Don Johnson and Susan Alt's The Business Word built on acquisitions.

Donald E. L. Johnson ("I use that professionally because there are hundreds of Don Johnsons in the country") is another news-letter publisher who came to the newsletter business from a strong journalism background.

"My career began in 1964 with the Chicago bureau of the Wall Street Journal. I was on the floor of the exchange as the news of the Gulf of Tonkin incident came in."

For the next 12 years Don Johnson covered futures markets for the WSJ and several other publishers. "I wrote about everything from agriculature to zinc. I don't speak any foreign languages, but I knew about 25 different industry jargons."

In 1976 Johnson was hired by Crain Communications Inc. as editor of Modern Healthcare magazine. "In the next ten years we were able to go from a weak #3--sort of the Harper's magazine of healthcare--to #1, the Business Week of the industry, with 45 percent of the market."

Launches The Business Word with his wife

At that point Johnson and his wife, Susan J. Alt, launched the company that became The Business Word. "We had both worked for Crain, Dow Jones and Fairchild, not always at the same time although once she did take an office from me," Johnson said. "Now we share an office."

In addition to being a Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriter and Associate in Risk Management, Alt has planned and supervised the designs and redesigns of several magazines and newsletters. She is a trained artist and illustrator and also has had extensive experience in design and production management and strategic planning and publishing.

Today, the married couple's company publishes five newsletters, all acquisitions. The first two--Healthcare Strategic Management and Hospital Materials Management--"We first published under management contracts and only later acquired them," Johnson said.

The next three, acquired in 1995, Johnson calls the "Ad pubs" because each is 20-40 pages and contains numerous illustrations of advertisements:

* Profiles in Healthcare Management.

* Financial Advertising Review, and

* Healthcare Advertising Review.

"If you're an auto dealer or restaurant owner, you can open a newspaper and see plenty of ads from your competitors," Johnson observed. "It isn't that simple for hospitals or banks, so we provide that service with these publications." (Bob McClelland published a similar title for restaurant owners that, he explained, "allowed restaurateurs to steal marketing ideas without the expense of travel.")

The Business Word also publishes Twins magazine, acquired in 1996, covering the having and raising of twins and "multiples." "People always ask if we have twins but actually we don't have children, but we're experts in the area," Johnson said. "After all, we aren't hospital administrators or bankers either."

(Johnson's answer reminded us of a newsletter for twins we came across years ago. Lily Tomlin was on the board of advisors, not because she was a twin but because she thought so much of herself that she "ought to have been a twin.")

Additional publishing services

Through the years, The Business Word has offered marketing consultation, custom publishing, circulation fulfillment, and print shop services, but at present they are "concentrating mostly on what we do best, producing our own titles."

Johnson did say that, as custom publishers, they produced "the first 4-color magazine done entirely on desktop with a Macintosh system."

"We've always been a Mac shop. I bet I've bought 100 Macs over the years." They do have PCs on the database side. "In the early days we connected them with the old TOPS system. It was clunky but it worked."

The big move West

"In 1992 we were trying to sell a Chicago townhouse we'd lived in for 20 years and had worn out three brokers and looked at 100 houses," Johnson said.

"Then, after we had attended both a convention and wedding in Denver, we looked at each other and said, 'Why don't we just move to Denver?' It was a 10-second conference.

"We found eight houses we liked the first day and six weeks later we bought one. We went back to Chicago and told our 22 employees that the business was moving to Denver and they were welcome to come. Only one did (he had AIDS). That gave us the opportunity to start again and rebuild the staff," Johnson said.

"We found a better employment climate here in Denver, better quality staff, although not necessarily cheaper."

Staff make-up 

Today The Business Word has 14-15 employees and does all its editorial work in-house. Johnson made two points he feels strong about:

* "As a healthcare professional, I've always believed it was an obligation of employers to provide fulltime jobs with employer-paid health benefits."

* "Being a bit of control freak, I like to have my employees where I can see them."

Marketing and blogging

"Today, for marketing we advertise on the web, at Google and Overture, and we send out renewal notices. I may do some direct mail next year. For us DM response basically died after 9/11 and hasn't come back," Johnson said, in contrast to many other newsleter publishers rediscovering direct mail (see lead article this issue).

"One thing I do which is a bit different is I have a blog on our website (www.businessword.com). I blog most days. I comment on healthcare politics and economics and the national scene. From time to time I take some fairly strong positions.

"I think the blog brings people to our website (we use software from expressionengine that costs about $200 for the blog), and they may find their way to the publications, although I admit I have no way of knowing that."

Johnson said he blogs because:

* "I enjoy it."

* "I like the topic (heathcare)."

* "I hope it's good for business."

Johnson concluded: "My project for today: I'm searching for the right 'shopping cart' for our website to take orders for our newsletters, books and reports and downloads. There has to be a cheaper way. I'd be happy to hear from anyone who believes they know it."

The Business Word, 11211 E. Arapahoe Road, #101, Centennial, CO 80112, 303-290-8500, www.businessword.com