WE's Kim Martin: Vision, Passion & Having More Fun

Originally Published: October 17, 2006

Traces of a Southern accent reveal her Georgia heritage, and although WE general manager Kim Martin grew up in Milledgeville, GA (population 7,000), she is certainly no small town girl. And while most of her Georgia State MBA classmates went to work post-graduation in the financial industry, Kim set her sites on the nascent cable television business, becoming the 34th employee of the upstart Discovery Channel in 1987, responsible for selling Discovery to cable systems up and down the east coast. At the time, Discovery was still struggling to meet its weekly payroll and cable operators had yet to embrace it.

"I completely bought into John Hendricks' vision," Kim shared with me over Cobb Salads at Michael's. "Growing up in a small town, where cable TV was the only daily connection to the outside world, I understood what cable and Discovery represented. Looking back at my early Discovery experience, it gives me an appreciation for people working not for big pay checks or stock options but because they're passionate about what they do every day. I love being passionate and being part of nurturing and growing a brand."

After 12 years with Discovery, and now with a husband and two children, Kim was offered an opportunity to nurture and grow another brand. Seven years ago, she joined Rainbow Media to head affiliate sales for what was then called AMC Networks, including Romance Classics, at the time a small network in only 18 million homes.

After earning her undergraduate degree in Political Science at Georgia College, Kim worked for five years in pharmaceutical sales to earn money for her MBA. "My goal was to some day run a company and I knew I would need the business skills." That knowledge gave her the confidence to "lobby everyone in the organization" when the position of general manager at WE became available two years ago. "I might have had less experience, but I had a vision and passion for WE." (Her success in building WE's distribution to 61 million homes may also have contributed.)

"When I came to WE, it was all about movies," she points out. "Our audience is married, educated, has kids, works and might love movies but they can't dedicate two hours of their lives to a movie every night." Kim advocated changing the focus to original hour and half-hour content.

"Reality programming is here to stay," Kim believes. "It's a reflection of viewers' lives and their friends' lives." WE's first breakthrough hit was Bridezillas, which returns next June with 18 new episodes and is now available on DVD at Target and Best Buy. "In the multi-channel environment, we needed to own our own programming and have the ability to extend it to mobile and other platforms," Kim explains. Forty percent of WE's programming is now original entertainment content with a focus on empowering the predominantly female audience, and built around the new "WE Have More Fun" tagline.

In early December, WE will launch the new Dirty Dancing competition series, based on the hit 1980s film and personifying WE's fun and empowerment themes. [Jack Myers MediaVillage.com is partnering with WE for an advertising industry Dirty Dancing party and competition in November.] "It's a timeless film. Everyone knows you don't put Baby in the corner," Kim laughs. At Michael's, fortunately, they didn't put us in the corner either, as we were surrounded by CBS' Gil Schwartz (aka Stanley Bing), Hachette's Jack Kliger, legendary producer Gerald Schoenfeld, Liz Smith, Henry Schleiff (pre Hallmark), Ed Bleier and NYC Film, Television & Theater Commissioner Katherine Oliver with the producers of Project Runway, Michael Kassan with Fox Interactive's Michael Barrett, Joe Armstrong, David Patrick Columbia and Xbox' Bill Nielsen.

In the Dirty Dancing series, 18 women, working with professional male dancers, will compete to appear in the touring company of the new Dirty Dancing theatrical production now in Europe and coming to the U.S. in 2007, with the opportunity to move to Broadway with the play. The series, in addition to the competition, will feature intimate scenes of contestants behind-the-scenes at the show's Catskills-like location. Kim relates to the contestants, "who have always dreamed of being professional dancers and making it to Broadway, but never had the opportunity. In Milledgeville, Petticoat Junction was one of my favorite shows," she recalls. "My two best friends and I called our town Hooterville. We all had our dreams."

Now that Kim is living her dream in New York, she observes "New York is much more friendly than I would ever have imagined. In the South, they're friendly, but when you talk to New Yorkers, they are less guarded and more forthcoming about their feelings." Kim, her husband Marty and their two daughters love being New Yorkers. Kim considers her second full time job being a "soccer, tennis and lacrosse Mom" and managing her eight year old's eagerness to "go to Princeton, graduate and take-over my job." She admits the girls might spend too much time watching WE, but considers them among her best advisors. "Marty and the girls are very supportive. They all understand we need to make compromises to achieve our goals, live our dreams, and," she adds, "we really do have more fun!"

To connect with Kim, write khmartin@rainbow-media.com