AMI Poaches Hachette Circ Guru Leckey By Lisa Granatstein Publication: Mediaweek Date: Thursday, February 2 2006 David Pecker, chairman/CEO of American Media Inc., today poached his second big name in as many months from his former stomping grounds. Joining AMI within the next two weeks will be David Leckey, formerly Hachette Filipacchi Media senior vp, consumer marketing, who becomes executive vp, consumer marketing. "I like the direction the company is heading, and at this point in my career it was the right thing to do," Leckey said. Leckey's move to AMI will reunite him with his longtime colleague and friend John Miller, now the company's president/COO, as well as with Pecker, who until buying AMI with Evercore Partners in 1999 was Hachette's president/CEO. The departures of both executives are a huge loss for Hachette. Leckey and Miller go a long way back. Each spent nearly 30 years at the publishing company. "I knew him when he had a mustache and glasses," mused Miller. For AMI, however, hiring Leckey is a big coup. Leckey is on the board of the Audit Bureau of Circulations, and will bring to AMI his credibility and solid track record as a circulator. Leckey, who joins within the next two weeks, will help consolidate AMI's consumer marketing effort. Currently, newsstand sales are handled out of Florida, and subscriptions are run from New York. "I began to talk to Dave as soon as I knew what we needed," said Miller. "AMI was originally a tabloid company with no subscriptions, and when it bought Weider Publications, the consumer magazines had both newsstand and subscriptions. The two disciplines put together haven't really melded together." Also, Leckey will be busy scrutinizing AMI's circulation statements. Last week, the publisher announced it would be voluntarily reclassify public place copies as nonpaid for nine of AMI's dozen titles in the December 2005 publisher's statement (filed Jan. 30). That effort to be transparent in advance of new rules, however, led to AMI missing rate bases on six of nine titles, including Shape and Star. Meanwhile, in terms of additional hires, Miller said the focus now will shift to the Internet, particularly ad sales, content management and IT. "We're going to expand the Internet operations exponentially," Miller said. A few redesigns will also be eyed, notably for Star magazine's Web site. camera shy, found him! http://www.accessabc.com/press/Leckey06.htm 
David W. Leckey is executive vice president, consumer marketing, American Media Inc. (AMI). Before joining AMI in 2006, he was senior vice president, consumer marketing for Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. Leckey held several positions with HFM including vice president/ circulation, director of circulation marketing and group circulation director for Road & Track and Cycle World. He spent two years at Hearst Books managing direct marketing efforts. In 2002, Leckey was the recipient of the Lee C. Williams Lifetime Achievement Award by the Fulfillment Management Association. He has served on ABC’s Magazine Directors’ Advisory Committee since 1991 and was elected as an ABC board member in 1998.
