Those Angstrom Men!. (11 page)

DAISY, DAISY

David Angstrom had thought it very funny, watching his brother Ian stress out after being on the
Most Eligible Bachelors in Britain
list that
Wonder Women
printed
each year. Since
Wonder Women
was the most popular women’s magazine, no, read that as most popular
young
women’s magazine in the British Isles, Ian had been recognized everywhere he went, especially when they put him at the top of the list the second year.

David ha
d thought it hilarious when Ian started to get packages in the mail, packages with lace panties, bras, nude pictures, cakes, hand-sewn shirts, some of them very colourful, specially printed tee shirts with naked women on the front, the list was endless.

After the first year, when the mail delivery doubled in size, and Ian couldn’t go out without being accosted by some young woman, and they came in all shapes, sizes and colours, David thought it brilliant of his big brother to start dating models and actresses who welcomed the publicity being on Ian’s arm brought. They had their pictures snapped everywhere, and being in professions where publicity was a good thing, there was an endless stream of these young, nubile, and too often,
intellectually-challenged lovelies waiting in line to be Ian’s date that week

David had thought it brilliant of Ian to snap that photograph of their cousin Jane’s three small, dirty, mischievous boys and start to carry it around it in wallet.

Whenever a woman approached him and said,
“Aren’t you Ian Ang...”
that was as far as they got before Ian would interrupt them.

“Wish I was that bloke, I’m always being mistaken for him. I’m John Armstrong,”
he’d say.

I
f the girls persisted, Ian would whip out the picture and moan about how hard it was to raise three boys on his salary and how he wished he had that Ian bloke’s money... It always worked.

David didn’t think it so funny when, after Ian met and married Maggie and quickly had a baby daughter, the Managing Director of
Wonder Women,
looking over how many copies of the magazine they’d sold every time they put Ian’s picture on the cover, realized that Ian had a younger brother...

...A younger brother who was equally handsome, tall and well muscled.

...A younger brother who was single.

So what
if David didn’t have the billions in the bank that Ian did, he was still a very wealthy man, a millionaire many times over thanks to the inheritance from his godfather, who had been a bestselling author of extremely popular mysteries.

Uncle David, for who
m David had been named of course, had been a life-long bachelor and let his entire estate to his godson, including the royalties from the films and television series based on those novels

And David’s structural engineering firm was very successful, so even without the inheritance, he was, as the hack writers like to say, financially secure
..

Wonder Woman
knew a good thing when they saw it....

* * *

Wonder Woman
was owned by the Fowler family.

The Fowlers were a formidable clan, with their fingers in many pies...telecommunications, magazines, books, films and television series and a chain of regional weekly newspapers. They were to the media sector o
f the economy what the Angstroms were to business.

Franklin Fowler had three daughters and two sons, and
they were all groomed from the cradle to one day take over the media empire their father had created.

Susan, the eldest, ran the newspapers, Franklin Jr. was Chairman of Fowler Telecommunications, Harry ran the publishing company and had been outstandingly successful in the development of his eBook division, and Geraldine was making money hand over fist for the Fowlers with blockbuster films, long running television series and specials that were aired all over the world. Daisy, the youngest, was handed the magazines by default.

Daisy was the cleverest of this very clever family. She’d been a mistake, her parents joked, born six years after Geraldine, and totally unexpected and unplanned.

She’d been indulged by her parents and four older siblings, and grew up knowing what would be expected of her.

Daisy had done her degree in English Literature at Cambridge and gone to Harvard and obtained an M.B.A. Then she’d worked for two years for The Hearst Corporation, starting with a six month stint at
Cosmopolitan Magazine
and then in Hearst’s Head Office. Daisy considered that her real education began when she went to work for Hearst.

She was twenty six when she was appointed Managing Director of Fowler Publications, taking over from her father’s older brother.

The first thing Daisy did when she sat at her new desk was to read three copies from cover to cover of each of the thirty magazines Fowler Magazines owned.

The second thing she did was to read the financials for the previous five years for each magazine from beginning to end.

The third thing she did was to interview each Editor-In-Chief in his own office.

Daisy was dismayed to find that all the editors-in-chief
were men. She’d have to change that over time, where appropriate.

Some of those Editor-In-Chiefs had never been visited by a Fowler.

Her Uncle Ted, aged seventy two, hadn’t bothered with site visits. He was more interested in spending time on the golf course.

As long as a magazine wasn’t losing money, he left it alone. Uncle Ted was firmly fixated on the bottom line, and that was all he looked at.

He had no interest in the quality of the magazines, just that they made money.

If a magazine lost money two years running, he sold it. The staff of Fowler’s magazines quickly became adept at breaking even, focusing on that rather than change and growth.
Change and growth were risky, they might result in lower revenues and the magazine being sold to a more discerning, more demanding new owner.

Fowler Publications had not launched a new magazine for sixteen years under Uncle Ted’s regime. Stagnant, their market share had steadily dropped.

