AUTO'94
Magazine Mo
David Pecker,
CEO of
Hachette
Filipacchi
Magazines,
is one of
the most
influential
men in the
publishing
world.
CARLA JEAN SCHWARTZ
SECTION EDITOR
David Pecker Moving magazines into the next century.
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LLJ
W
ien For-
tune 500
companies
are in-
volved in
leveraged
buyouts,
manage-
ment is usually restructured
with executives scrambling for
employment. Not David Peck-
er. He didn't need the golden
parachute offered to employees
requested to leave — because
as management changed, he
was promoted.
When he worked at CBS
magazines, he even helped en-
gineer the leveraged buyout led
by Peter Diamandis in 1987.
Afterwards he was promoted to
vice president, controller of Dia-
mandis Communications.
When Diamandis was sold to
Hachette in 1988, David Peck-
er joined the new team holding
various key positions at Ha-
chette Filipacchi Magazines.
Just 42 years old, David
Pecker, of New York, is un-
doubtedly one of the most pow-
erful and influential men in the
publishing world. He is chief
executive officer and chief op-
erating officer of Hachette Fil-
ipacchi Magazines, which has
18 consumer publications
reaching more than 46 million
readers. Hachette Filipacchi
Magazines, Inc. is part of the
Paris-based Matra Hachette,
the third largest media compa-
ny in the world. His climb to
the top of the publishing world
was not through the usual path
of advertising sales but finan-
cial acumen.
In a time when magazines
are folding and floundering with
ad sales, Mr. Pecker's business
vision and strategic marketing
plan have led the company to
enterprising endeavors. Just
last month Hachette and Gen-
eral Motors launched "TV Car
Showroom," two one-hour
shows on the Home Shopping
Network. The shows featured
a special order from Pontiac and
sold Pontiac-related merchan-
dise. The first 5,000 buyers re-
ceived a 3-month subscription
to either Car and Driver or
Road & Track.
In November, Hachette
joined America Online, an elec-
tronic publishing system for
home computer subscribers.
The custom publishing division
has launched several maga-
zines, includingKnow-How un-
derwritten by General Motors,
Tell co-sponsored by NBC-TV
and Sony Style. In 1992, Mr.
Pecker organized the first glob-
al advertising unit in the mag-
azine publishing industry,
which allows 92 Hachette Fili-
pacchi Presse titles to be repre-
sented to U.S. advertisers.
"I think David Pecker has
provided a vision that most oth-
er executives have not," said Pe-
ter Levin, director of advertising
at Cadillac Motor Car Co. "He's
ahead of the game. He can take
resources in the company and
utilize them and expand them
beyond the titles of books,"
added Mr. Levin.
In 1992, Mr. Pecker shuttled
to Detroit 19 times to complete
a global advertising package
with GM. According to Medi-
aweek this agreement had a
price tag of $10 million for one
year. To achieve this Mr. Peck-
er set his own SWAT team of
players to look at how Ha-
chette's magazines worldwide
could service advertisers.
Mr. Pecker believes Detroit
is a key market for a corporate
selling plan. He has taken the
leverage from Hachette's auto
magazines, Car and Driver and
Road & Track, and began ap-
plying it to some of the other ti-
tles like Woman's Day, Elle,