Tim Baskerville: an old war horse is back into harness.

When NL/NL last spoke with Tim Baskerville, then a 25-year veteran of the newsletter business, he was by his own admission sitting by the side of the road waiting to see if what then appeared to be a slump in the specialized publishing business was temporary or more permanent (NL/NL 2/15/03).

Through the previous years, Baskerville had operated his own publishing venture at least three times both in the U.S. and in Europe, as well as serving as group publisher and West Coast director for Phillips Publishing Inc. during the boom years of the 1980s.

Career in a nutshell 

Here's Tim's career in a nutshell: Attended the first NL/NL-sponsored newsletter conference in 1977. Launched his own newsletter, which failed. Succeeded with later efforts. Sold to Phillips. Worked for Phillips. Left Phillips and moved to Europe because of a non-compete clause in the Phillips deal. Launched his own company. Eventually sold it. Launched his own company again (what he calls "the world's smallest multinational"). Sold again. Came home to California, "sitting by the side of the road."

MCG "a natural opportunity"

"And then I got a call from MCG Capital with what seemed like a natural opportunity for me, to come back into the business as publisher at Kagan.

"MCG," he explained, "is a business development company, a sort of odd financial bird. They serve as a sort of virtual bank making loans and acquiring equity in media companies. They bought Kagan about a year ago" (NL/NL 3/16/04).

MCG Capital Corporation is based in Arlington, Virginia.

Kagan Research LLC currently publishes about 17 newsletters covering the broadcast and cable TV areas, including Cable TV Law Report, Motion Picture Investor, and Kagan Media Money.

The newsletter subscription prices were among the most expensive back in the 1970s and '80s, but their price range--generally from about $945/year to about $1,700--today is not all that out of the ordinary for highly specialized newsletters providing proprietary, "must-have" information. *

Referring to publications like those, Baskerville said, "But while well known, they are not the largest part of our business these days.

"That would be data books, massive tomes of industry statistics. We currently publish about 45 of those a year."

Kagan's "ancillaries" are not ancillary 

Baskerville continued, "Kagan is also unusual in that we earn a significant amount of income from consulting, things like appraisals and appearing as expert witnesses."

Asked who does the expert witnessing, Tim said that it is usually their senior analysts. "Analysts" who have other responsibilities for the publications are what they call their editors, "because mostly they are spread-sheet jockeys who also write a little text, not true journalists who struggle with numbers."

"We also do conferences in our areas," Tim said, "like cable TV and broadcast, but again, while they are fairly high profile, they don't represent that large a share of corporate revenues."

Kagan just held back-to-back, one-day conferences in New York City--Video Competition and the Cable VIP Executive Summit, priced at $895 each, or $1,395 "discount" rate for both.

"In all, Kagan is a company where ancillary revenues are the largest part of the business," Baskerville said.

Marketing

Asked about marketing plans, Baskerville laughed and said, "You know, when an old war horse like me gets back into harness, I tend to drag my team along behind me. Allen Kriegshauser, who has worked with me before, has joined Kagan and we will be cranking up some forced free trials."

Future plans include developing the business both organically and by acquisition. MCG acquired Kagan from Primedia, which bought it from Paul Kagan himself about five years ago.

Baskerville commented, "MCG is a publicly traded company looking for growth and I'm on the acquisition hunt. In the three months I've been here, I've already talked with a few people, but you know that business, nothing happens until it happens. But you can speculate all the time."

Asked about Paul Kagan, Baskerville laughed again. "He's still here in Carmel, he has his own media investment firm, I believe.

"I saw him a few weeks ago at the National Cable TV show. He walks around the exhibit floor followed by acolytes waiting for words of wisdom to drop from his lips. But he's no longer connected with the Kagan operation here."

Kagan, One Lower Ragsdale Drive, Bldg. One, #130, Monterey, CA 93940, 831-624-1536, fax [phone], www.kagan.com

MCG, 1100 Wilson Blvd., #3000, Arlington, VA 22209, 703-247-7500, fax [phone], www.mcgcapital.com

* For those publishers grappling with the pricing of print vs. online subscriptions, including a combination of both, Kagan's pricing structure might prove helpful. Here's a sampling:

* Broadband Advertising--electronic edition $995, print $1,095, both $1,490.

* Broadcast Investor--electronic $1,195, print $1,295, both $1,690.

* Media Sports Business--electronic $845, print $945, both $1,340.

* Motion Picture Investor--electronic $775, print $845, both $1,240.

RELATED ARTICLE: Paul Kagan--the name lives on

Paul Kagan founded his firm in 1969 just as the media business was waking up to its potential of new revenue models based on global communications and high-tech entertainment.

Kagan is gone from the firm but his name lives on. That's an entirely different approach from Ken Kovaly's (NL/NL 4.15/05), who intentionally left his name off both his flagship newsletter and the company with a view towards the day he might want to sell.

On the other hand, money fund guru Bill Donoghue sold his company, his name, and the self-titled newsletters with a complicated arrangement which allowed the purchasers to continue using his name and Bill to contribute, but it also allowed Bill to undertake non-competing ventures. Almost inevitably, you would think, it wound up in court.

--F.G.