Her Hopes, Her Dreams

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Oct 1, 2002 by Jeffrey L. Seglin

Byline: Jeffrey L. Seglin

Ann Moore doesn't like her rug.

She's just been named chairman and CEO of Time Inc., the largest magazine publisher in the world, with nearly 59 million subscribers, 138 titles, and the lion's share of the $4.8 billion brought in by AOL Time Warner's publishing efforts. Advertising pages are down throughout the industry, circulation has been crippled by the downfall of the sweepstakes subscription companies, paper prices continue to sap profits, and there's that pesky problem of a synergy that never quite happened following the merger of Time Warner and America Online two years ago. But in late August, just a few weeks after her predecessor, Don Logan, told Moore he had accepted a new job as chairman of AOL Time Warner's Media and Communications Group, and that she would be the new Don, she is chiefly concerned with getting off the phone so she can make it to the store in Garden City, South Carolina, in time to get one of the two copies it stocks of The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.

Sitting in a weathered rocker on the porch of her South Carolina beach house, Moore says, "I feel amazingly calm. I don't lose sleep over anything at work." She also claims she neither dreams nor awakes at night with worries about Time Inc. "This is one of the great jobs in the history of business. I've spent 24 years in training," she adds.

A week later, back in her old office in Manhattan and seated in a chair facing a pile of Time Inc. magazines, Moore indeed gives the appearance of someone who is not only calm, but also, as a former colleague puts it, "comfortable in her own skin." It's hardly the persona you'd expect of someone who just inherited a magazine company that has more than doubled its titles through acquisitions last year. She faces the challenges of integrating these new titles into Time Inc.'s stable, structuring a management team that can run a significantly larger company than Logan had commanded for most of his run, and deciding what - if any - launches or acquisitions are on the horizon. And she must do all of this during one of the most treacherous economic storms to hit the magazine industry in decades.

While Moore has a strategic vision for the company, which entails building long-term value rather than scurrying for short-term hits, her view of the future is still partially obscured by having to get to know the entirety of her business. "I read all of our magazines," she says, "but I can hardly keep up." Mostly she's familiar with the titles she's worked on during her 24 years with the company. "I read Business 2.0 last week," she says of a title that's new to her. "I thought it looked pretty good."

Though clearly not as familiar with Transworld Skateboarding, acquired as part of the Times Mirror deal last year, as she is with In Style, which she helped launch in 1994, she knows it well enough to joke about its heft. "I think Skateboarding may be bigger than In Style in ad pages now," she says, sounding a bit surprised. "It's really bothering me."

Before Moore leaves the comfort of this office on the 34th floor of the Time & Life Building and moves her stuff (including a framed picture of her with Lyle Lovett and another with Hillary Clinton) into the corner office overlooking 51st Street and Sixth Avenue, Logan's old rug must go. "The carpeting in Don's office will hurt you if you come in in high heels, because it's so wrinkled," she says. "I'm not spending a lot of money, but this is the first time in my entire career that I am changing the carpet."

THE SHOES OF A FISHERMAN

"She's got some pretty big shoes to fill," says Nora McAniff, who Moore has already promoted to executive vice president overseeing the People and Parenting Groups. "Don Logan has had an extraordinary track record. The biggest challenge for Ann is to keep that momentum going."

Profitably building the division from fewer than two dozen titles when he arrived in 1992 is not Logan's only legacy. The biggest obstacle Moore faces is that "she isn't Don Logan, and he was one of the most beloved CEOs ever," says John Huey, Time Inc. editorial director.

Moore's style is distinctly different from Logan's. Where he might retreat to his 21-foot boat in Alabama to troll for bass, Moore, who lives in Brooklyn Heights with her husband, Donovan, and their 18-year-old son, Brendan, is much more likely to spend her evenings and weekends in the city. And whereas Logan is reserved, Moore takes a direct approach. "He always keeps his thoughts to himself," says McAniff. "Ann just tells it like it is immediately. You always know what's on her mind."

"We have a style difference," acknowledges Moore. "I definitely will rely on the management team here more than Don did. Don just could make those decisions. I don't mind making the tough decisions myself, but I definitely will run a more collaborative team."

SMOOTHING OUT THE RANKLES

Moore's first objective on the job, she says, is to "get the right people in the right jobs." Her initial move as CEO was to appoint two new executive vice presidents: McAniff, who formerly was president of the People Magazine Group, and John Squires, formerly president of Entertainment Weekly, who will now oversee consumer marketing and Time Inc. Interactive.