MinOnline :: Min Magazine :: The 21 Most Intriguing: The Publishing Dynamo: Peggy Walker

Click here...

The 21 Most Intriguing: The Publishing Dynamo: Peggy Walker
— Jeremy Greenfield

Comments |

Print |

Email |

Archives |

Del.icio.us |

Digg |

RSS |

Share on LinkedIn

The three publishing divisions of Chicago-based Vance Publishing are called "Salon," "Interiors Media," and "Food 360." Their similarities are not entirely clear to an outsider. After all, what does a magazine called Swine Practitioner have to do with Drovers or Modern Salon? But to Peggy Walker, president and COO of Vance, the comparisons could not be simpler.

" They’re all great brands," says Walker. "And they’re beautiful publications. The production values, particularly on the salon and interior magazines, are very high, and I’m very proud of them."

They’re also huge moneymakers that have helped Vance become the dynamic media company it is today. And at the top of this publishing empire sits publishing veteran Peggy Walker, who, since joining the company two years ago, has pruned and revamped its structure, to put more muscle behind new product and e-media development.

Walker’s rise to the level of COO came about through a mix of formal education, dedication to learning the business of publishing, and a streak of independence. Walker’s first job was as an assistant to five sales staffers and an editor at Cahners publishing in Chicago (now Reed Business Information), where she and the editor collaborated on writing projects. Walker then leveraged that experience into an editorial position.

Two years later, in 1974, she began a career at Gorman Publishing as associate editor of Canner/Packer, which is now Prepared Foods. At the same time, she went back to school to earn a degree in business from Mundelein College in Chicago, which is now part of Loyola University. Her earlier educational route — school to study writing and journalism — was detoured by an unsuccessful young marriage.

Over the span of 16 years, she rose to the level of VP and group publisher for the dairy market group. Meanwhile, her investment in education paid off by catapulting her up the publishing mountain, and she parlayed this experience into a group publisher position at Putnam Media, where she ran the food group.

It was around 1994 when Walker saw a trend and pounced on it. Publishing companies were increasingly outsourcing research and marketing, so she moved to New York City and founded The Patrick Harrell Group (named after her father), a business that took on contracts for audience and market research. She worked for Stagnito Publications and Beverage Publication, among other entities, and ran the business for three years by herself.

In 1997, Walker closed shop and moved to Cincinnati to join the National Underwriter Company (now known as Highline Media), which published insurance magazines, books and software. "I decided that running a one-woman show was not leading me to where I wanted to go," says Walker. "I wanted to get back into a publishing company."

It was seven years later, when Walker had risen to VP of the magazine and conference group, that an opportunity at Vance became available. "Around this time, Vance Publishing was undergoing a...how do I want to put this.... I joined Vance as VP of custom media in June of 2004. I was named the successor of the retiring president in September of 2004. I’ve been president and COO since then," explains Walker.

"I was attracted to Vance because it’s a well-respected, privately owned company. It’s a larger company than those I was at before. It presented challenges. I found it to be a very natural progression in my career."

A Chicago native who’s back in the Windy City after sabbaticals in New York and Cincinnati, Walker enjoys urban life and the challenges of running a large company: 37 print publications and numerous tradeshows and online properties. Walker has a five-year plan to reorganize the company for growth, product development and the creation of e-products through extensive staff expansion, as well as focusing top management on accountability and metrics. Next on the agenda is diversification. Walker plans to increase company revenues and profits by expanding Vance’s product base, and she will continue to reorganize the company so it can be more nimble in responding to the market.

She also finds time to volunteer for a few hours every Saturday morning at the Chicago branch of the Anti-Cruelty Society, an organization that prevents cruelty to animals.

"Some people find that the passion they have in their avocation energizes them for their vocation," says Walker. "I have two dogs, I’m married, I have family in the area, my husband and I love taking advantage of the city. I find, and have found, that my life is pretty full with those things. I throw myself into work, family, and charity."

IN THE CURRENT ISSUE OF MIN MAGAZINE

SEARCH PREVIOUS ISSUES

Post a Comment