Frank Joseph has tasted both success and failure--over and over.

Following the recent announcement that LRP Publications, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, acquired Federal Personnel Guide from Maryland-based Key Communications Group Inc., we checked in with the almost-retired Key publisher, Frank Joseph.

NL/NL has profiled a number of people who began careers as humble reporters or editors and then ascended to the heights of publishing tycoons, at least by newsletter industry standards.

Frank Joseph, on the other hand, has had a long and (mostly) successful career in newsletters but he has always wanted most to report and write. (He has a degree from North-western University and an all-but-thesis master's degree from the University of Chicago in creative writing.)

In 1971, he first began working as a journalist with the City News Bureau in Chicago--where he said he made his bones the first time by arriving to get a reaction quote from the family of a shooting victim only to realize he'd gotten there before the police.

After a stint with the Associated Press, Frank found himself working in Washington, D.C. at the National Press Building. He was hired by a newsletter publisher, but to work on a book the publisher had a grant to write.

He ran into a guy he'd known in Chicago who worked on the same floor and who introduced him to his boss, George Spencer of Observer Publishing.

"George liked me, he offered me a job," Frank said. "I turned him down, but for the next four years he wooed me; at intervals he would call and take me to lunch, usually at one of the fanciest places in town."

By that time Frank was working for the LA Times/Washington Post News Service, doing some freelancing, and hoping for a reporter's job at the Post. One day he realized, however, that "I'm doing the same job I was doing five years ago for the AP, running a wire."

Moonlights at Observer

So, since he worked shifts and had Thursdays off, he joined Observer on a part-time basis--one 12-hour day per week working as a copy editor on deadline day. Then the Post's pressmen went on strike. As a staunch union person, after sneaking into work through the loading dock for several shifts, Frank told his boss he just couldn't cross the picket line. He took a leave of absence and went to work for Observer.

After six months, as the strike went on (and on), he resigned over the phone and joined Observer officially. "Yes," Frank recalled, "I left the Washington Post to go to work for a company with six employees run by a madman. In fairness to George, who is a colorful character to say the least, we did a lot of good work at Observer. His motto was that we should 'kick over some trash cans and have fun,' and Observer in its heyday also made a lot of money."

Founding partner at UCG 

Enough money that in 1978 Frank and two fellow employees, Bruce Levenson and Ed Peskowitz, decided to go out on their own and became the founding partners of United Communications Group (NL/NL 6/23/05) and went into direct competition with Observer. Actually, Frank had an employment contract and stayed behind at Observer for a few months.

UCG was successful pretty much from the get-go, which led to a problem, as Frank once told me: All too soon his time seemed to be taken up by meetings on office space leases and computer systems, not by "real journalism."

In 1982 UCG had the opportunity to acquire The Morris Report on Federal Health Policy, but they decided it might just be one more thing than they were able to take on at that time. So, making the best of the opportunity, Frank sold his interest in UCG to his partners and acquired the newsletter, which he renamed Health Policy Week, and founded Key Communications--which put him back in the journalism saddle.

David Swit of Washington Business Information had been an unsuccessful bidder for the newsletter, felt he'd been done wrong somehow, and sued everyone in sight--including Frank--three different times until a judge finally told him to leave and not darken the door of his court again.

"There I was," Frank said, "alone in my basement ready to craft the perfect newsletter and this guy I didn't even know keeps suing me."

Health Policy Week became a success. "We had 1,200 subs at $250 (1982-84 dollars), and next we launched Prospective Payment Guide which, while it never got above 500 subs, was priced at $300-400. Health Care Marketer and two other titles followed until, in 1986, Frank sold Key Communications and its five newsletters, some conferences and special reports to his former partners at UCG.

Not a well-thought-out decision

"It wasn't a well-thought-out decision," Frank says now. "I was flattered that they approached me. They offered what seemed like a lot of money and I acted more or less on impulse.

"I took the next year off and spent a lot of quality time playing on the floor with my two-year-old, but during that time I did some really stupid things, made some really bad decisions, ones I've regretted for 20 years.

"In the end, let's just say, the money I'd gotten from UCG did not look nearly as large as it had.

"I said to myself, 'You're only 47 years old, get back in the newsletter business.' In truth, it didn't go quite as well this time around. Managed Care Report was a success (1,200 subs at $350 each), and the acquisition of the annual Federal Personnel Guide and the Federal Employee Weekly Update was OK. But we launched more titles, such as Practice Owners Advisor and Law Firm Profit Report that were basically dogs."

Loses "a ton of money"

Frank continued the narrative of his on-again and off-again publishing endeavors: "Then, in 1988-89, I must have been reading my own press releases and decided I was a genius and I launched a newspaper, K Street Etc., for free distribution to office workers in downtown D.C.

"I learned a lot:

* "The newspaper business is not like the newsletter business.

* "If you are going to publish an ad-supported title, you probably ought to know something about advertising.

* "You should probably own your own printing operation.

* "Distribution brings a whole new set of headaches.

"We lost a ton of money, more than $120,000 I think. The really sad thing is that my notes tell me that very year, 1989, I was on the program at the newsletter association meeting where I predicted to the delegates that the economy was leading for a 'recession that will rattle your teeth.' A shame I didn't listen to myself."

Sells everything

"To get out from under, I had to sell everything," Joseph said. "I kept one title. Managed Care Report was the most successful, but publishing it as a one-man operation seemed a bit daunting. Then my wife, Carol, gave me some important business advice, 'If you want to keep the Federal Personnel Guide, I'll help you every way I can. If you keep Managed Care, you're on your own.'

"Of course, I kept the Personnel Guide. Capitol Publications acquired Managed Care and the deal specified I'd stay on for six months as a consultant to them. They must have liked it because they asked me to continue. I agreed, if I could also take other clients. They agreed and suddenly I was in the consulting business," Frank said.

Finds his own niche

Perhaps all of Frank's bad decisions, frequent start-ups, and losing endeavors have made him what he is today--a successful publishing and marketing consultant to the newsletter industry going under the moniker "Mr. DM."

For years he has led NEPA's "boot camp" for new publishers preceding its annual international conference. He also consults to many of the industry's leading organizations and is a member of NL/NL's Editorial Advisory Board.

"For the next 10+ years I told myself, 'I'll be back publishing newsletters one of these days now,' but I liked the 15-foot commute and more relaxed workstyle. The Personnel Guide took about a third of my time," Frank said.

"Last year I decided it was time to sell. As it happened, the broker botched the deal, so I had to keep it for another year (there's seasonality to annuals), and 2004 turned out to be one of our best years, but this spring I completed the deal in selling the Guide to Ken Kahn at LRP Publishing."

Now Joseph remains in the consulting business (you can reach him at [e-mail]) and has returned to his roots, writing fiction.

"I've written a novel, Fred," he told me, "and it will be published in October by a small but real press in West Virginia. It's called 'To Love Mercy' from the book of Micah, and it's all about race, religion, coming of age, and Chicago in 1948.

"I know all my friends in newsletters will want to buy a copy."

I know I will.

Frank Joseph, 5617 Warwick Place, Chevy Chase, MD 20815, 301-656-0450, fax [phone], [e-mail]