Milo Media Publishers Walk Out; Plan to Launch Competing Company

A b-to-b publisher that was launched when its founder defected from another trade publisher is now facing a similar situation. Six staffers from Milo Media, including several publishers, resigned Friday with plans to launch a competing magazine publishing business.

The employees who resigned include Bob Stange, director of custom publishing; Chris McClimon, publisher of Construction Supply magazine; Construction Supply editorial director Tom Hammel; Rich Vurva, editor and publisher of Progressive Distributor; business manager Linda Scott-McCabe; and production assistant Deb Pierce. Also making the jump is Patty O'Mera, who served as a sales consultant at Milo's Progressive Distributor.

Today, Stange, McClimon, Vurva, Scott-McCabe and Hammel announced the launch of Direct Business Media. The group—all of whom have ownership stakes in the new company—expects to launch a pair of bi-monthly magazines—Contractor Supply and Industrial Supply—by the middle of the year. Industrial Supply will carry a 30,000 circulation while Contractor Supply will have 18,000. The new magazines will compete with a number of Milo titles, as well as RBI’s Industrial Distribution and Cygnus Business Media's Construction Distribution.

Circumstances surrounding their departures were not immediately clear. When reached by FOLIO:, Stange and Scott-McCabe declined to comment. Milo Media president Mike Domke did not immediately return requests for comment.

It also was not clear what portion of Milo’s overall workforce this loss represents. Although Milo reported a 37 percent revenue spike last year, the company was forced to reduce its staff in recent weeks. At the time, Domke declined to comment on specific layoffs. Eleven staffers remain listed on the company’s phone directory.

From Defector to Competitor

Milo Media—which serves the construction, industrial, power, lifting and utility markets—was launched in 2005 when Domke left Cygnus as publisher of OEM Off-Highway magazine. He hired away a number of former Cygnus staffers, including Wolfgang Neuwirth and Greg Gerber, who served as publisher and editor of Cygnus’ RV Trade Digest.

Domke wasn’t the only ex-Cygnus employee to launch a competing product. Last May, Paul Bowers, who was laid off as group vice president in July 2007 as part of a restructuring, launched Airport Improvement magazine.

A few weeks earlier, former group publisher Greg Napert and three of his colleagues left Cygnus’ Aircraft Maintenance Technology magazine to launch Director of Maintenance magazine, which targets aircraft maintenance business leaders.

Not long after, Cygnus filed a lawsuit against Napert and his company, Impact Business Media, alleging that Napert and his colleagues broke confidentiality and non-solicitation agreements and disclosed Cygnus “trade secrets” by taking list information. The case is ongoing.

RELATED LINKS

Cygnus Sues Former Employees Over Launch

Post Comment / Discuss This Story - Info/Rules

Cannibals eating cannibals

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 03/24/2009 - 15:10.

What did the management of Milo expect would happen? They encouraged and recruited malcontents from other publishing companies to come work for them. So what changed when they came to Milo? Obviously not their attitudes. It will be interesting to see if people who had complained endlessly about the management at the companies they worked for can now manage a company themselves.

Wolf in sheeps clothing!!

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 03/24/2009 - 16:06.

Apparently Bob Stange had this plan in place from day one. Since he had witnessed the same at Cygnus he followed the same gameplan. He promptly was given authority to make decisions and quickly fired all the employees that had been on staff and loyal to Milo. Coincidence...I don't think so! As for the others jumping on the bandwagon good luck!! todays economy doesn't seem to agree with new business plans. Just a friendly reminder to those 5 - keep in mind how you got here and watch who you trust, you may find yourself experiencing deja'vu afew years down the road.

One man's malcontent is another man's entrepreneur

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 03/24/2009 - 17:13.

Exactly what do today's B2B publishers do to foster loyalty besides offering low pay, staff cut-backs and bite-sized budgets? The industry can expect more of this as long as it continues to expand its middle management and focus on back-office solutions to front-line problems.

Risky Business

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 03/24/2009 - 22:50.

Big Deal! Sounds to me as if these six think they have pulled off a coup, when in reality they probably helped make Milo stronger. By leaving they are saving Milo the salaries and all other costs (benefits) associated with each one. Obviously they were unhappy which equals non-productive employees. They are the ones taking a huge risk trying to launch a new magazine in this environment. It is more likely that Milo, a business that was profitable at one time can withstand this economy and loss of staff. I hope these six have not used up their retirement savings investing in this new venture. Unless they know something we don't... all the 401K's are dwindling away and ad budgets have been severely cut. Good Luck!

RE: One man's malcontent is another man's entrepreneur

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 03/25/2009 - 14:19.

AMEN! That's the problem all "business media" companies are facing now. They are creating "new and exciting" titles/promotions, giving fat pay raises to incompetent employees, moving them into management titles and letting them run the books into the ground, instead of focusing on the people who are making the properties profitable, which includes the sales staff, editors and admin positions who put their blood and sweat into making the properties successful for ungrateful owners. Good Luck Bob Stange and friends, no one can blame you for walking away from a company that is about to crumble under the mismanagement it has seen over the past few months.

Mismanagement

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 03/25/2009 - 15:52.

It appears that the "mismanagement" took place when the "fat pay raises" & trust were given to the incompentent employees that walked out, and the staff that were on board for more than 6 months were the ones who truly put their blood & sweat into making the company profitable. What did they get??? They got let go by the fat cat incompentent who was put in charge.

Long overdue spring cleaning

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 03/25/2009 - 16:04.

Crumbling? Hardly. Perhaps a long overdue spring cleaning? Things were great before and will be again. It's nice to know people can stop looking over their shoulders waiting for the next pink slip from someone who practiced nepotism but had no problem firing long-time staffers left and right. But what will happen when the next well runs dry after moving on?

Before you spew more of the

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 03/26/2009 - 19:08.

Before you spew more of the garbage and show your complete ignorance to what's really going on, see if you can get some facts about Milo. The glue that held that place together through the last 6 months is now gone...come to think of it, the Milo office will be gone by the end of this week (happens when you don't pay rent). You should also talk to their printer and see how happy they are with the pay schedule Milo has been keeping, or better, not keeping. Read court documents and see suits against Milo from its own employees for owed money.

Facts?

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 03/26/2009 - 21:53.

I believe Milo was doing just fine before certain people "the glue" were brought on at huge salaries. The large debt is due in part by the the huge expenditures made by said person in the last 6-12 months on the premise of "making the company better". Talk about ignorance..when the economy calls for less spending you do not start investing in new programs etc. unless the plan was to over extend the company? Hmm I wonder?

Amazing!

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 03/26/2009 - 22:48.

It is absolutely amazing how some people have such overflated egos (the glue), so willing to take credit for all the good but not willing to step up and take part of the blame. If they were management then they too are at fault. One man does not make a company and one man can't bring it down. I'm guessing that is why you recruited six, why not more? Probably due to all the egos in the room no one else would fit.

Milo is Gone

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 04/09/2009 - 12:52.

I see no sign of life of Milo or any of its publications.

B to B

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 04/14/2009 - 17:36.

What?