Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., The Leading Publisher in Biotechnology
Success Blueprint
Publisher chronicles biotech revolution
Entrepreneur finds a niche, leaps to fill it
By Adam Shell, USA TODAY
Mary Ann Liebert, whose company publishes more than 60 newsletters, books and medical journals, says she finds scientific publishing exhilarating. (Stephen Schmitt, The Westchester, N.Y. Journal News)
LARCHMONT, NY — Ever hosted a dinner party and sent guests home with a white, cottony strand of their own DNA? Or written a note to President Clinton offering to lend him money for a down payment on his house? Or walked into an angry crowd protesting genetically modified crops, to get that side of the story?
Probably not, but you're not Mary Ann Liebert. The Larchmont, N.Y.-based entrepreneur has done all of the above. The powerful medical publisher worships scientists, throws her weight and money around on Capitol Hill, and identifies with people who have scaled Mount Everest.
"Mountain climbers are fixated on reaching the summit," she says. "They understand risk. They don't let negative thoughts interfere or let anything get in their way. I'm the same way."
Liebert equates the thrill of launching an important medical journal with scaling the highest mountain. Her flagship publication, Genetic Engineering News, is considered the world's most powerful biotechnology publication. The four-color biweekly is read by 50,000 scientists, researchers and analysts worldwide. Liebert's hometown newspaper, The Journal News, recently dubbed her "Genetic Genius."
In brainy company
Liebert's privately held company, Mary Ann Liebert Inc., was born March 1, 1980, in her living room on East 85th Street in New York City, funded partly with $18,000 of her savings. Today, her 100-employee firm publishes more than 60 journals, books and newsletters on topics ranging from human gene therapy and viral immunology to AIDS and cloning. Subscriptions range from $55 for a bimonthly subscription to Alternative & Complementary Therapies to $1,119 for 18 issues a year of Human Gene Therapy. To celebrate the company's 20th birthday, Liebert recently threw a black-tie bash for employees, editors and friends at Tavern on the Green in New York City's Central Park.
"I love hanging out with scientists," Liebert says. " They are not nerds. They are visionaries who are changing the world."
Like the Ph.D.s with high IQs who edit her journals, Liebert has played a key role in the past two decades boosting funding for medical research and increasing the profile of rare diseases. "These publications are all journals of record," she says, pointing proudly to a 1993 photograph in her office of the late Princess Diana grasping a copy of Pediatric AIDS & HIV Infection.
What's the secret to Liebert's success? She identifies untapped niches and gets there first. Liebert was the first to publish journals focusing on AIDS, gene therapy and cloning. Launched last year, Cloning is edited by Ian Wilmut, the researcher who cloned Dolly the sheep. Next year, she plans to launch four journals, including Astrobiology, and Vector-Borne and Zoonotic Diseases, which will focus on infections from mosquitoes, such as the potentially fatal West Nile virus. She's branched out with journals on Internet gambling and skating rink management. She also publishes The Westchester Wag, a free tabloid that chronicles the social scene in upscale Westchester County. Her publications have a total circulation of 250,000.
"Her greatest gift is she has the uncanny knack of spotting trends and new fields," says John Sterling, managing editor of Genetic Engineering News, who has worked for Liebert since 1984.
"She practically willed the biotech revolution," says David Weiner, editor of DNA and Cell Biology. "Back in 1983, biotech was science fiction. There were two or three companies, no products, and the technology was still a pipe dream. But she was talking about it as though it had already happened, as if the industry was already established like Procter & Gamble."
Family ties
Liebert's passion for medicine is intensely personal. Her late father, LeRoy, suffered from Parkinson's disease, a neurological affliction that has struck boxer Muhammad Ali and actor Michael J. Fox. While majoring in journalism at Northwestern University, Liebert interned at the American Medical Association, where she spent her days scouring literature looking for a cure for her dad. "I didn't find it, but it ignited my interest in medicine," she says.
Liebert, who likens starting a new journal to a love affair, denies being an activist. Still, she says, "I'll do anything I can to ensure that any new health care policy will include coverage for biotech-related" treatments. Finding common ground with critics of biotech, cloning and other emerging technologies is also a top priority. "Overcoming fear is critical," she says.
Employees describe Liebert as an upbeat, idea-generating machine with a contagious, can-do attitude. Liebert doesn't disagree: "I have a 12-cylinder mind that's always revved up and running," she says.
Genetic Engineering News is one of the many newsletters published by Mary Ann Liebert.
Longtime editor Sterling recalls the time a competitor announced plans in 1992 to launch a biweekly alternative to Genetic Engineering News, which was a monthly at the time. Recognizing a threat, Liebert met with her staff and decided to take GEN biweekly. "Once the basic information is presented, she makes decisions immediately," says Sterling. "There are no committee meetings and no memos."
Liebert is very persistent. In an attempt to persuade the very best scientists to edit her publications, Liebert has a reputation for pursuing top talent with the same zeal New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner exhibits when wooing top free agents to the Bronx. "She is so persistent that it's easier to say yes than no," says Jeffrey Laurence, editor of AIDS Patient Care and STDs.
Romancing top talent is all part of the job. Liebert recalls how she persuaded a reluctant Thomas Hornbein, a Seattle-based doctor who wrote a book about climbing Mount Everest's West Ridge, to join the editorial board of her newest publication, High Altitude Medicine & Biology.
"I was on vacation in Palm Desert (California) and was e-mailing and calling him myself," Liebert says. "I thought I was pretty convincing but he still said no. Finally, I read his book and sent him another e-mail that said, 'Tom, your book was fabulous. I admire your persistence and determination that enabled you to conquer the West Ridge. Tom, you are my West Ridge.' He wrote back and said, 'I surrender.'"
Well-kept secrets
What's Liebert's publishing empire worth? One can only speculate because she refuses to say, just as she refuses to divulge her age. But she claims 18% to 20% annual revenue growth the past five years.
She also says the major publishers have courted her and tried to woo her into selling . On a wall in the reception area of her 17,000 square-foot Larchmont office hangs a photo of billionaire corporate raider and friend Carl Icahn. In Icahn's handwriting are the words: "Dear Mary Ann, I want to buy your company. Happy Birthday. Love, Carl."
While she says Icahn's request was made in jest, she's turned down all legitimate suitors, no matter how deep-pocketed. Says Liebert: "Why would I sell? What would I do with myself? I'm having fun."
"Copyright, USA Today. Reprinted with permission."
