As McGovern continued to launch IDG and
Computerworld
units overseas over the next several decades, he did it through either licensing deals or subsidiary arrangements. At IDG’s peak, company publications had 280 million regular readers, according to Bloomberg News. And the joint venture McGovern created in China would go on to become the first venture capital firm in that nation.
‘Bigger than life’
Built like a linebacker, McGovern could be an imposing figure. But he was also an introvert, said Michael Friedenberg, CEO of IDG Communications Worldwide.
“When you were in front of him… he was just bigger than life. One of the things that he had the ability to do is make you feel as if you could accomplish anything,” Friedenberg said. “So even though you might have doubts about the task at hand and even doubts about yourself, he would build you up in such a way that made you feel, ‘Not only can I accomplish this, but so much more.'”
He had a knack for choosing managers in each country where he planted
Computerworld
, and while he pushed them to meet publishing and advertising quotas, he also gave them autonomy to do things their own way.
One such manager was Hugo Shong, with whom McGovern worked to launch IDG Capital in 1993. It grew to become one of the largest VCs in China and is now one of the partners buying IDG.
“Hugo has done such a magnificent job growing that business well beyond what anyone thought it was going to be… except for Pat,” Friedenberg said.
“As long as you continued to communicate and deliver on [McGovern’s] expectations, then he’d forever give you the road and resources to accomplish that,” Friedenberg said. “Pat had two sayings: ‘The biggest room in the house is the room for improvement’ and… ‘Shoot for the stars, and if you land on the moon, we’ll all be better for it.'”
Integrity and independence
One editorial value McGovern refused to compromise was independence — the “separation of church and state” between advertisers and his writers and editors.
Computerworld
‘s first big advertising win came in the form of a four-page color spread from NCR Corp.
“In the same issue, on the front page, the editor wrote a story about [NCR’s] disk drives crashing,” Boyd said. “You can imagine what that was like. The salesman on the [advertising] account was from Los Angeles… and he wanted to know who the witless clod was who let that happen. I flew to Los Angeles to talk to him and had a business card made up that said, ‘Walter Boyd — Witless Clod.'”
“That’s the kind of editorial integrity
Computerworld
is very famous for, and in those days that wasn’t very common,” he said.
As mainframes, minicomputers and campus networks grew into PCs, mobile devices and the internet,
Computerworld
evolved, too, and faced its biggest challenge since launch: moving from paper to a digital website.
Computerworld
moved to leverage the internet first as a communications vehicle and then as an engine for business commerce, which meant news coverage had to grow from hardware and software to online services and the cloud.
Moving to the web
In 2005, Friedenberg joined IDG as CEO of CXO Media, publisher of the
CIO
and
CSO
magazines and websites. He described it as a “tumultuous time, when IDG’s publications were trying to find their place on an internet where startup publications, blogs and mainstream media were all attempting to adapt a new communications model.
“Eleven years ago, it was all about, ‘What’s this going to be?’ and today it’s all about, ‘What can I do with it?'” Friedenberg said.
Before the arrival of the internet,
Computerworld
represented a “secret club” among businesses where information about IT was shared, and where vendors and users found quirky and creative ways to come together. The magazine was a hub of that universe, helping not only to shed light on where technology was heading but also to bring vendors and user groups together to share ideas.
“Probably the most important thing
Computerworld
did was to help users make smarter IT purchase decisions,” Friedenberg said.
Patrick McGovern III offered up a different analogy.
“I think of the
New York Times
as being the paper of record in terms of what’s happened over the last 130 years, and I think
Computerworld
over the past 50 years has been paper of record for technology,” said the younger McGovern. “If you wanted to know what was happening at DEC in 1978…
Computerworld
really was the voice for decision-makers looking to purchase and learn more about computer tech.”