Jeff Patchell has created his own publishing house by supplying tradespeople with news and views. But journalism is not his main task, networking is.
| Entrepreneur |
Jeff Patchell, Managing Director |
| Company |
Connection Magazines |
| Business type |
Business to business publishing |
| Founded |
1985 |
| Employees |
22 |
| Head office |
Melbourne, Victoria |
| Contact details |
www.build.com.au |
Key Learning Points |
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Business processes
Determine your role as a manager, and do your best to delegate anything not central to that role. Think about how you can use industry experts.
Client relationships
Give them top priority. You are not in business to make things or offer services but to engage in a mutually beneficial exchange.
Brand awareness
Reputation is everything. Do not big note yourself or your business but do all that is valid to promote and protect its interests.
Internal communication
Acknowledge the expertise of your staff. Provide comprehensive briefings then leave them to get on with their job.
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The Connection Magazines Story
Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, knew how important it is to observe what is not there. In the story Silver Blaze, the famous fictional detective scored a crime scene success by noting that a watchdog had not barked at a night-time intruder.
Almost 20 years ago, Jeff Patchell also noted that something was not there - a way of communicating between businesses in the building trades. He used the observation to score a publishing success.
As an account manager for an advertising agency, he was frustrated by the lack of avenues for getting a plumbing supplies client’s message out to the trade, through which 90% of tapware and fittings were sold.
Patchell says: "Ad agencies were being amalgamated. It was time to do something for myself, so I put a proposal to the client."
This resulted in a publication aimed at the plumbing trade. He now has five magazines covering domestic building, construction, water and waste management, sustainability, IT cabling systems and electronics for the home.
Patchell’s approach is unconventional, as he does not come from a journalism or publishing background. His early career was in sales, marketing services and product management with the food giant H. J. Heinz. “Connection” is not simply a play on the initial plumbing magazine but a recognition that commerce is a story of relationships. A finely honed appreciation of brand management and brand extension underpins the communication aspect of his titles. “I had never thought about how a story comes together; in the advertising world, you have a headline and maybe a hundred words of body copy,” Patchell says.
“So my skills are those of a content developer rather than a content provider. My role is in industry relationships, and I brief the editorial team to run with the important issues. News doesn’t happen naturally in our industries - in a lot of ways we actually make it, and some of it is controversial or critical. We are by far the largest provider of first-run editorial material across the construction and electro-technical B2B sector.”
Group editors and reporters provide the journalism expertise. However, tradesmen, trade instructors and engineers write regular columns and articles for subcontractors and small-business operators too busy “on the tools” to hunt down information from hundreds of technical bulletins and professional papers.
Suppliers, industry bodies and government authorities use the magazines to disseminate information on new products and processes, changes to standards and regulations, safety issues, training and industry development.
To manage growth, Patchell strives to delegate so that he can be working on the business rather than in it, as well as promoting and protecting the brand, and making his organisation central to the industry.
Patchell keeps close to the trades that he covers. He has walked almost every supplier’s factory floor to see what they offer as well as visiting many construction sites. He sees good value in attending trade exhibitions to network and hear people’s stories.
Patchell also tries to set aside time for thinking about the shape of the business and its prospects. That aspect of management is often seen as a luxury or an impossible ideal by managers who started with - or are trapped in - a hands-on approach. “We have gone from being publishers of magazines to being a brand, and you have to protect that core, that lifeblood. When the e-commerce hype started, I went into that area for fear of being left behind. It was a mistake - that was not our core business, and we are no longer in it.”
Patchell is looking overseas as it gets harder to find gaps in the domestic market. He believes this to be a low-risk way of expanding and says there is much in Australian building and construction methods that other countries could capitalise on, making the magazines’ content even more valuable.
“I’m passionate about supporting the industries that drive our business. We’re dealing with tens of thousands of small and medium operators who are ‘head down, bum up’ all day and do their bookwork at night. Technical and business assistance stories are very important to them. Whenever I travel, I get the feeling it’s the same everywhere.
“This is truly B2B publishing, and our success over the years owes a lot to the fact that we’ve become best buddies with our readership.”