by Terry Greenberg Gannett News Service June 19, 1980
Forget “The Empire Strikes Back.”
We’ve got Magazine Wars.
Jack Welch, taking a few good swipes at Runner’s World, said, “It’ll be a cold day in hell before I put nipples on the front cover or run 19 different articles on stretching.” He promises his revamped periodical, Running, will be the sport’s first “quality” magazine.
Nike, the running shoe people, say it’s just a coincidence they pulled all their advertising out of Runner’s World at the same time it was announced they would back Welch with $1 million to improve his publication.
Bob Anderson, editor and publisher of Runner’s World, says Nike is trying to put him out of business… and that they’re wasting their time.
This, obviously, is war.
It all started when Welch decided that always living on the brink of food stamp eligibility was no fun.
For seven years he published Running from his Salem, Oregon, home.
And for seven years, it looked like it.
No matter that it called itself “The thinking runner’s magazine,” that one person I know terms it running’s answer to Scientific American, or that even in Jim Fixx’s Second Book of Running the author describes the magazine as one “with an impressive reputation for honesty and integrity.”
It, with its 4,000 subscribers, just looked like a fourth-rate publication.
And, at least in numbers and revenue, it was.
The afore-ripped Runner’s World has 390,000 subscribers. Number two, The Runner, claims 165,000. Running Times has 45,000.
Welch, operating the magazine full-time, wasn’t becoming a rich man with his 4,000 subscriptions.
But starting in September, backed with Nikebucks, Running will try to move up in the pack.
To lure new subscribers, the magazine has published a 16-page promotional issue that doesn’t look as if it were printed in a spare bedroom. It looks like an IBM annual report.
That’s just peachy-keen for Jack Welch, but…
Why did Nike give this fellow Oregonian $1 million?
Why did they pull their advertising out of Runner’s World?
Are they trying to put Anderson out of work?
Why does Welch dislike Runner’s World? [If you had to ask, I couldn’t explain it to you so you would understand. – ed.]
“There’s more to life than sitting in a three-bedroom cottage with my wife as secretary and grossing $20,000 for the year,” Welch told me from his new offices in Eugene. [Don’t remember ever more than one-bedroom. Living room was full of boxes of magazines. – ed.]
“Poverty is oppressive,” he added. “We never paid an author.”
So he went looking for help.
Welch and Tim Renn, Nike’s public affairs director, both emphasized that Welch approached Nike, not vice versa.
Welch said he also talked to other possible investors, including CBS, but six months after he first discussed the idea with Nike, they bought his magazine.
Welch remained as editor and publisher, promising in the promotional issue that although Running was now a “separate” division of Nike Inc., it would be run “without corporate interference.”
Anderson doesn’t buy it.
“It is unusual for a company that manufactures running merchandise to say they’re publishing a non-biased running magazine. I don’t know why anyone outside of Nike would want to advertise in it,” he said from Runner’s World‘s Bay Area headquarters.
“The Nike Tailwind (air-injected sole) is a very dangerous shoe. It would be hard for them to be objective about it,” Anderson added.
But it’s not only a question of bias or non-bias.
Nike sent out a letter saying they were pulling their advertisements out of Runner’s World because of the magazine’s annual shoe issue. Nike promised they wouldn’t take part in Runner’s World’s or anyone’s shoe survey.
Anderson said he’s suing Nike for $6 million for libelous statements about the survey.
At the same time, the Nike-Welch agreement was announced.
It’s easy to put two and two together.
But according to Welch and Renn, you’d get five.
Renn, speaking from Nike’s offices in Beaverton, 100 miles from Eugene, said, “Don Kardong was hired by Jack Welch as a columnist. He also runs the Bloomsday run in Spokane, Wash., which is the second largest road race in the U.S. They had 15,000 people last year. The race is held the first Sunday in May and he asked if the announcement about the magazine could be made there and we said yes.”
[Don Kardong only recently retired from the helm of Bloomsday. When I officially released the award-winning, critically acclaimed, soon to be a collector’s item When Running Was Young & So Were We, I did so at Bloomsday. There’s a forty year history here. Should tell you something. – ed.]
“Meanwhile, the advertising contract was up with Runner’s World April 30 and it came down to the last week before a decision was made,” he said.
Welch says, “That’s a coincidence we find unfortunate. It would be overt, it would be stupid and we’re not stupid people.”
But Anderson said Nike could have spent its money improving the product.
“They want to put us out of business, that’s their primary objective,” he added.
Renn said Running is going after a different readership: “We’re not interested in the ‘disco-grocery store’ readership. Jack approached us for help about putting together a magazine for the serious runner. We agree. We don’t think of it as competing.”
“I’m a runner and reader and I think we needed something better,” Welch said. “Something more than a tired rehash about carbo loading. There’s room for quality. There is no quality running magazine because no one has tried.”
Renn bristled a bit at Anderson’s suggestion that Nike would turn Running into a “house organ.”
“Jack’s people are of such high quality that they would walk out if we did that. Myra Gelband (senior editor) was at Sports Illustrated for nine years. She wasn’t going to leave that for a house organ,” he said.
Former Runner’s World editor Joe Henderson and managing editor Paul Perry have also joined Running.