"What really matters to moms" is the motto of Parenting, a highly successful magazine that was born from humble beginnings. It all began in the mid-1980s, when Robin Wolner, then publisher of Mother Jones magazine, noticed a gap in the parent literature market and decided to do something about it. She envisioned creating a magazine aimed at women who were active in the work place and who were well educated and had a high income. She wanted to produce a well-written, high-quality magazine aimed at this audience, which so far had gone untapped; fortunately, it was also a market deemed very desirable by the advertising industry.

Wolner devised a business plan, left her job, and put all her energy into starting up the new magazine. After a preliminary feasibility study on the subject revealed that there was indeed a place in the market for a new magazine on parenting, she set out to find financial backing; her goal was to raise $5 million. At the time, in 1985, the 31-year-old Wolner worked out of her two-story Victorian home in the Bay Area, with no staff and only a $20,000 line of credit.

Meanwhile, on the opposite coast in Manhattan, Time Inc., which had a gross income of $3.5 billion, 20,000 employees, and 63 years of magazine publishing experience, was also developing a new national magazine for upscale parents. Oddly enough, both Wolner and Time Inc. were using Parenting as their working titles. After each had learned of the other's undertaking, they quickly saw the benefits of working together and soon joined forces. In 1986 as a joint venture with Time Inc., Wolner founded Parenting magazine. It would be one of the most successful magazines launches in publishing history.

Also on board was Carol A. Smith, Parenting's founding publisher. During Smith's 11-year tenure, she helped build the magazine into a multi-brand company called The Parenting Group, which was fully acquired by Time Inc. in 1990. Adweek named Parenting the "hottest magazine in America" in 1991 and 1992, the first time that honor was bestowed in consecutive years. In 1991, Parenting acquired Baby Talk, America's first baby magazine, and formed The Parenting Group, launching several other titles.

Wolner became an executive at Time Warner after its purchase of Parenting, was later appointed CEO of Sunset Publishing, launched Vibe, and helped develop Martha Stewart Living. In 1997, she joined the founders of CNET as executive vice president, responsible for the company's websites. In 2003, she left CNET to write a book on her experiences in publishing called, Naked in the Boardroom: A CEO Bares Her Secrets So You Can Transform Your Career.

"When Parenting launched, we were third to market: two other new magazines with roughly the same positioning came out just before we did," Wolner said. "If we had spent our brief time before launch worrying about them, we probably wouldn't have had the result we did-one of those competitors is defunct and one is a shadow of Parenting's size and profitability." In a 2005 interview with Business Journal, Wolner said, "Parenting was really the most satisfying thing I ever did in my career. I created a company that really worked. We had a great management team, we had a great corporate culture. We succeeded wildly."

Written March 12, 2006 exclusively for MagsDirect.com. All right reserved.

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