ABC's Robert G. Burton: championing print in a TV world

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, March, 1987 by David Tuller

The change in management styles could not have been greater. The easygoing Baker "was perceived as a high roller who spent a lot of money on showmanship and entertainment,' said Joe Hanson, publisher of FOLIO:. "Bob Burton is a bottom line-oriented manager who looks to get value in everything he spends.'

In short order, Burton, 47, instituted a wide range of changes. He closed down the R. L. White Company, a real estate publishing operation that had proved to be a significant drain on the division's profits. He sold off a printing company and a mill owned by Chilton and folded or sold almost a dozen unprofitable magazines. He also consolidated back office and other support functions for the remaining entities. In the process, he pared the payroll from 3,200 employees to about 2,000.

Burton also introduced a tight system of quarter-to-quarter planning. "My managers all know that they will be measured on their revenues and profits,' he said. "If they achieve those, fine. If they don't, it's not a surprise to them if they have to be taken out of their jobs.'

"He probably fulfilled ABC's wildest dreams of a person who could come in, take over, make sense of a host of unrelated entities and set up budgets, managerial systems and strategic plans,' said John Veronis, chairman of Veronis, Suhler & Associates Inc., an investment banker for the communications industry.

Burton has made some major acquisitions. In 1983, he paid $18 million for Compute! Publications Inc., a publisher of computer magazines and books that, despite the glut of such publications on the market, is holding its own. Early last year, he spent $4 million for the Professional Exposition Management Company, which produces trade shows.

A football player at Murray State University in Kentucky who spent several years trying to barrel his way into the pros, Burton is a tall, hulking man who is getting soft around the edges where some of the muscles used to be. But he still peppers his speech with football terms and metaphors, and is relentlessly upbeat--his executives are all "just terrific,' his magazines "incredibly exciting.' His down home, back-slapping manner belies what is, by his own account, a hard-driving determination to succeed. Hanging in his office is an engraving of the famous Vince Lombardi quote, "Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing.'

Risk taker

Burton is more than willing to take risks, too. In spring 1986, over drinks and dinner during a trip to Greensboro, North Carolina, to visit the editorial offices of Compute!, the company's top executives outlined a plan to start Compute!'s Atari ST Disk and Magazine, for users of Atari's new ST computer line. The publication, they proposed, would have a unique selling point--each issue would include a software program disk.

"He gave us the go-ahead right there,' said Compute! executive editor Selby Bateman. "He doesn't committee everything to death.'

The magazine appeared on newsstands last fall. According to Burton, within weeks advertising revenues paid for start-up and printing costs. But it is hard to project the magazine's long-term prospects. An earlier start-up-- Compute!'s Gazette, for users of Commodore computers--reportedly ran in the black from its first issue. But the company lost at least $100,000 on IBM PC Junior, a magazine that folded when the computer of the same name failed to generate interest. "I missed that one--I could have sworn the computer would make it,' said Burton, the former IBMer, ruefully.