(First published Dec. 9/97)

Greg MacNeil, president of Multi-Vision Publishing Inc., hopes his growing daughter will be proud of Elm Street, the magazine he's producing.

Elm Street targets the intelligent, urban 25-54 woman, mid- and middle-upper income, with children. On completion of its first year, it has already delivered to advertisers everything promised. But it's still not where MacNeil wants it to be.

Two years ago, MacNeil was, in his own word, "floating". He had a senior job as Group Vice-President of the Women's Service and Lifestyle Groups of Magazines at Télémédia Inc., Toronto. He was financially comfortable, and could likely have completed his career among the publications with which he had long been associated.

But he was beginning to feel uncomfortable with the structure of the company under new management style. Despite having been talked out of resigning a year earlier, he finally made the break.

"I quit the best job in Canadian publishing at the time," says MacNeil. "But I feel that one should always do the best they can in whatever they attempt, and I felt that I wasn't doing my best. I was floating, and wouldn't have been happy with myself over time. I guess it really hit home after a conversation with my son about doing his best. I wanted a challenge."

Building a Ship

"Télémédia is a fantastic company, but I had gone as high as I could in what I was doing. It takes a lot more to build a ship than to steer one, and my own personal challenge was to build a ship. I wanted to create the best magazine in Canada."

MacNeil knows magazines. After a short stint in sales with Maclean Hunter, he moved to Homemaker's Magazine in 1972 and was national sales manager until leaving to form the Procom Group with three partners in 1978. They added Recipes Only Magazine in 1983, and entered a 10-year buyout with Télémédia in 1986. In 1988, while still majority owners, they bought Homemaker's (and its French-language counterpart Madame au foyer) "when it was losing $1.3 million and turned it into a seven digit profit", adding Recipes Only into it as its food section. During the 10 years with Télémédia, MacNeil was publisher of Canadian Living and then held the Group VP position until resigning.

"I've always had a good feeling and been sensitive to women's things and interests, possibly stemming from having had three sisters," MacNeil says.

Nevertheless, he had to fight to call his planned new publication a woman's magazine, especially when Stevie Cameron, investigative journalist and author of On the Take: Crime Corruption and Greed in the Mulroney Years was brought in to be editor-in-chief. She "was a dream and an opportunity," says MacNeil, but she wasn't comfortable with the term 'women's magazine'.

However, MacNeil didn't want a traditional woman's magazine. Not that he didn't appreciate women's interests in food, decor, fashion and beauty. These topics would certainly play a major role for readers, and most advertisers in women's magazines are culled from these sectors.

But with 1.5 million Canadian women gaining university degrees in the past 25 years and taking their places in the business, cultural, sports and political worlds, and having a daughter growing up in a world of women's changing attitudes and lifestyles, MacNeil wanted a magazine that would not only entertain, but intrigue and inspire: in short, what was touted as a magazine for the thinking, intelligent woman.

"I knew what was strong in existing magazines, but I also knew what was missing," he says. "Most women's books write to women with a grade 12 education. General interest editorial is missing. People wondered how we'd pull it off in Elm Street. But good, solid journalism isn't just for men."

Best People = Best Product

"And we knew that if we got the best people, out of that we'd get the best product."

Along with Cameron, MacNeil and partners/executive vice-presidents Lilia Lozinski and Bill Wolch (both from Télémédia) brought in Julia Aitken from Homemaker's as Food Editor, enticed David Livingtone from The Globe & Mail as Fashion and Beauty Editor, and gave the initial design work to Georges Haroutiun, owner of Applied Arts magazine. (Martha Weaver took over later as Art Director). Building from 500 interested applicants, he pulled 24 of a staff of 34 from his old home of Télémédia, causing a lot of industry gossip in doing so. (Current staff of 35 will increase to 40 in early 1998).

It's working. For the current November issue, where articles on the Canadian women's hockey team, the influence of Lucy Maud Montgomery on other women writers, Mennonite women breaking with tradition and a quiz on salary bonuses mingle with those on Canadian women's fashion and a cooking school, revenue is double that of the launch issue. With an advertising/editorial ratio of about 43-57, Elm Street had more than $5 million in net revenue in its six issues this year.

The magazine increases to eight issues annually in 1998, and is taking its first steps in January to convert its 700,000 circulation to paid subscriptions. (It currently is distributed with daily newspapers in 15 major markets, plus 25,000 sold on newsstands). Initial move is to offer a subscription to those who pay $5.95, to cover handling and mailing costs, for eight issues.

" Elm Street is better than I envisioned at this stage," MacNeil says. "I'm pleased and proud of it. It's coming together. It's 'mass with class' . Its quality helps give it a niche. For example, we promised 44 grade paper and give 48. With cost increases of 14% on paper, we're taking a huge hit, but it helps give a packaging and presentation that are as good or superior to anything on the market."

