John Davison was a very important part of the 1up Network, going all the way back to EGM.
As a pre-teen, I occasionally picked up EGM at the newstand. The caricature reviewers, strategy guides, reader-participation, and previews really drew me in; the magazine had character. But it wasn't particularly mature. When Sendai sold EGM to Ziff Davis, Ed Semrad bailed rather quickly, and EGM took a new direction under John Davison's helm.
Issues #108 - #120 are favorites of mine. Flush with personality -- like EGMs of the early to mid-90s, the staff was static and very small: you knew who wrote every section, and each reviewer was easily identifiable since they often reviewed 10+ games a month -- but now far more mature, this was EGM at one of its peaks. Although the staff at the time played a big part in making it a quality mag, John Davison was a very important addition.
He oversaw some great features. EGM's "How-To" guides on cheating, importing games, etc. were great, and its cover story on Zelda, parodying gossipy trash mags, was creative, informative, a bit funny, and obviously memorable. When the Dreamcast was set to launch, EGM's coverage was unparalleled. Not only did it present as much information as you could possibly want about the Dreamcast, it did so in a supremely entertaining way. Lord knows how much time and effort went into putting together such quality articles when EGM has such a small staff: good employees and good managers.
John's letter to the readers, opening each mag, wasn't particularly ground breaking, but it was more along the lines of something you'd read in a news magazine -- it summarized the content or focused on a particular story. Though unspectacular, these intros really set the tone for the magazine.
It's disappointing to see him go. As the leader, you get to take most of the praise when things go well, and you get to take most of the shit when things go wrong. That's why I attribute much of EGM's success in the early part of this decade and the late part of the 90s to John Davison. He was one of the better writers, and he must have been a good manager, because he brought a lot of quality people into EGM, OPM, and 1up and he oversaw a lot of great articles and reviews. As a member of the 1up Show, there were no surprises -- the personality you read on paper is the one you get in real life (or at least the one that's presented on the show).
I could literally go on for pages, and if I stopped to think about this a bit, remember a few great examples of reviews he's done, feature's he's co-written, or quips he's come up with, but I'll digress. It was a pleasure being a reader of yours. Good luck in the future.