wanted a way to do what I do in a different way, amp it up a little bit, build a jewelry newsletter from the ground up.”
Though he is no longer with JCK full time, Victoria Gomelsky, editor-in-chief of JCK Magazine and JCKOnline.com, said Bates is “still very much part of the JCK family.”
“He will continue to appear on our twice-monthly podcast and contribute an article to JCKonline every week,” she said.
“We’re happy for him as he begins an exciting new chapter in his career.”
Related stories will be right here …
Bates had been with JCK for a total of 28 years and is one of the industry’s most well-respected journalists.
He has received numerous awards over the course of his career, including two Jesse H. Neal Awards for excellence in business journalism, the American Gem Society’s Triple Zero Award, and the Industry Service Award from the Jewelers’ Security Alliance.
“I’m leaving because I’m excited to try something new,” Bates said in an interview with National Jeweler last week.
“Twenty-eight years is a long time and I’m not the youngest person in the world. I think it’s a good time of life to do it. I have a lot of friends who are retiring ... you just get to a point where you think, what do I want to do for my last act? And this is what I want to do for my last act.”
Hosted on Substack, The Jewelry Wire will be a newsletter and reporting platform covering the global jewelry industry.
There will be four to five newsletters each week covering the latest developments in jewelry through a combination of original reporting, analysis from Bates and other industry voices, and discussions with both trade insiders and outside experts.
While the site is live now, it doesn’t officially launch until March 30.
Subscribing to The Jewelry Wire will be free initially, though there are plans to later add a paid subscription tier that will give readers access to additional exclusive content.
“The format is going to be really cool,” he said. “I just wanted a way to do what I do in a different way, amp it up a little bit, build a jewelry newsletter from the ground up.”
Though he is no longer with JCK full time, Victoria Gomelsky, editor-in-chief of JCK Magazine and JCKOnline.com, said Bates is “still very much part of the JCK family.”
“He will continue to appear on our twice-monthly podcast and contribute an article to JCKonline every week,” she said.
“We’re happy for him as he begins an exciting new chapter in his career.”
While Bates has spent the past three decades with JCK, his career in jewelry journalism started with Rapaport and this publication.
Bates joined National Jeweler as senior editor in 1992, succeeding Whitney Sielaff.
In 1998, he left to run New York Diamonds magazine, which JCK had, at the time, just purchased.
After a year, Bates moved over to JCK magazine, where he worked as a senior editor and later, news director.
He started writing “Cutting Remarks,” his weekly opinion column that has become a must-read in the industry, in 2007 and has overseen the publication’s online newsletter, the JCK News Daily, for the past 15 years.
“You’re only as good as your last story,” he joked when asked to pinpoint his best article before continuing on a more serious note.
“I think what’s kept me interested in the job is, the industry has gone through so many changes and issues,” Bates said.
He can remember when selling jewelry online was considered a major disruptor, as well as the controversy surrounding De Beers’ Supplier of Choice program, the issue of “conflict” diamonds, and in more recent years, the disruptions caused by the Great Recession, COVID, sanctions, and tariffs.
Bates said in a world where full-time journalism jobs have become harder to come by, he feels “very lucky” to have had steady work as a journalist in a dynamic field that afforded him editorial freedom and the opportunity to travel.
Working in jewelry journalism also came with another benefit—it’s how he met his wife, Susan Posnock, the former diamond editor at National Jeweler who is now Jewelers of America’s director of public affairs and education.
Bates gave his notice at JCK in February. His last day as a full-time employee of the publication was March 20, 28 years and two days to the day he started.
In his final weeks at the publication, he described walking through the Oculus one day en route to JCK’s offices, thinking about how he’s spent his entire life working for companies and now he’ll be on his own.
It’s a new chapter but as any good writer knows, it’s imperative to keep the story moving.
“It’s a huge change and I don’t think I’ve really gotten my mind around that,” said Bates, who describes himself as “nervously optimistic” about his new venture.
“It definitely feels bittersweet. [But] you get older and you start to re-evaluate things, and I ultimately opted for something different.”
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