The first thing that strikes you about Time Inc chairman and CEO Ann Moore is her expansiveness: expansive voice, expansive gestures and, above all, expansive smile. It is immediately clear that Moore is someone who thrives on entertaining and interacting with people.
This much is also borne out by her former colleagues, who describe Moore as “tactile” and “good fun”. The Time veteran’s media savvy, however, should not be overlooked, particularly given her success in introducing the women’s magazine category to Time Inc.
After founding Sports Illustrated for Kids, she became publisher and subsequently president of People, where she drove the launch of successful titles such as In Style and Real Simple.
Despite having just got off a flight from Delhi to Hong Kong, Moore appears fresh and full of energy. “India is set to explode,” she enthuses, clearly in awe of the developments she has witnessed in that country.
Moore’s two weeks on the road in Asia appear to have been little short of a revelation.
“This is where the action is,” she says decisively. This statement acts as a springboard into an area that is evidently a topic close to Moore’s heart: that of relocation.
“I’m baffled by a US workforce that doesn’t want to move,” says the Harvard Business School graduate, citing the reluctance of talented professionals to work abroad as a major problem that is holding her country back.
A native of Virginia, Moore’s international experience began at an early age. She moved to Japan when she was a year old, later returning to America but finding herself uninspired and rather stifled by college life.
Eventually, she responded to the call of adventure that continued to beckon and set off around the globe from Los Angeles in the spring of 1970, travelling for a year.
Today, she donates souvenirs from her travels to an annual dollar raffle that she organises for students of her local high school.
Although she still lives in New York, the city she returned to after her student jaunt, Moore laments what she sees as a lack of adventurous spirit among her fellow countrymen: “We need more people with the diversity and flexibility to go where the growth is.”
And the growth, she says, is clearly in Asia. Time Inc currently has 19 licences throughout the region, a figure Moore hopes to increase through carefully planned partnering, which she sees as critical to success in the region.
Fortune India, for example, is set to link with ABP in the summer. Among Time’s localised publications in Asia are Real Simple in Japan, Fortune China, Wallpaper in Thailand, and In Style, now published in 12 countries.
Moore sees this as the most exciting point of her career so far. She declares her personal mission as being to “drag Time Inc into the 21st century”. Although she doesn’t feel that Time faces as robust a challenge as the newspaper industry, she is aware of the need to transform the brand into a credible, fully-fledged multimedia player. Her ability to do this will be the measure of her success at Time’s helm, she says.
So far, the revamp of Time.com has proved a successful complement to its printed forerunner. The centralised website features 24-hour reporting and is updated according to global time.
Moore notes that advertisers have responded enthusiastically to the option of expanding the reach of their printed material online. The decision was made to divest the company’s book business, retaining only the titles deemed to have clear potential for digital growth. CNNMoney.com is the result of the consolidation of all Time’s business titles online.
Although Time’s top 15 most profitable publications are printed, Moore expects the ranking to include three websites this year.
Moore, who puts great emphasis on work-life balance and enjoys nothing more than teaching her son and his friends how to cook, says the biggest difficulties she faces in directing Time into a new phase in Asia are running the proceedings with a 12-hour time delay, and forging solid partnerships in key markets.
“There are many very talented people here,” she says of Asia, referring again to India as a beacon of the region’s potential. “India has special potential. It is welcoming to investment, has amazing talent, a young, educated population, and is the centre of a multimedia explosion,” she says, admitting that the country’s infrastructure continues to pose a challenge.
Far from resisting change, she is keen to embrace the current climate. “This is the best time,” she says, noting that the increased presence of women has improved the business world. “Technology has freed us up. I don’t want to regress to the ‘good old days’. This is so much more exciting.”
Ann Moore’s CV
2002 Chairman and chief executive, Time Inc
2001 Executive vice-president, Time Inc
1993 President, People
1991 Publisher, People
1978 Corporate financial analyst, Time Inc
