John French is universally known name In B2B media. He’s currently an influential consultant, but before that he was a longtime B2B media CEO, having led Cygnus Business Media, Penton Media, and Primedia over the course of his career.
John is perhaps best known as a turnaround artist—that is to say, a leader whose job is to spruce up underperforming media companies and prepare them for divestment. Most recently as a media operator, around 2017, he successfully divested Cygnus, selling it in multiple parts, division by division, an unusual method for selling media companies.
John French.
In addition to being well connected, John consistently offers great insights into the business. We had the opportunity to catch up with John, and bring some of his insights with the readers of Fox Tales. Here’s a transcript of our talk.
Fox Tales: How has the role of B2B media CEO changed in the course of your career? What’s the same and what’s different?
John French: Lots of changes, but one thing remains. We talk about print to digital to events to data, it’s still words and names. Content and audiences are the foundation. What’s changed is how we go about finding those readers, users and attendees. They’re sometimes called “influencers” now. We now establish personas, subscribers. We track your behavior, likes and dislikes, and through emerging AI, we can accurately predict what the persona will do next. Amazing.
Fox Tales: What’s your assessment of the state of the industry circa 2024?
French: It’s an excellent time to be in this industry. Rapid change and sophistication of data is taking place. AI will be the rocket fuel to power all that. It may not be for the faint of heart, but I love it!
Fox Tales: If there was one piece of advice you’d give first-time CEOs, what would it be?
French: So much of this business is SAS [software-as-a-service] based and data led. Don’t leave that to your tech people. Live the tech, know it, lead it. Educate yourself. But don’t be choked by it, trust your gut.
Fox Tales: You’ve talked about the need for more cohesive and effective privacy policies. How should that look?
French: Privacy issues are more and more critical to understand. Think of privacy rules that you would like to see in place to protect you as a consumer. And do it now before the government does, they’ll only screw it up. Look to Europe, then adjust those rules to accommodate the American approach.
Fox Tales: How has ad sales changed and what can media salespeople do better?
French: Ad sales today are extremely complicated. In baseball, they talk about a ” five-tool ” player. The great ones can hit for average, hit with power, run, field, throw. Salespeople today have to the same way: Understand the new digital models, recognize that quality leads are now more important than quantity, know how data collection works and how to sell it. The list is long. And if your salespeople don’t step up, change them out fast. The speed of change can crush a salesperson and the media company.