Word: culligan
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Promising stockholders, advertisers and readers a "new era," the Curtis Publishing Co. last week elected Adman Matthew J. Culligan its new president. Within hours, Culligan was issuing snappy bulletins from the executive suite, and Curtis had a brash new tone of voice. After weeks of rumor, Culligan's appointment to the job (TIME. July 6) was no surprise; it came as an unmistakable acknowledgment of Curtis' need for a new and nourishing rapport with Madison Avenue...
...burden bearer." said Culligan last week. "People who know me say I have a career death wish. They say I'm psychotic." At 44, Culligan has seldom spent more than two years at any job, but his resume is impressive all the same: time and again he has breezed through energetic sales campaigns that have brought anemic magazines and television programs safely into the black. In 15 years on the Madison Avenue beat (with Hearst, NBC and, most recently, Interpublic, Inc., parent corporation of McCann, Erickson), New York-born Culligan has acquired an unshakable reputation as "a tiger...
...Culligan dismisses the company's financial plight with a wave of the hand: "Bankers love people who say, 'I'll double my profits next year.' " Already he has mapped out "national blitz-selling" campaigns, a "multilevel selling program." and a pride of new "inside" efficiencies. Culligan is confident that two heads will serve Curtis better than one. and for "in side man" he has chosen Vice President Clay Blair, 37, former Post managing editor. "It's a two-man job," he says, "as long as it's clear who's running the show...
...Culligan (who wears an eye patch because of a World War II injury) is a favorite son in advertising but a stranger to the Curtises-evidence that the outside directors now have considerable influence...
...former vice president of the National Broadcasting Co. (where he turned the Today and Tonight shows into moneymakers), Culligan could lead Curtis to a new rapport with Madison Avenue-a necessary ingredient in any improvement at Curtis. Said one advertising executive: "Culligan is a tiger of a salesman." Faint Hope. Curtis is in desperate need of a tiger. In the past year, the company has experimented with a variety of schemes the family had traditionally opposed. The sacred subscription lists of its five magazines (the Post, Ladies' Home Journal, Holiday, American Home and Jack and Jill) have recently been...