Post-Traumatic Shock Syndrome

Or, The Seven Dirty Little Secrets of M&A Survival

1. Publishing is special:

This applies whether it refers to print on paper, electronic, database, periodical, reference, The OED or a blowsy paperback. Publishing requires the special acts of selection, organization, and guarantee of quality. The people and processes involved with these acts are special. Make sure to find managers who know this and make common cause with them.

2. Improved cash flow is somebody else's promise:

The people who created the optimistic bottom-line justification for the merger don't know publishing, don'y know your company, don't know you, and don't care. Once the merger is over, they move on. You don't. Quickly distance yourself from such forecasts and expectations. Replace them with your own as soon as possible.

3. Synergy is usually unattainable:

The more frequent result of media-business mergers is NONERGY (in which no real harm is done). This happened with Time Warner. A result to be avoided is UNERGY (oh-oh). This may have happened with the alliance of Paramount with Simon & Schuster or ABC with Modern Photography. Avoid major commitments to produce vague, synergistic "benefits".

4. Lists rarely "complement" each other:

Do not accept assumptions from bankers and lawyers that two lists of nonfiction, or of college textbooks, fit together perfectly. Usually some books get dropped. Always some books get hurt. Authors will raise questions. Be realistic. Be ready.

5. Markets do not "overlap":

A market is a combination of an audience and the channels for reaching its members, as in parents + school book fairs. Audiences overlap and can enrich one another. Do not assume that adding one market to another will produce magic results.

6. No winners in the back office:

There is never a "best" system in anybody's back office. The winning company in a merger will impose its systems people and methods, no matter how dreadful. Do not resist this tendency -- instead of becoming part of the steamroller you will become part of the road.

7. Speed kills:

Processes -- To rush the combining of editorial functions will cause losses of authors and editors;

People -- Allow time for people to absorb their new surroundings; do not rush to relocate;

Work in progress -- Rushing projects to market, just because there is a merger, is stupid;

Markets -- slamming sales forces together without careful assessment and preparation will destroy years of development.