"And with our conversion plan offer, a year from now we'll have no less than 50,000 copies paid. The magazine is now CCAB audited and is in PMB, a high risk for a magazine so young, but one we wanted to take."

Contract Publishing Gave a Base

Elm Street's launch was delayed a few months in part due to Multi-Vision Publishing's taking on contract publishing of Images and Health watch . MacNeil had been long associated with the magazines which he'd earlier had at Procom. For the past 10 years they had been published by Télémédia, but that company had decided not to renew the expired contract, so the magazines asked MacNeil to take them on.

"It gave us a base, but deferred the launch of Elm Street . But we're using our skill sets to take on other contract publishing jobs, too. We've just launched the first edition of Images in French." And he points with pride to the tiny print on the back of the Institute of Canadian Advertising's publication destined to U.S. marketers, showing that it's a work of Multi-Vision.

Owl Canadian Family magazine, though, is Multi-Vision's own property. Published almost simultaneously with Elm Street, it goes polybagged to the parents of 160,000 subscribers to the children's magazines OWL , Chickadee and Chirp . (The three with French counterparts Hibou and Coulicou, along with their television offshoot Owl Television Productions, recently gained new owners: Bayard Presse Canada and Coscient Group Inc., both of Montreal). MacNeil hopes to turn Family's advertising/editorial ratio of 30-70 to 50-50.

A Personal Glance

What is it about MacNeil that made Télémédia staff and Shopper's Drug Mart's magazines follow him into a venture where women's magazines are the most profitable segment if they succeed but where so many fail?

When asked, McNeil gives a lot of thought before describing himself.

"For one, I think I'm fair. Why not? It's something that's served me all my life. I buy into the 'Do unto others as they would do unto you.' And if some don't, they're jerks!"

"For another, I've got a sense of humor. I've had it all my life. My wife says I have the mind of an 18-year-old. It's part of my personality. Sometimes it gets irreverent and I can't let it go."

"I guess another one would be persistence beyond the normal level. I'm competitive. I never give up. And I am aggressive. I guess my style might bother some people, and if I know that, I feed it a little bit. If I know I can jiggle your chain, I'll do it. But I've never had to screw anybody. I've never cared how far I get, but I care greatly on how I get there."

Beyond these, he says, there's always some give and take in any situation, but if he's giving 51%, he demands 49% back from those with whom he's dealing.

Not only the people he works with directly identify MacNeil as a leader. He's a former vice-chair of Magazines Canada, a former member of the Board and Executive Committee of PMB, and in October, 1995, was the first recipient of the Advertising Club of Toronto's annual award for 'outstanding contribution and on-going excellence in the Canadian magazine industry.' These days, he's chairing the Canadian Cosmetic, Toiletry and Fragrance Association Ball and is on the fundraising committee for the Sports Celebrity Festival for the Special Olympics.

MacNeil is very sports-minded and fitness conscious. He plays squash, hockey and tennis, scuba dives and says his greatest love is fly fishing. He also travels, but "travel and languages are my wife's passions, and I just follow along." And he devotes as much time as possible to the interests and activities of his two children.

The Future

While MacNeil has business plans, a French counterpart to Elm Street isn't among them, at least for now. There's no real need for a new high quality magazine in Quebec, he says. It's a crowded market. "There was a void in English-Canada. We're focusing there on frequency and profitability. That's not to say, if 100,000 women in the French market who said with a coupon that they wanted one, we wouldn't look at it."

Within the magazine market, he hopes that the Canadian government fulfills its promise to protect Canadian culture. But should American split runs flood the market, he says, "We're more compatible with American magazines than the others - and we're determined and prepared."

MacNeil is trying to work with 'the others' - Canadian women's magazines - to sell the magazine medium in general and to improve its share of the total advertising pie. However, competitors, many of which have spruced up their own pages since Elm Street was first announced, can't be happy that Multi-Vision took $10 million net revenue out of that pie in the past year.

For the future, Multi-Vision is already working on another confidential contract publishing project. Another company-owned magazine is under consideration - perhaps a year away - but "the probability is as great for an acquisition." There's also a reader-driven concept without the need for advertising that is already trademarked.

And MacNeil is also thinking of going on the Internet with Elm Street, although to date, it's just a thought. Women over 35 years, part of Elm Street 's target market are, as a demographic group, the least interested in, or most intimidated by, the technology, he says.

"But with our current properties, there's no maniacal drive for more. Right now, our aim is to be profitable and to build the brand. And my goal is that, once it's set up, any property should have equity and be able to endure without any of us. We all contribute, but no one is indispensable."

Has MacNeil himself evolved as Elm Street has developed?

"That's hard to answer, other than what happens when one pushes things to the limit. But I have fulfilled the need to try my best."

"I'm not floating."