George J Green, President & CEO, Hearst Magazines International

George J Green was elected President of Hearst Magazines International (HMI) in September 1989 when the unit was formed by Hearst Corporation. In his capacity as President/CEO of HMI, Green is responsible for 150+ licensed or joint-ventured editions of Hearst titles in 55 countries in 36 languages for distribution in over 100 countries.

Green is also Executive Vice President of Hearst Magazines and Vice President of Hearst Corporation, Hearst Holdings, Inc., and Hearst Communications, Inc. In 1996, he was elected to the Board of Directors of The National Magazine Company Ltd. in the UK.

Formerly President and COO of The New Yorker Magazine, Inc., Green joined Hearst Magazines on April 1, 1984, as Executive Vice President/ Group Publishing Director, responsible for seven titles. His 22-year career at The New Yorker, which he joined in 1962 as a member of the advertising sales staff, encompassed nearly every phase of the magazine’s operations. He was elected to the Board of Directors in 1973 and was named a Vice President in 1974, before being elected President and COO in June 1975.

Green also served as President of Fédération Internationale de la Presse Périodique (FIPP) from 1991 to 1993. He has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Magazine Publishers of America (MPA) since 1976, serving as its Chairman from October 1981 to October 1983. Green is also a former board member of The Advertising Council.

Green is known as the ‘joint-venture’ man around the world. However, despite his reputation of striking partnership deals around the world, he has not been able to replicate his international success in India so far. Attempts have been made by his company earlier (in 1996), but then India’s policy for international players was not as favourable as the company had expected.

However, this time round, Green is more optimistic and has begun talks with magazine publishers in India to launch Hearst’s magazines in India. There are also speculations regarding him joining hands with the India Today Group, which he has refused to comment on.

Green was recently in India as a keynote speaker at the India Magazine Congress 2008, held in Mumbai on September 22-23.

In conversation with Rishi Vora and Nitin Sharma, Green talks about global issues, issues specific to India, and his plans for the Indian market. Excerpts:

Q. You have ventured across the world in the form of joint ventures. How different are your JVs and what criteria do you take into account while framing the JVs?

Well, because of the worldwide JVs that I have been involved in, except in America, where we have our headquarters, I am being called the ‘JV Man’. Our JVs are more or less the same anywhere in the world. If I find a competent partner and my feelings about the market is positive, I usually tend to go for it. It is more of personal decision.

The Indian Magazine Congress 2008 was very good. Having learnt a few things about India, I realised that there are some issues that are unique to India. But one should understand that all markets have some or the other limitations. Economic recession, high newsprint price and competition are part of every market. The key to survival in tough times is in framing a long-term strategy. Content is really the foundation of whatever you do, and if you get that right, you need not worry much about other things. Hearst as a group has always worked upon the same theme and has been successful in difficult times such as the 1933 US recession, and most recently, the 1998 Russian crisis.

Yes, it is true. Launching an international magazine in India is not easy. India as a market is big; it is largely diverse. But there is no denying that there is good scope for international magazines. We, too, are eyeing to grab a share of this market. In a market where there are 15 official regional languages, apart from English, the catch for us would be to up the ante for both the quality of content and the overall product because someone would always be waiting in the wings to take your place with an even better business and editorial plan for readers.

In India, the cover prices and ad rates are way too low compared to international standards, the reason being that India started off with low rates. International brands are different from Indian brands. They have prestige, they are superior, and have far more acceptance than local products. I am not demeaning local brands, but international titles have excitement, and they add more value to both advertisers and readers.

Magazines have been around for almost 100 years now. But in that period of time, you had magazines and newspapers originally, and then silent movies came into the picture. People thought that magazines would die. Then radio came into the picture, and again the same old story started – of people predicting the end of magazines. Talking movies were introduced, cable came along and again people repeated the same old talk about magazines. But today, magazines are far from dead; in fact, they are complementing other mediums, including the New Media, in a manner that makes the magazine business even more interesting. Each and every magazine of ours in Australia has its own website with add-ons such as games, whistle, etc., and as a result of the same, we have been able to differentiate our products to different TGs across different mediums.

Thus, in my mind the magazine business is growing, and it will continue to grow in future as well.

As far as the Government policies are concerned, I do think they would change, but not because of our entry in the market.

The fact is that most of the people who visit the website tend to become subscribers, and at the same time it fills the need of that consumer to go to the website. And if we can attract enough advertisements, it makes great business sense.

It is up to the editor to decide this. He or she has to come up with innovative ideas in terms of dealing with stories. This problem is not specific to India, across the world, every new magazine is a me-too and, therefore, the idea to differentiate has to come from the editors. You’ve got to have to have something that is appropriate for the time, it has to be relevant to the readers that you target.

I think you are right about the youth, and I do think that a sports magazine would make sense. We already have an equity interest in ESPN – we own 20 per cent of ESPN – and I have always been talking to them about possibilities of a sports magazine. I would certainly talk to them about coming up with a magazine in India, especially because ESPN is in India. Lots of markets across the world don’t have ESPN, but we have to find a business model that will work in India.

Well, we had come to India in 1996 and that was a bit of wrong timing I guess. The systems and procedures are slow here, but I am sure things would change in future. As of now, I am not concerned about it. Hopefully it will change when we launch our magazines in two years’ time.

I have never been a big fan of SEZs. It is a competitive world where we all are fighting for advertisers and readers. I think there should be freedom to start whatever magazine you want, because the readers’ interest is there and that is what I would believe in. Therefore, as international publishers, we would prefer to adapt ourselves to the local conditions rather can creating those local conditions for ourselves.

Forget about it! Don’t waste your time arguing over it. Either come up with an independent research tool or stop talking about it. Or go by whatever you have. I am not a big fan of research to begin with; I have never done research when I launched my magazines. When magazines don’t work in the market, people tend to blame the research and point fingers at its accuracy. As far as advertising research goes, there has to be a methodology, and the methodology is being debated. And once you decide on the methodology, it will get resolved.

The question of cover price relates to the willingness of the buyer to pay for it. In many ways it reminds me of the ‘bridal magazines’ – it does not matter what the price of a bridal title is because the bride is anyway going to pay for it, given that she wants to get married. Magazines of such kind usually keep the cover rates higher. But having said that, a magazine has to have good content, and if it does, people would pay for it. So, once you have a magazine which is read by your target audience, advertisers would naturally come, and since you have good readership, you can always hike your ad rates as well.

Get rid of some of the magazines. There are too many English language magazines. The market is overpopulated and I don’t think there are that many readers in the country who would ready so many magazines. I think there would be magazines that would see the exit doors soon, or there would be new magazines coming in, which would then make a mark. If you launch a magazine in five years from now, whatever the top 10 titles are, I guarantee they won’t be the same.