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IDG Books Has New President; Plots Growth
Jim Milliot -- 2/7/00
IDG Books filled one of its vacant executive positions last week, appointing William Barry president and chief operating officer. Barry, who will report to IDG Books chairman and CEO John Kilcullen, most recently was senior v-p, corporate development, at Random House.
At IDG, Barry will be responsible for the company's global operations and investment initiatives, as well as all print and online content and knowledge-based developments for its technology and consumer divisions. Barry will be based in IDG Books' New York office.
Barry joins IDG Books as the company comes off a record quarter. Driven by the acquisition of the Macmillan general reference properties last year (News, July 5, 1999), revenues at IDG Books jumped 55% to $57.8 million for the first quarter ended December 31, 1999. Net income in the period rose 6.2% to $3.4 million. Revenues in IDG Books' consumer segment soared 222%, led by strong demand for titles in such series as Frommer's, Betty Crocker and For Dummies. Sales in the technology group rose 6%.
Kilcullen said he was particularly pleased with the performance considering the various integration issues faced by the company late last year, including integrating the publisher's sales force and opening a new warehouse. Kilcullen expects any outstanding integration matters to be completed by the end of the second quarter.
While IDG Books has spent the past several years acquiring "how-to knowledge content," Kilcullen told PW he plans to devote most of the company's efforts this year to leveraging that content by distributing it through different digital formats. IDG Books is in the process of digitizing its entire book archive and has developed the P3 (Parallel Publishing Process) pre-production system, which will allow the company to simultaneously exploit its materials in print and digital formats.
"We're moving from a book-centric company to a continuous services company," Kilcullen explained, although he noted that print "will always play a vital role in the company." According to Kilcullen, IDG Books plans to develop ongoing relationships with its customers by "supporting their print learning experiences with targeted online products and services." Dummies.com, cliffsnotes.com and frommers.com "are the anchors of our Internet strategy," Kilcullen said.
IDG Books has developed alliances with a number of online companies as well, such as Ask Jeeves, and Kilcullen anticipates entering into additional partnerships this year. He believes that the marriage of the IDG Books brand with the Internet will create a number of online communities that will result in a number of new revenue streams--such as digital downloads, courseware registrations and fees for transactions. Kilcullen maintains that the company's books provide a strong platform for drawing people to its online sites. "We shipped more than 33 million books last year. That's more members than AOL and Amazon have," Kilcullen noted.
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