Clay first came to the Monitor in 1984 as a summer intern at the newspaper’s weekly international edition. After graduating from Syracuse in 1985 with a degree in magazine journalism, he did a brief stint as the newsroom’s liaison to the Los Angeles Times Syndicate, then joined the monthly World Monitor magazine at its launch as a staff editor in 1988.
In 1993, Clay left the Monitor to spend four years in custom-magazine publishing, launching titles and writing profiles (from Peter Gabriel to Jimmy Carter to the CEO of BMW), travel pieces, and business stories for a range of client magazines. His writing and editing work also appeared in publications ranging from New Age Journal to Worth.
Clay returned to the Monitor in the late 1990s, running the Mideast/Balkans desk before becoming deputy foreign editor, Work & Money editor, then editor of the Portrait section and news-feature writer for the Currents section.
He embraced a full-time features-writing assignment during the early 2000s with the new Weekend section, concentrating on hobbyist subcultures – satellite-watchers, recreational diamond-miners, competitive tree-climbers, broomball players – with an enviable minor in automotive (ask about his quarter-mile times in a Jaguar XKR).
Clay was serving as features editor when he was asked to help launch The Christian Science Monitor Weekly in April 2009. He served as its editor until April 2017, then joined a design-sprint team to help develop and launch the digital Daily Edition. He was the Daily's editor until late March of 2019.
A father of two grown children, Clay’s a licensed pilot, a home cook (mostly pescetarian), and recreational motorist (’79 FIAT Spider) and motorcyclist. He’s happiest on a blackwater river in his canoe.
Selected stories
Business address gone, ambition intact
Backstory: Extinction of an American icon?
How red tape can clog a river's recovery
Star light, star bright ... better yet, a satellite
Dig diamonds? Go south.
Speeder cars: When a train set is not enough
Big wheels (for grownups)