Working fourteen and sixteen hour days, by the time she’d been back in London for three months, Daisy had read, reviewed and visited all thirty magazines. She’d also confidentially retained a firm of business consultants to review the marketplace and market share for each of the magazines. She’d developed an restructuring plan. Now she was ready to take charge. She smiled, and allowed herself the first night off since she started.

Daisy drove to Buckinghamshire the following weekend to run the plan past her father. She didn’t need his approval to implement her changes, but she greatly respected his acumen and wanted his input.

“So you’re merging
Computer Nerd
and
Computer Geek
and changing the name to
Computers Today
. You’re leaving
Accounting Today
and
Purchasing World
as is, but you’re going to sell off
Woodland Flora and Fauna, Let’s Go Spelunking,
and
Fun with Frisbees?”

“I am.”

“You’re expanding the Logic Magazines by adding
American Logic
to
British Logic
and
Logical Problems
? You’re leaving
Rural England
and
Young Farmers of England
, and adding
Escape to
Rural England
, a property listing magazine?”

“Yes, a lot of people have the dream of relocating out of the cities, either permanently or as a weekend getaway.
Just look at all the television programmes Geraldine produces on the subject...My projections for the advertising revenue look pretty realistic.”

Her father smiled. “I’m sure they are, Daisy.”

“They are. We ran a trial promotion on the internet, and the first three issues are sold out. Not only did property owners and estate agents buy space, but so did several building trades and some structural engineering firms, as well as all the DIY chains.”

“Clever girl.
Now, what about the food and health magazines?”

“As you can see, I’ve renamed
Diet Cooking
to
Light and Tasty Recipes
and have left
Vegetarian Delights
alone. I have added
From the Sea
and
Secrets from Celebrity Chefs
, Gordon Ramsgate is our featured chef for the first issue. I’ve left the fitness group unchanged, they are doing very well.”

“Those are good choices, Daisy.
But what about the fishing magazines?”

“Left both as is, Dad.
They do well. Same with the golf magazine, and the DIY magazines. Which brings us to the women’s sector...”

“Ah, yes. I saw the statistics your business consultants provided. We’re really missing the boat there aren’t we?”

“We are, Dad. So I am doing a complete revamp. I’m going to try to appeal to the crafty types out there as well as the career-driven young women like myself.”

Her father smiled. Daisy had described herself very accurately. He couldn’t remember the last time she’d had a boyfriend...everything with Daisy was work, work,
work.

“
We are introducing a new magazine called
Let’s Sew for Our Home!
which will cover quilting, embroidery and home decorating projects.

“
Let’s Sew Fashion!
covers the latest trends and patterns for all ages. All four dress pattern companies have bought large chunks of advertising, and so have the major textile and thread companies. I’ve got Vienna Winsome offering two wedding dress designs a home sewer can easily make for the Debut issue. Then there’s
Trendz
, which covers fashion, music, videos, makeup, the whole package for the eleven to sixteen or seventeen age group. Advice columns for parent problems and boyfriend stuff. I am leaving
Rural Women
pretty much alone, but adding a financial columnist and doubling the size of the health and fitness and fashion sections.”

“What’s this
Wonder Women
?”

“Ah...that’s my baby. If I do it right, it will bring in as much revenue as all the other publications combined. It’s aimed at the eighteen to thirty five age
group, young working women, and it’s going to be slick, fashionable and somewhat sexual.”

“Sex sells,” said Franklin Fowler drily. “Look at what Harry’s done with the eBooks...”

“Yes it does, just look at what Helen Gurley Brown did to
Cosmopolitan
.”

“So this is our answer to The Hearst Corporation’s big winner, is it?”

“They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Dad, and I do admire The Hearst Corporation.”

“You’d better be hands on with this one, Daisy.”

“I plan to be, Dad.”

A year later, Daisy again reorganized her magazines. She combined
Construction of Commercial Buildings in Britain
and
Building Houses in Britain
and renamed the publication
Building in Britain.

David Angstrom was a big fan of
Construction of Commercial Buildings in Britain
. This change did not please him at all.

He looked up the hierarchy of Fowler Publications. The Managing Director was listed as D.S. Fowler, whose biography said only

The youngest child of Franklin Fowler, D.S. Fowler was educated at Cambridge and Harvard and spend time with the Hearst Corporation in the United States before returning to Britain to assume the helm of Fowler Publications
.

David, upset at the loss of his favourite magazine pondered over how to solve this problem, and after three beer at the pub with two of his engineers who agreed with him wholeheartedly, sent off a note to D.S. Fowler.

Dear Sir:

I am most upset that your company has decided to merge two very different publications. The demographic of the readership of
Construction of Commercial Buildings in Britain
is totally different to the readership of
Building Houses in Britain.

I am certain this asinine decision was made by one of your managers without your knowledge, and that upon
examination of the erroneous decision, you will remedy this unfortunate error and separate the magazines.