Gordon Hughes

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Sept 1, 2004 by Geoff Lewis

Byline: Geoff Lewis

On the occasion of his 10th anniversary as president of American Business Media, Gordon Hughes sat down with Folio: to talk about the state of the b-to-b industry.

Folio: During a recent meeting of b-to-b execs you suggested that the controlled-circulation model needs to be reexamined. What's that all about?

Hughes: I am not here to tell people how to run their businesses. I am only here to provoke and poke. All I'm saying is that if I were running a magazine company, I would question whether controlled circ is the only way to go for every one of my titles. If there is a chance for people to double their money, they should take it. Most controlled circ books probably can't do it. This is probably more applicable to Web offerings.

Folio: Is online the future of b-to-b media?

Hughes: Print products will always be the standard bearers for b-to-b brands, I think. But electronic offerings are going to proliferate. Online will grow exponentially. Our members say their online revenue will grow 35 percent to 40 percent this year. We got past that dot-com crap, thank goodness. Now we are laying the track for the future.

Folio: There was a recent dustup over electronic magazine subscriptions, in which the Audit Bureau of Circulations censured Ziff Davis. A lot of b-to-bs are interested in electronic delivery. How big a deal is this?

Hughes:. My sense is that it's time to get ahead of this, which is why the ABM circ committee has taken up the issue. We can't set standards - that's not what ABM does. But we will work with the auditing services and make recommendations. This is now a serious issue.

Folio: What worries you most about this business?

Hughes What scares me most is if we fail to deliver to the customers. If we lose control of our intellectual property, if the product is demeaned because of a loss of intellectual talent because of continual cuts. But, after 10 years at ABM, I am hopeful. When this industry gets rocked it reinvents itself. Ten years ago nobody was talking about trade shows or databases, which helped the business after the last recession. All those things that we take for granted today didn't exist. That's why I'm hopeful.