Tom Phillips--an appreciation of an exemplary newsletter career.

I first met Tom Phillips in January 1979. He was on the search committee that interviewed me for the job of executive director of the association. Phillips Publishing was then 4 years old, published 5 or 6 newsletters and was just reaching its first million-dollar year.

(Tom began his newsletter career, he always said, "from my garage," not the "kitchen table," and that his initial budget was $1,000 "not because that was the ideal amount but because it was the amount I had.")

In subsequent Januarys I saw Phillips Publishing expand to consumer and business divisions, grow to 50+ titles, and observe their first million-dollar month, then million-dollar week and, about 1990 or '91, million-dollar day as annual revenues topped $300 million. (Remembering that Tom is one month younger than I has always helped keep me humble.)

Active in the halcyon days of the association

I had the pleasure of working closely with Tom in the early years as he served as treasurer and president of the association. He was much more of a hands-on executive than almost all of his successors. While balancing the demands of a rapidly growing company, he always found time to stop by the association offices practically every day.

Tom may well be the most organized person I've ever met. Having been in more than my share of newsletter publishers' offices, I can still say Tom's immaculate office and more immaculate desk stand out easily in memory. Through his terms as association officer, I always suspected he had a legal tablet in one of the drawers on which he kept a list of "projects to work on when I finish as association president."

Those were good years for the association. Membership grew dramatically. We expanded services, added new chapters, staged traveling road-shows, and put out the first edition of my Success in Newsletter Publishing book. Tom and I also planned the first of the publishers-only Caribbean soirees.

Old-fashioned conservative

Tom was known for his political views long before he acquired Eagle Publishing. He told me he voted for Reagan, "because there wasn't a real conservative in the race."

During the recent tributes to Jerry Ford I was reminded of how perfectly comfortable Tom was in business and social situations with fellow founding board members like Larry Ragan and Dave Swit whose politics could not have been more different from his own.

Once there was even a rumor in the industry that Tom planned to run for the GOP nomination for Maryland governor.

Successful businessmen tend to be known for the drive to succeed, hard edges, and (sometimes more than occasional) flashes of temper. Tom Phillips may have had all of that in some measure but I didn't see much of it. I remember him as a nice guy and a friend.

Phillips Publishing alumnus Mark Ziebarth once said they "had fun" at Eagle Publishing, but it was "hard to make money publishing political newsletters." At this point I guess Tom doesn't have to worry too much about "making money."