Year of the Tiger

Promising stockholders, advertisers and readers a "new era," the Curtis Publishing Co. last week elected Adman Matthew J. Culligan its new president. Within hours, Culligan was issuing snappy bulletins from the executive suite, and Curtis had a brash new tone of voice. After weeks of rumor, Culligan's appointment to the job (TIME. July 6) was no surprise; it came as an unmistakable acknowledgment of Curtis' need for a new and nourishing rapport with Madison Avenue.

"I'm a burden bearer." said Culligan last week. "People who know me say I have a career death wish. They say I'm psychotic." At 44, Culligan has seldom spent more than two years at any job, but his resume is impressive all the same: time and again he has breezed through energetic sales campaigns that have brought anemic magazines and television programs safely into the black. In 15 years on the Madison Avenue beat (with Hearst, NBC and, most recently, Interpublic, Inc., parent corporation of McCann, Erickson), New York-born Culligan has acquired an unshakable reputation as "a tiger of a salesman" and a gifted executive.

Curtis lost $4,727,000 in the year's first quarter. In the year's first half, reported the Magazine Publishers Association last week, advertising in The Saturday Evening Post fell 209 pages, a drop of 19% from last year.*Holiday fell 5%, Ladies' Home Journal 17%, and American Home 6%. The total advertising loss cost the four magazines $9,200,000 in revenue compared with the same period last year.

Culligan dismisses the company's financial plight with a wave of the hand: "Bankers love people who say, 'I'll double my profits next year.' " Already he has mapped out "national blitz-selling" campaigns, a "multilevel selling program." and a pride of new "inside" efficiencies. Culligan is confident that two heads will serve Curtis better than one. and for "in side man" he has chosen Vice President Clay Blair, 37, former Post managing editor. "It's a two-man job," he says, "as long as it's clear who's running the show." Soon he will embark on a five-week barn storming tour of the U.S. to see the "heads of 75 companies, the top 30 ad agencies, bankers, securities analysts."

Culligan's appointment was greeted with general good will. The New York Herald Tribune wished him luck in an editorial, and the Associated Press called him "dynamic and picturesque." Said his predecessor, ex-President Robert E. MacNeal: "Don't worry about me, worry about my company." But Culligan was not about to worry. His long-term $120,000-a- year contract is rich with fringe benefits and he pronounces himself ready to work for every penny. "One of the legendary things they say about me is this capacity for work I have," he said. "If I work 18 hours a day, the others will work 14--you know how it is. Flaming leadership, that's what's really needed." With such talk in the air. Curtis could rest assured that even if Culligan does not succeed in bringing in a new era, he at least guarantees an exciting year of the tiger.

*While the association's list of weeklies did not show any significant change in the average number of advertising pages, it showed an average 2 % gain from ad revenue. Monthlies showed a 2% gain in ad pages and a 15% gain in revenue.

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