GROW for it
Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management

YOU WANT TO EXPAND YOUR SMALL COMPANY FAST. You KNOW IT CAN BE AN OVERWHELMING PROCESS. HERE'S A FOUR-STEP GUIDE TO DOING IT RIGHT, FROM THOSE WHO ALREADY HAVE.

Asked recently how to successfully grow a magazine publishing company from small to mid-size, a publisher paused and then laughed. "It's simple," he said. "You put one foot in front of the other."

If only it were that easy. Although the industry is doing well, more launches are occurring than ever and equity firms are fueling growth for many companies, building and running a successful midsize publishing company is still harder than learning how to walk.

"You can't get there by the seat of your pants," says Alan Douglas, CEO of Richmond, Virginia-based Douglas Publications, which publishes seven magazines and has grown from $1.5 million in revenues in 1995 to $8 million today. "You have to plan. Five years ago, I could plan one step ahead for my company. Now I have to plan two steps."

You may not be able to get there by the seat of your pants, but you can get there. Most publishers say every market has a different set of rules, as do the trade and consumer sides of the industry. Douglas claims he took a different tack with each title he acquired. Still, there are a finite number of ways to grow. And what does seem to be universal is that the more flexible a publisher is, the better the chance to grow dramatically, whether the target is $12 million or $50 million.

There are as many variables in developing a strategic plan for growth, it seems, as there are approaches. Should you: