Paul Keenan is chief operating officer of Bauer Media Group. It’s 31 years since the non-graduate journalist had become editor of Local Government Chronicle, a B2B weekly read by local authority CEOs across the UK. It was a momentous time for his readers who were reeling from the imposition by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of the “poll tax” which caused riots and, ultimately, her downfall. But 1992 was also the year when Keenan’s newspaper was acquired by EMAP Plc, then the UK’s fastest-growing media group. Within a year, he had launched the company’s first online service. LGC Net delivered news to Keenan’s readers via a dial-up modem on the long-forgotten Minitel system.
For the editor – whose only previous job had been as a journalist writing for the “groundsmen” who maintain England’s grass cricket pitches – it was the start of a single-company career that has taken him from local government politics, to fashion trade papers and the consumer magazines Elle, Red, FHM, Empire, Mojo, and Heat that once powered EMAP. Along the way, Keenan had tried vainly to manage the digital developments of EMAP which, among all else, failed because it was unable to cope with the onrush of the web. By 2001, when digital was in full flow, Keenan became CEO of EMAP’s consumer magazines. Within four years, he had also taken charge of the growing radio stations.
In 2008, EMAP’s consumer magazines and radio was acquired by Bauer Media Group after the UK listed company had been all but crippled by a disastrous US acquisition. For Bauer (and Keenan) that was the start of dramatic UK growth, especially in radio where Bauer has since built Europe’s largest commercial radio network with a claimed 61mn listeners to 150 brands in nine countries. Audio/ radio may now account for 50% of Bauer revenue. The past five years have been similarly momentous right across the €2.5bn-revenue, fifth-generation, family-owned company.
It exited from the US and Australia/ New Zealand and reverted to a concentation on Europe. More than 50% of Bauer Media revenue now comes from outside Germany, but it’s still the largest magazine publisher in Europe with 300+ brands. The company claims a 200mn multi-media audience across 13 countries.
Keenan was appointed COO in 2021.
What were your earliest career ambitions?
I would be an airline pilot. Or a journalist. Chronic colour blindness solved the dilemma. As the well intentioned, Brit TV snooker commentator Ted Lowe said: “For those of you watching in black and white, the pink is next to the green”. Apologies now to the extremely-talented art directors I have worked with for equally terrible commentary.
What was your first job?
It was working Saturdays in a Dixons electrical store. It taught me the power of incentives. We could shift those Betamax video machines and live like kings for the whole week after.
When did you get into media?
I was an all-rounder on a magazine dedicated to maintaining the great cathedrals of UK sport, The Groundsman. I learned that passion is the glue that binds media and the communities it serves. But my real break came from Crispin Derby, the managing director who brought me to Local Government Chronicle (LGC) as City Correspondent. It was a place of excellence, dedicated service and so much future thinking. It was 360 degree media. And the stories were brilliant – from councils gambling millions on interest rate swaps to the hubris of Margaret Thatcher’s disastrous Poll Tax. The magazine was highly relevant. And we launched LGCNet – an online news service for local authority CEOs – back in 1992! I still get a dopamine rush when I hear a modem connect.
How would you describe EMAP in its heyday?
I joined EMAP when it acquired LGC, by which time I was the editor. It was incredible. It was a technical college (in the UK, universities were for elites) run by entrepreneurs and contrarians who believed in talent, leadership and the power of giving responsibility early. Everywhere you went, there was outstanding talent with huge capability – and ambition which matched it.
I joined at a great time as EMAP had seen the major opportunity in B2B, which it saw as creative a medium as its then primary business of consumer magazines. I became publishing director of B2B fashion magazines and events. We applied this seemingly radical thinking to upset the monopolist in fashion trade shows and invented 40 degrees (and then Pure Womenswear) at the height of Brit Pop. We put London’s then revived docklands area on the map for street style brands and retailers. We were (and we continue to be) a serial inventor of lighthouse brands, always wanting to challenge the status quo. I am sure we got many things wrong. If the world zigged, EMAP wanted to zag. The best argument won the day. It was agile and ambitious. But that ambition was, ultimately, to be its undoing.
What were your milestones at EMAP?
Launches, daring reinventions and great saves. Consumer magazines hit a rich seam of magazine magic in the 1990s. And so we came to love, cherish and obey the likes of Smash Hits, Q, Mojo, Empire and Motorcycle News (MCN). We would reinvent Heat. Launch Closer. And then – smarting from a messy divorce from Hachette – lose Redand have to rebuild our presence in fashion. The concept of a weekly glossy with news and shoes was pitched to me. We found Mondadori, asked if we could reinvent Grazia. We launched it in 2005. It was initially tough going. And then the established glossy publishers started to publicly mock it. And that was it. It took off and became one of the world’s most compelling products.
Both a highlight and a low light was around 2000. EMAP formed its digital play, pledged £250mn investment over three years, promised it would spin it out and got me lead it. I took our nascent team to San Francisco to look and learn. Internet pioneers presented. They were mostly ruined. Vinod Khosla saw us. After that we paused. Lesson learnt – never have money chasing ideas.
I was thrilled to join the main board of EMAP in 2005 and went straight into early conversations about the portfolio. Did it make sense for EMAP to be in B2B and B2C? No, we would conclude.
It’s been 15 years since Bauer acquired EMAP. How has the UK-based company changed?
I think that we (as former EMAP people) have learned so much from Bauer, the masters of mass magazine media. And we have succeeded in convincing our Bauer colleagues of the power of sound. In 2013, we acquired Absolute Radio which was a transformative investment. The people working there were so inventive and creative that we were inspired to rethink everything we had learned. In 2015, we acquired SBS Radio from Discovery.
A small group of us met with Yvonne Bauer in Stockholm and promised to make Bauer Media as famous for radio as it is for print. We are now Europe’s leading digital commercial radio broadcaster and audio operator, continuing to explore and expand from the world of radio to the universe of audio. From local to national. From the UK to nine countries. From analogue to digital. The audio business is a beautiful, and an effective marketing platform that delivers great results.
What’s special about Bauer Media?
Bauer Media has beauty in its diversity and independence through the singular vision of family ownership and operation. Take Poland, for example – the powerhouse of European growth for the coming decade. Bauer Media has built fantastic businesses on all its platforms: Publishing, Audio, online comparison sites and digital marketing. Bauer has also mastered the process of innovation.
The company also understands the fundamental power of its brands and talents, and the cultural impact they have. Whether that’s our radio stations making Clare’s Law in Manchester, closing the Gender Pay Gap with Grazia, Go Think Big with O2, Where’s Your Head At or supporting the phenomenal work Edwina Dunn is doing through The Female Lead. It has a passion for enriching lives and committed teams who understand how content, advertising and marketing changes behaviour.
What’s your vision for the future of audio/ radio?
The migration of audiences in audio from linear broadcast to streaming is unstoppable and will accelerate. This creates opportunity to personalise and improve even further its effectiveness. New forms of content, in new places and spaces on new devices is coming. The internet has been a friend to radio, expanding its reach and utility. But we must be bold and brave in challenging what we do now, in exploring new opportunities in order to remain fresh, surprising and relevant. And we need to make what we do vital for all. Younger generations have to be engaged in what we do. And we have to be engaged in what they do.
What’s the future of print magazines?
Print magazines remain very important but, as the physical manifestation recedes, so the brand comes even more to the fore. It’s brands that consumers trust for information, entertainment and inspiration. As publishers, we are laser-focused on continually evolving our digital and print offering to ensure the brands remain relevant to our audiences, wherever they are and however they interact with them. Magazines defined communities in the past, uniting people with common interests and passions. They will continue to do so into the future. And their community service will extend beyond information and entertainment.
Which companies do you most admire?
I like those companies which make complicated things simple. This is SO hard to do. We need to adapt this brilliant truism for reducing complexity: “Sorry I wrote you a long letter, I didn’t have time to write you a short one”.
What are the best lessons you have learned?
It is still about the dinner not the plate (Douglas Adams). Stay curious. Resist the solution until you have fully understood the problem. Invest in the team. Have fun.
