When Michael McCarty opened his original Santa Monica restaurant, long before it became the in-place for media moguls, Efrem "Skip" Zimbalist III was a regular, connected through his friendship with Michael's younger brother, a high school buddy in Pebble Beach where they grew up. As we enjoyed a pre-holiday lunch at Michael's New York, surrounded by Sherry Lansing, Henry Schleiff with Kerry Kennedy, Meredith Brokaw, Esquire's Kevin O'Malley, Mark Rosenthal, Barbara Walters, Barry Diller, ABC News' Joe Armstrong, and Gerry Byrne with producer Graham Leader, Skip shared insights into his six-year business plan to build a vertical magazine empire as CEO of Active Interest Media (AIM), a plan he launched in 2003.
The name "Efrem Zimbalist" is one of those rare legendary names that has been passed-on through generations. The original Efrem, Skip's grandfather, was one of the top three violinists in the world throughout most of the 20th Century along with Jascha Heifetz and Fritz Kreisler. Skip's grandmother was Alma Gluck, the operatic virtuoso who was the first performer to sell one million records. Efrem Zimbalist Jr., who still breaks 90 at the Santa Ynez golf course, was one of network television's first primetime stars on "77 Sunset Strip" and "F.B.I."
There is, by the way, an Efrem Zimbalist IV, the oldest of Skip's four children. Skip, who got his nickname when his maternal grandfather, a Navy man, referred to him as "the little skipper," had originally refused to add another generation to the line of Efrems, but was talked into it by his mother and the "weight of generations coming down on him."
AIM publishes Vegetarian Times, Southwest Art, Black Belt, Log Home Living, Log Home Design Ideas, Better Nutrition, Garlinghouse Home Plans, books, videos, events and websites, with a goal of acquiring or launching at least 30 publications in the next few years. AIM's focus is on niche markets "where people are committed to hobbies or avocations they really love and where they need information and value advertising. The opportunity in publishing," Skip believes, "is when the advertising gets a reaction immediately and the cash register rings."
As a child, Skip heard stories about Curtis Publishing and the Saturday Evening Post from Mary Louise Curtis, his step grandmother, and he dreamed of "rescuing the family business." But, he recalls sadly, "the company was gone by 1968 when he graduated from Harvard and then it was off to Vietnam, where he served in military intelligence during the height of the war and was awarded a Bronze Star. He received his Second Lieutenant commission at a Pentagon ceremony from General William Westmorland with J. Edgar Hoover and Skip's famous dad standing by.
Skip remembers the phone call his dad received directly from Hoover asking him to star in "F.B.I." as a service to the country, although Efrem Jr. had not wanted to do another series so soon after "77 Sunset Strip." "Dad's idea of fun was turning on the sprinklers," he laughs. "He didn't go for the Hollywood stuff but J. Edgar made a personal appeal." Skip also recalls that every vehicle on the program was a Ford, which sponsored the series. "The good guys drove white Fords and the bad guys drove black Fords. Every new season, they shot new scenes with a new line of Fords. There's nothing new about product placement in television."
Upon Skip's return from Vietnam, he might have been expected to capitalize on his famous name, but he enrolled in Harvard Business School and then joined McKinsey and Co., where he remained for five years until his career took an unusual twist. His wife worked for her brother, a glass blower, and their business was catapulted to success when first lady Roslyn Carter showed one of their glasses on the "Today Show" as an example of American craftsmanship and appeared with the glass on the cover of House Beautiful. Skip, who had been helping out with the business on weekends, left McKinsey to respond to the sudden demand and remained for ten years, leaving after a divorce and finding himself without an obvious career path.
Although he "knew nothing about publishing," friends pointed him to Times Mirror, which he joined as a strategic planner in the midst of a recession in 1991 and "loved immediately." He quickly rose through the ranks to become Chairman of Times Mirror Magazines and CFO of the Times Mirror Company. It was a fulfillment of his youthful fantasy of running Curtis Publishing, and his combined love of publishing and experience in the crafts community led to the creation of AIM in 2003 with a vision that vertical magazines will grow in importance with the expansion of online and commerce opportunities.
"The great opportunity for marketers," says Skip, "is when the editorial is straight forward and every reader is a potential customer. We offer advertisers the environment to speak directly to readers based on their passions. Marketers are moving toward more targeted advertising but they need to be sensitive to the editorial and make sure their ads are appropriate," he pointed out. AIM's Vegetarian Times, for example, will run ads for the environmentally sensitive Prius but not for an SUV. Spotting Calvin Klein with Vogue's Anna Wintour at table seven, Skip recalled an ad placed by Klein in Times-Mirror's skateboarding magazine that caused readers to accuse the publication of "selling out" and led to Klein developing specially targeted creative.
Although Skip was not interested in pursuing an acting career and claims he inherited none of his grandfather's musical talent (his piano teacher gave him up as a student after two years claiming it was hopeless), he is chairman of the Board of Overseers of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. One-third of the principle musicians at the top five orchestras in the world are graduates of the Institute, he claims proudly, and the specially selected students attend tuition free. He is also a member of the Carnegie Hall Corporate Fund Board and Leadership Board of Lincoln Center.
Skip celebrated the holidays with his family at a vacation home on St. John in the Virgin Islands, where he is an active conservationist and where he hones his tennis game. He can be contacted at ezimbalist@aimmedia.com.